The Frayed Ends Of Sanity

Things haven't been going well lately. I'm beginning to think I have a sleep disorder. Pick one: Narcolepsy, or Sleep Apnea. I am consistently tired. I can't focus for any considerable length of time, I can't stay motivated, I have absolutely no energy, and I spend my days in a hazy fog that borders on delirium.

I have been wanting to write a few more entries to this blog, but when I sit down to write, I find that I have about as much energy to write little more than a paragraph, and I am the kind of person who likes to develop develop his arguments. After reading what I had written, I erase it and do something else.

I have a very sedentary job. I spend the entire day in front of the computer, but it's doing work that is not terribly exciting (data entry and report writing). Since my employment, I have been less active. When I first took the job in 2001, I was playing gigs on weekends, which required a lot of heavy lifting (those amps and speakers aren't light), so I was getting some exercise during the week. Last summer, I decided to take up jogging, but that idea was eighty-sixed when my knees seized up on the first jog, and I couldn't walk for ten days afterwards. So much for getting in shape.

I do not have low blood pressure. In fact I usually check it about once a month. I am always 120 / 80. Perfect score every time. I however think, that sitting for extended periods is weakening my heart, and I am getting poor circulation.

For the remainder of this week, I am going to take a break at 10:00 and 3:00, go outside for a jog around the block, get some fresh air, and see if my condition improves. In addition, I think I might have to revolt and bring music into work. My boss hates music being played in the office. He considers it a distraction, so for the last three years I have had to listen to the incessant buzz of fluorescent lights. That's enough to drive anyone insane.

I have said to myself a number of times how much I despise my job. Perhaps it's not the job I despise, but the environment. The job is in my educational field, and I used to like it, but something has to change.

But there is something else wrong. Fatigue has always been a problem with me, especially in the mornings even my Kindergarten teacher wrote in my report card "MC Fro does not deal well with mornings". Some things don't change even after some twenty-five years. I have fallen asleep standing up. I have also fallen asleep while driving -- more than once. It has been a miracle that both me and my car survived.

I cannot drink coffee - it makes me ill. I end up drinking about two or three cups per year, and then I am reminded why I do not drink it in the first place. I drink copious amounts of cola in a day -- probably nearing a liter per day. By body has grown accustomed to the daily dose of caffeine, and instead of it giving me a swift kick in the rear, it does little to help my alertness. In fact, if I do not get my daily dose of cola, it's headache city.

Please don't ask me about other stimulants or amphetamines. I don't even go near the stuff. I like to sleep on a regular basis. I'm just sleeping at the wrong times.

In other news... Yesterday, I played my most successful game of NetHack. I was playing a wizard character who couldn't seem to do anything wrong (at least at the beginning). Unfortunately, my kitty starved to death before I entered the Gnomish Mines. Using Force Bolt liberally, I managed to get my character "Zappy" to Gnometown. But then I was stupid, and I annoyed the priest. The next thing I knew I was surrounded by wolves and patrolmen. I had very little mana left, and I died rather quickly. Note to self: Don't annoy the Priest!

Here Go Another 15 Weeks...

This post is complete irony with respect to my previous post. This week featured the debut of the third season of the Apprentice on NBC. Looks like I'm going to be spending many Thursday nights in front of the boob-tube.

I hate reality television. Absolutely despise it.

But I am hooked on the Apprentice. I think I like the business theme. I can do without all the cat-scraps though. The first two seasons began with pitting the males against the females, and more often than not, the females all fought amongst one another, usually over some petty issue. In contrast, this season we are seeing college graduates being pitted against those who have only a high-school education. I consider this is an interesting concept. In the end, I think experience will prevail over intelligence.

I have been in video-game mode this last week, so I apologize for not updating this site. Earlier this week I successfully finished Myst III with a nominal amount of hints. The final puzzle was hard as heck, but I had figured out many of the clues as to simplify the problem. I was quite proud of my ingenuity.

