Here are some links I've accumulated over the years, ever since
before blogging was a thing. Feel free to enjoy, and if you have
anything you'd like to see here, I'm always open to new suggestions via
e-mail or otherwise. I don't always agree with whatever is on these
sites, but I like checking them out.
Linux Kernel - I first ran Linux 1.2.13 on my i386DX 25 MHz PC with 4MB of RAM.
FreeBSD Operating System - The best UNIX operating system designed so far. I don't know what I'd do without ignoring it.
Slashdot.org - News for nerds, stuff that matters. This started out as Chips & Dips in 1997. Someone likes twitter..
Ars Technica - It's like Slashdot, but with a fundable name that college people identified with.
Icecast - You can hear what there is to find on internet radio.
Cryptome.org - This guy ended up on a list after all. How about that?
xkcd.com - Randall is good at showing people that they can make others happy by drawing technically valid flowcharts.
Asterisk - Mark Spencer wrote a free software PBX router. Doing Asterisk consultation paid for my 2007 round-trip to the nation of Japan.
Cray Research - They use their supercomputers to find crayfish. You need a ladder to sit on them today.
DCRTV.com - Dave Hughes' news and resource guide to broadcast media in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia.
Adbusters.org - Internet hipsters namedrop this to look cool. I'm trying to find their banner ad to put on my site.
EFF Blue Ribbon Campaign - Free speech is important, so here are some icons to put on the personal website you probably abandoned for censored social media.
Richard M. Stallman - This computing nerd figured out that people want free water, somehow. There's always something topical or interesting on his web site. (Nice office.)
While computing in its most creative days used to be a very full
field, many technologies have been phased out in favor of new standards,
and a lot of innovative companies couldn't keep up. Here are some of the
companies that survived.
Note: I do not refer to this field as "consumer
electronics", since I am unsure whether the computer or its
operator is the one who is consumed. A job of a designer and a
repairperson is to consider how to add longevity to what was previously
regarded as a consumable.
Apple Computers - Macintosh, iPhone, Apple Watch, iTunes for Windows, and Ellen Feiss.
Microsoft - MS BASIC, MS-DOS, Windows Phone, Visual Studio, Azure.
Intel - Pentium processors, the 386 running in Enhanced mode, bunny suits.
Dell - Inspiron computers, Dell Axim, The Dell Guy (not that one, the other one).
Acorn - ARM chip architecture, operating systems by British people, inexplicably changed logos.
Hewlett-Packard - Computers, everything else relating to them, the iPod.
Lenovo - IBM ThinkPad. (I create this webpage on my ThinkPad X220.)
There are also a lot of great things I grew up with from the past. I hope you enjoy reading about some of them.
Palm, Inc. - Imagine carrying a Macintosh in your pocket in 1997. This is what happens when people try and make their Game Boy play a better game of checkers.
Atari - Nintendo games ended up here before they figured out how to make the Famicom ugly.
Radio Shack - If you own a home, can you imagine not having anywhere nearby that sells home improvement items? Welcome to electronics in 2018. (Update: Still true in 2021.)
Toys "R" Us - They had more games and more toys, but they wouldn't let anyone play with them without buying them. They also had sports gear and a parking lot.
Commodore - The Commodore 64 was so successful that they thought they could sell computers without backward compatibility. They tried, temporarily.
GAME DESIGN INTERESTS
Computing is fun, but I am also a game designer. Understand the
difference between designer and developer. If you choose to pursue
this as a career path as I did in 2001, you may find that a lot of
things in real life have parallels with the design process. This is
because video games were created without the detail that real life has,
so designers had to use familiar topics for game players to understand.
Where are the links?
In a previous revision of this page, I asked that "if you are an
aspiring game designer with knowledge of a certain popular game, I
invite you to try and guess why it wouldn't be a sharp idea to link all
of these titles for your convenience".
I was referring to The Legend of Zelda, in which the game
designer removed the player's sword at the beginning of the game. While
designer Shigeru Miyamoto's intent was for players to communicate to
solve puzzles in the game, my primary intent was so you would be
intrigued to learn about the games listed as if you were to see them on
a store shelf, so with enough research the people referenced would seem
like you'd known about them for years. You would probably remember and
communicate about them more than if you just followed some web link.
A lot of thought went into this list. If you have any input on my
selections, you can e-mail me.
Blocks to Boulders
Atari Asteroids (Lyle Rains, Ed Logg, Dominic Walsh) - Get the best score by turning at the start position. Beat the game by not firing. What's the best score you can calculate?
