Uncle DT's Random Image Thread

[Kruger]

I got his name wrong,  I'm not sure why I thought it was Rick.  The guy that told me to only run two Printronix was a little heavy-set older guy that worked out there on the floor and in the cage with Gail (and I forgot the lead's name out there too).  Usually just a nice guy and pleasant to chat with, but really got upset when some programmer would come out to help once in a while and make him look bad for not running just two printers...

[Blaze]

Hmm.. I can't seem to put a name or face to the description. The only ones I remember in the cage being a little heavy set was John Kelly. But he wasn't much older than the rest of us (although, he didn't take the best care of himself). The other one in the same boat (not really heavy set) but was mostly even keeled was Adam Hoboth. I don't recall either of them getting uptight about running the printers though...

[Kruger]

Hmm, the name that keeps coming back is Rick, and he was borderline ready to retire and overall a pretty nice guy.  I know it wasn't John, or Adam (and I had heard I {I think from you} that Adam passed away a few years ago...).  If you talk to Danielle, I'm sure she would remember his name.

Now one game that I didn't enjoy that much was ROTT.  For some reason it just didn't do anything for me.  I thought the characters looked a little funny, like they were almost a little too tall.  And wasn't there a weird jump that everyone had when hopping over things.  Doom II was the preferred game, and even Heretic was fun, especially when blasting someone and turning them into a chicken, then blasting them like that and watching the feathers going flying...

[Blaze]

I remember him now. His name was Rick. Definitely a heavy guy. And yeah, he was really nice but certainly one of the slowest operators we had. Unfortunately he never got to retire. He passed away due to a heart attack. And I never knew his commute was that long. Yeah, I think I told you about Adam, and John Kelly also passed away a couple years ago too.

I'm with you on ROTT. The scale was all wrong. I did have fun playing it, but it definitely wasn't the best. And with you again on Heretic. I forgot about being able to turn people into chickens. That was fun.

That reminds me of a story when I was working at AMS. I was running Wireshark and happened to noticed a whole bunch of UDP packets coming in and looking very familiar. Eventually I figured it out that someone was playing Unreal Tournament. I brought in a spare video card and on my secondary machine installed it along with UT and when I spotted the UDP packets, did a search for a game and found it. I created my player to mimic one of the bots in the game and joined in. It was two guys playing and I was just spanking the map with them. One of them was bitching why a bot was added and why the difficulty was so high. He clearly stated no bots in the match. This went on for over a week before they started to question it. Eventually they found me.

[Kruger]

Ouch, he was slow, but he was usually just a nice guy to chat with out there too.  That sucks that you listed three right from our department that are already gone.

But damn that story was funny.  I totally pictured you giggling like a school girl once you connected to the first game and started fragging the shit outta them.  Did they recon while you were playing and finally put two and two together?  Or was it just idle chat in the cafeteria that uncovered you?

[Blaze]

Yeah, it kinda sucks. But that place wasn't exactly staffed with the bastions of healthy people. I mean, most of them went out to drink in their cars at lunch. There was even one guy that ran the Xerox on 3rd shift and would down a bottle of vodka during his break. He'd come in staggering. A few times he would pass out on the floor and it got the point where I stopped being nice and would just kick him in the ribs to get up. Eventually I had to say something and he got walked out. Almost felt bad since in the course of week and a half, he lost his dog, his dad and got divorced by his wife. But damn man, I'm like 23 years old and he's in his late 30's. I don't need to be dealing with that kind of nonsense.

As for the Unreal Tournament, I think it was my next door cube neighbor that mentioned it to the guys that were playing. He didn't know I was stealth joining...

[Kruger]

That Xerox dude sounds like a walking country song...

So after your ninja escapades cover was blown, I'm guessing you were not invited back to play again...

[Blaze]

I was thinking the same thing too. If he drove a pickup truck and it got towed would have been the chef's kiss.

I thought about getting the new console as well, but surprisingly, I've been really happy with the emulators...

[Kruger]

Either that or worse would be the wife took his truck when she left him...

Something that I will need to test is using an Atari joystick with one of those DB9 to USB converters with that arcade box.  I like having the entire library on that but it's not the same with the arcade stick and buttons.  Maybe a real joystick would make it more authentic...

[Blaze]

I can't find my original Atari joystick. It was still new in the Atari white box and all. I bet using that joystick would make a lot of the games play better. The game controllers I have now are nice, but they might be just a little too nice.

And Dragster was such a frustrating game. Anytime I thought I got it figure out, this...

[Kruger]

For such an early game, Dragster had fantastic graphics.  The illusion of speed, the wheelies, chirping tires, and occasional blown engine just made it exciting for me.  While the graphics for Boxing were a complete opposite, it was still exciting when playing against someone else.  And compared to games from Atari, I can understand why a handful wanted to leave and form their own company so they could get the credit they deserve...

[Blaze]

That was always a problem with two player games - either you dominated the other player or you got your ass handed to you. It was tough to find someone that was roughly as equal as you. I had no idea that Atari made a legit boxing game for the 2600...

[Kruger]

I'm not sure what's worse:

• Completely destroying the other player because it's no competition
  
• Completely getting destroyed
  
• Going up against the computer with no AI, or a completely basic AI that is worse than no AI
  

I never knew there was a decent boxing game for the 2600.  But I do know there is an amazing amount of talent out there still developing for that platform...

[Blaze]

I think #3 is the worst. The "no AI" is weak especially when you learn its weakness. Playing Othello with that kind of AI stinks.

You're right there's some amazing talent still hacking away at the 2600. Even more amazing is a new officially released (pre-order as of today) cartridge...

[Kruger]

I had heard about the new game, and on top of the other hardware releases they are putting out, it's almost like a nostalgia resurgence for the company.  So very cool that Atari is still alive after all these years...