Since then, I have been playing NetHack again. I haven't been having much luck, as I keep dying at the hands of my own (apparent) stupidity. I have learned a few neat things though, perhaps I will one day get a character that will be powerful enough to see the bottom of the Gnomish Mines. I apologize if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

There are so many commands in NetHack, that it could potentially take a player years to figure out all the applications of the commands. Many of the items have unexpected uses if you apply them to commands you would otherwise not usually consider. I find this amazing from a game that when compressed, nearly fits on one 1.44 MB floppy disk. Then there are the new (i.e. popular) games that can only fit on DVDs. That's what a heavy reliance on graphics does.

More Features!

It appears that Blogger has updated many of its features to the posting window. Being able to edit font size, color and justification as well as include numbered lists and bullets are excellent additions to an already successful interface. It seems that there are a few bugs though. As I was trying to write this post a few mere moments ago, I tried selecting and copying the text, and it disappeared into cyberspace. All my work editing the first post was gone, and there was no way to recover it. The text color is a nice new feature, however I don't think I would ever have the need for it, unless I created a blog with a number of other members, and each member had their own personal color.

I managed to do some hacking to the template which allowed all my past and future posting to be fully justified. I have been wanting to have all my text fully justified for some time now; it appears so much more pleasing to the eye.

I mentioned in this blog a number of months ago that new features means new possibilities. I am considering a new addition to the sidebar which would feature my latest purchase, the iPod. I have considered adding a top 10 most played, or a top 10 recently played on my iPod. This of course is a rather difficult task, since the iPod does not directly connect to the web. Instead it would have to reflect the databases found in my iTunes. Of course, I would be looking for scripts that would accomplish this task automatically. To do such a thing manually would be ridiculous, and it would be a task that I would loathe doing on a regular basis. I should do some searching on the web, and other blogs to find out how others have accomplished this task.

I am still going video-game crazy. The last month has been spent with countless hours in front of the computer and/or the television playing some of my favorite role-playing games. As of late, I have been playing NetHack (refer to recent postings). For such a small and minimalistic game, it is one of the most challenging games I have ever played. The difficulty is that there are more than fifty commands in the game, and many commands have different applications, depending on your character class or objects you have in your inventory. I think the best I have ever done is get to dungeon level 5 with a level 6 character. I often die by some stupid or amusing situation. I have often fainted from starvation, and then killed by some wandering monster -- this is after praying, and having my deity angry with me. I have died from food poisoning, from cursed objects, and by being zapped by an angry shopkeeper (I kicked down his locked door).

For those who feel that NetHack could do itself better with a better GUI (Graphical User Interface, for the uninitiated), there are many plugins available for NetHack that will substitute graphics for all those ASCII characters. I have found a few that look absolutely stellar. Searching the web, I found a website of a fellow who developed a 3-dimensional interface for NetHack called Falcon's Eye. I saw the screenshots and thought that this looked strikingly similar to Diablo II. Of course, I wish that it would be ported to Mac.

The other game I have been playing recently is Lufia II. It is probably one of the top five role-playing games that was developed for the Super Nintendo. What don't I love about this game? The creators thought of may features that would keep replaying the game after completing it. [Ed. Note: Here is an opportunity to try a new Blogger feature: the numbered lists:]