Konami Gyruss (Yoshiki Okamoto, Toshio Arima) - Stereo sound and amazing 360 degree gameplay make this my all-time favorite arcade game. The asteroids that dropped out of the Atari game grew up to be in this. *
Bandai Meteos (Masahiro Sakurai, Tetsuya Mizuguchi) - It's like Tetris, plus long division upside down. At least I think that's how it works. Did I mention that I failed math? Buy a Nintendo DS to play this, and other fun math games.
Acclaim/Atlus Kwirk - Imagine someone found the cleared pieces from Tetris and threw them into a maze. Now imagine you're an infinitely ripe tomato limited only by 4xAA batteries.
ELORG Tetris (Alexey Pajitnov, Vladimir Pokhilko) - During the Cold War, this was my first impression of the Soviet Union aside from what I'd heard. I got gifted this, and it came packaged with a free Game Boy. I only listened to the music until my cousin challenged me to play much later. A-TYPE music is for newbies, B-TYPE is for rhythm-obsessed newbies, and C-TYPE music was for stereo headphone breakfast on Christmas in 1989. Ctrl+ThinkVantage on my X220 is mapped to the Process Manager, but Alt+ThinkVantage is mapped to this. *
Cavern to the Clouds
Sega Eternal Arcadia (Rieko Kodama, Overworks) - The ship battle system made me curious about how stack push/pop and ternary operators work. Innovative boss battle BGM programming may have inspired the seamless Nintendo Zelda: Wind Waker battle music system. Music fans, avoid the GameCube version. This is my favorite RPG. *
Nintendo Balloon Fight (Yoshio Sakamoto, Satoru Iwata) - The programmer of this game loved playing it and talking about how he made it with assembly language. Did you know that the game program plays the Balloon Trip music on the title screen?
Sega Space Harrier (Yu Suzuki, AM4) - Are you ready for a fantasy zone or Phantasy Star? Given Sega's condition versus Sony, many chose neither.
Nintendo Wii Fit (Hiroshi Matsunaga, EAD) - I lost a few pounds so I could use the Balance Board, then I lost hundreds of pounds. Then I gained it all back and bought an upgrade for the Wii U that wouldn't let the fat me play. It's still a lot of fun!
Nintendo Punch-Out!! (Genyo Takeda, Makoto Wada) - At first, this sounded like a fairly delightful romp about beverages. Takeda's arcade mastery stands the test of time.
Nintendo Zelda: Twilight Princess (Eiji Aonuma, Shigeru Miyamoto, EAD) - This is the first Zelda game that I completed. I had this and Wii remotes on launch day, but couldn't find the system. This made me appreciate the design more.
Konami Tokimeki Memorial (Yoshiaki Nagata, Koji Igarashi) - Konami knew how to convey anything with chiptune music. I love playing it and I want to read it. The phone numbers in this game seem to lead to more fun than the ones in Punch-Out!!, but I'm no expert. *
World Wrestling Federation (Vince McMahon) - I was curious about it not because the title sounds like Star Trek, but because Vince somehow also made a soap opera for guys. It also made me want to find out about how the cable television system's Pay-Per-View worked. *
Nintendo Wii Sports (Junji Morii, EAD) - When I finally got the Wii, I stayed up for hours mesmerised by the 3D effect achieved on the title screen. As a drummer, however, I beat this game by mastering the title screen. If you drum both sticks at the same time, you get the gong!
Epyx Jumpman (Randy Glover) - Think of this as Mario Bros. for people who like going at their own pace, and a whole lot more. Hold a number key at the player screen to adjust the gameplay rate. As a child, I enjoyed watching how each level had its own personality. This game still makes me laugh. *
Activision Pitfall II: Lost Caverns (David Crane) - I saw David Crane speak at GDC 2011. It was an accomplishment for me, since my father loved playing Pitfall on the Atari. I think I may have actually beaten this game using a walkthrough.
Cave to Collection
Namco Katamari Damacy (Keita Takahashi) - Words cannot encompass how thankful I am to this designer, so I will have to collect some more.
Nintendo Doki Doki Panic (Shigeru Miyamoto, Kensuke Tanabe) - If you need a lift, just stand on a log and throw a POW block. I went to Japan and purchased this with a Famicom and Disk System. Mr. Miyamoto was at TGS when my friends and I were there, but I don't know if Mr. Tanabe was.
Maxis SimCity (Will Wright) - He spoke after Mr. Crane at GDC, but everyone wanted to talk with him afterwards, so I didn't. This is what may divide a player from a designer: Do you think of this as "the fun game SimCity", or "the fun Will Wright game"? I have the Japanese version for my Super Famicom. *
CBS Electronics Dream House (Chris Oberth) - This game may have been named after Andrew House.