1. A well written storyline. I love games that engross you in the epic journey. You identify with the characters, and sympathize with them. I love the twists in the plot that this game features. There are still some passages in the game that get me all choked up, even after finishing the game at least half a dozen times.
2. Not only do you have characters that embark on your journey with you, but you also find elementals (called capsule monsters) that fight alongside you. These monsters represent the elements (earth, air, fire, water, etc.) and they gain experience alongside your characters. You can feed them objects which allows them to grow into more powerful classes with special attacks.
3. There are many quests you can embark on that are not detrimental to the completion of the game, however may entitle you to special rare items in the game. More on these in the points below.
4. There is a casino in one of cities. The casino features a number of different games including two types of slot machines, blackjack, poker, and bingo. You can spend endless hours gambling, and if you win enough, you can buy some special items.
5. The dragon egg quest. While on your journey, you collect dragon eggs. These eggs can be returned to the dragon shrine where the dragon will grant you one wish. This can be for weapons, potions, or otherwise rare items. The dragon then sends the eggs back out into the world, and you can search and find the eggs again to return to the dragon for more items. Beware though, if you visit the dragon too many times, he will get angry with you and fight you. If you are lucky enough to defeat the dragon, it will grant you a few of the rarest items in the game (and certainly some of the most powerful)!
6. The Magic Cave. About midway through the game you can go to a city on an island with a magic dungeon. You relinquish all your items before entering the dungeon, and your character attributes are reduced to level 1. The fun part about this dungeon, is that it is randomly generated; it is never the same twice. The dungeon has 99 levels and a number of rare items which are in fact, very powerful. I have spent endless hours inside the ancient cave, and it is an absolute riot. This part of the game often reminds me of NetHack.

Plenty of fun to be had in the land of video games. Isn't it time I did something more constructive with my time? Possibly, but I sure don't want to grow up; I'm old enough as it is!

A Lesson In Archaic Video Game History

Due to an Act of Dog, I will be purchasing a new computer in the near future, as my laptop has been rendered damaged beyond repair. If I am lucky, I might be able to get fifty bucks for a machine I paid a thousand dollars for less than a year ago. It appears that I may have to wait until at least September to purchase a new computer. The new model of the iMac is expected to make its debut on August 31st. Rumor sites speculate the new model will have wireless mice and keyboards (that means built-in Bluetooth), a G5 processor and a case redesign. Other specifications are sketchy at best. I expect the "I want it" factor will be high in this model, especially if the price point is comparable to the prices of today's G4 iMacs. I hope the larger displays will stick with the new models; there is not enough workspace on a 1024 x 768 monitor resolution. And to think we used to work on 640 x 480 pixel resolution.

I have recently expanded my (small) collection of musical instruments. I recently purchased an acoustic bass guitar and have been teaching myself to play it. My playing still sounds like crap, but I'm having a great time nonetheless. I must admit, that my improvement is commendable over the last couple weeks that I have been playing it. Now that I am involved in this Grease thing, I often have to make a choice if I should spend my time practicing the bass, or the drums.

I thought I might discuss a bit of video game history with you, as I have been doing some research on the history of Role-Playing Computer Games. It seems that I may have been mistaken if I had stated that NetHack was the first computer-based RPG. NetHack may be many things, but it certainly wasn't the first.

NetHack enjoys a certain phenomenon that a playable version exists in for nearly every possible computer platform. Not only that, but each port is nearly identical in features. It is also a game that has not only survived, but also thrived over fifteen years. Many video games are popular for a couple years, but are then forgotten when a new 'flavor of the month' emerges. The other great thing about NetHack, is that the code is open-source, and the game is distributed free. Finally, we cannot hesitate to mention the size. Fully compressed, a version of NetHack can almost fit on one 1.44 MB floppy disk. I think the last game I played that fit on a disk that size was Dark Castle.

While reading up on NetHack documentation, I ended up discovering that NetHack was based on an older game called Rogue. I do not know much about Rogue, except that it was a Dungeon-esque Role Playing Game that used ASCII characters or tiles for graphics. Rogue apparently, is still around, and enjoys a rather small cult following.

In the depths of my web searching, I discovered that Rogue was based on another program. It was based on a game called the Sword of Fargoal written around 1982 by Jeff McCord for the Commodore 64 and Vic-20 systems. The Sword of Fargoal was an incredibly popular game at the time; and a game that I certainly enjoyed. It was a difficult game, which took hours to play -- and if you were very lucky, you might have found the Sword, and managed to make it out of the Dungeon alive.