Cave Story (Daisuke Amaya) - This was my favorite GDC panel to attend. He made the entire game, including sound and graphics, himself, and then he released free and paid versions which others translated. I knew that was possible with things like Linux, but this was awe-inspiring. *
Up
Nintendo Miiverse (Kiyoshi Mizuki, SDD/Hatena) - An innovative social network integrated into the company's systems. As an American BBS user of the 1980s and 90s who is learning about the Asian systems of the time, it is interesting to note the progression.
Nintendo Miitomo (Yoshio Sakamoto, EPD/DeNA) - A brilliant combination of two of the Wii's add-on channels, which sadly neglected to base itself around its amusing photo system. I made a Mii of someone, and it's trapped in there, but he probably likes it. *
Any title with a star accompanying it denotes that it was influential in my decision to design and create games. You may ask yourself, did you skip to this section to see what the star is for? If you did or didn't, your answer will tell you what kind of player you are. If you anticipated this question, perhaps you should be writing a web page teaching game design. *
A beautiful kind
Recent talk has made me interested in the life of John Forbes Nash,
the accomplished mathmetician who made many contributions to the field
of game theory, but it is not easy to find mainstream representations of
his work which are not compromised by continuous mention of surrounding
concerns in his life. Seeing Nash speaking on video reminds me of
Professor Falken trying to explain futility to all the Joshuas which
dialed themselves into attendance.
My father had a video cassette of the motion picture WarGames
(1983), which I watched over a hundred times. I'm pretty sure I got
smarter each time, perhaps due to the movie, so if you like roaring
lions, creative uses of corn, arcade games which aren't as fun as
Gyruss, and Dabney Coleman, then I would recommend this movie to you as
well. (Note: Please follow the MPAA rating on this movie, as some may
not understand what the topic represents.)
Probability combined with logic, no matter how fancy, does not define
success unless you can identify all the variables. Game theory is only
theory. Game design is applied theory, yet not necessarily game theory.
As I had a conversation recently about Professor Nash, I want to
differentiate what I do from mathematical theory.
However, utility versus futility should not be gauged by a simple
depth calculation. So, if you have enough time to analyze video
games, please try the list above. I might understand game theory some
day.
Do you know of a casual depiction of John Nash that doesn't treat his
life as a game? Please let me know.
(WarGames has a 2 hour runtime and a PG rating, and is
distributed by MGM.)
ARTISTIC INTERESTS
Do you enjoy art?
Most people do, however, by volume, most art is for everyone else from the perspective of the individual.
Noteworthy Artists
Andy Warhol - Did you know the
Commodore Amiga phone was the Campbell's Soup Can? That's a joke.
Tobias Wong - I saw this
artist's works on display at SFMOMA in 2011. As I was in San Francisco
for GDC, it was interesting to apply game design interpretations to what
I saw.
Andrew
Kim - When things weren't going so well in my life, I visited this
designer's web site every day.
Interesting Musicians
Music is an old method of entertainment. You don't need an instrument
to make it, and one of the most simple instruments is a drum. Your
wristwatch probably already keeps good time. Lyrics aren't music, but
some artists have a statement to make by adding lyrics to their
songs.
Many think that they can't make a difference in the world they live
in, and they're usually correct. That's why they don't try.
Did you know the internet has a physical counterpart called
"real life"? Good luck, voyager.
Ways of life
Christianity - I
don't label myself religious, but I consider that everyone is something,
so maybe it makes sense for me to be also. I'm Roman Catholic.
Buddhism -
It's intriguing, and understanding Zen helped me understand some missing
documentation of life. Try not to over-understand this, or the people
who run this by proxy (mostly the complicators) will keep trying to
over-challenge you until you starve.
Papa John's Pizza - I worked
for Papa John Schnatter's company for a while. Do you know you can start
making your own pizza with pieces of bread and some ketchup? Try getting
some garlic powder or whatever else you think you can also put on your
other food. (Disclosure: My best friend in grade school was named
Johnny. He didn't run a pizza place, but he was great at BBQ.)
Filippo Berio Olive Oil -
This olive oil has someone who looks like Simpsons writer John
Swartzwelder on it. Who am I to argue?
John
Swartzwelder on Wikipedia - Here's more free information about how
to succeed and make money like John Swartzwelder did.
Websites
United Way - This is one of
the charities my father donated to. I also donated in more stable
financial times.
Enoch Pratt Free Library
- Do you know that a library card doubles as a personal bookmark? Some
things aren't learned in books. (Note: This place is closed due to
something that could be solved by reading the books inside.)
Habitat for Humanity -
Everyone deserves a place to go home. This has a certain demographic
requirement for home ownership.
Maryland Public Television - They
showed a bunch of radical shows like Sesame Street, A.M. Weather, and
Monty Python.
HopeLine
by Verizon - As they are a phone company with more than a few customers,
it's cool to see a telecom repurposing working equipment for a good cause.