I had managed to stumble on Jeff McCord's personal webpage, and read his personal accounts of the game. It appears that he based the Sword of Fargoal on an older game he wrote in his High School Computer Science class called "Gammaquest II" written entirely in BASIC on the now archaic Commodore PET. I would possibly consider Gammaquest II to be the impetus of the whole Role-Playing phenomenon because of one distinguishing feature: Gammaquest II had an algorithm that would randomly generate dungeon levels, and the dungeon would be revealed piece-by piece as the player explored. This seems to be one of the most intriguing features of the NetHack phenom, is that the game is different each time you play it.

The reason why I have been researching these archaic games is simple. First of all, I understand how a character is generated in a Role-Playing Game such as Dungeons & Dragons. I have an understanding of rudimentary statistics, the rules of chance and probability, and their applications in a role-playing game situation. What I am interested in, is how the computer randomly generates a gameplay map, places items, monsters of varying difficulty, treasures, etc.

I am not going to profess that I can design a better mousetrap. Nor do I wish to distribute someone else's intellectual property. All I would like to do is learn a bit about programming and designing a NetHack-like game is the only thing I would want to program.

Picking a language to program the game is another difficult matter altogether. Do I write in Java, so it can run on all platforms? Do I program in C? Visual Basic? Or do I program in some Mac OSX native utility?

This could be a massive undertaking for someone who has so little time to even write in his blog.

By the way, I used to love playing that old NetHack-like game "Dungeon of Doom" for the old 680x0-based Macs. I played that game for countless hours. Only rescued the Orb once.

NetHack

In a recent post, I had written about my love of video games. Somehow along the way I had become sidetracked and began ranting and raving about the hardships of being a youth in Western society. Though I did explore some interesting issues, I did not discuss what I had inteneded. I never explained what I "get out" of playing these games. I apologize for this, but realize that the purpose of this blog is a lot about these rants and raves. Free-associative writing (as I believe it is called) is a powerful tool psychologists use to probe into the deep workings of a troubled mind. But that's another story altogether.

Before I went on my completely unrelated tangent on bullying, I was giving a brief synopsis of the evolution of the modern coin-operated video game. I expect that these huge cabinets do not make the same amount of money they did twenty years ago. I just don't see arcades around town like I used to. There was a time where there were arcades and pool halls all over town, where teenagers would spend their evenings and weekends shooting pool, playing video games or pinball, trying to get high, drunk, or find a date. Most of these places are now empty and out of business. I suppose it a sign of the times, but I'd sure like to know what these kids are doing nowadays. Where are they going?

I imagine that the rapid advancement of technology has a little something to do with it (certainly not everything!). Computers and Game consoles are the main staple of the video game economy now. Video game fanatics are quite comfortable staying at home playing the newest game on computers with the latest graphics cards, chatting with their buddies over MSN, ICQ, AIM, or iChat. In many ways, the advent of the Internet has connected the world in so many ways that the world feels like a much smaller place. In other ways, it has severed huge populations from the world. This is a subject that will have to wait for another posting to discuss.

Like I had said, I love the old retro computer games like Donkey Kong, or Asteroids. They are great fun, but the boredom level can set in rather quickly due to the repetitive nature of these games. There is a certain type of video game that I can't seem to get sick of. These are games of the Role-Playing persuasion.

Some people can't stand these games. Either they believe it to be too complicated, or perhaps it takes too long to complete a specific task, or maybe there are too many controls. I know a lot of video game fanatics who can't stand to sit through reading a number of paragraphs of text in the opening credits of the game.

This is exactly why I enjoy these games. First of all, it can take weeks or months to play a game form beginning to completion. Realistically, if you could play one of these games from start to finish with no breaks, it may take thirty to sixty hours to complete, which is still a daunting task! When you spend that amount of time playing the game, you tend to develop a kinship towards the characters. You learn their personalities; you watch them grow and develop their skills. You watch them fall in love, and you watch them battle evils of epic proportions.

Nowadays, these Role Playing computer games are big money for the developers, but this wasn't always the case. In the very beginning, adventure and role-playing games had rather humble beginnings. It is difficult to understand why, but perhaps to better understand the problem, we might have to look a little farther in the past.

The role-playing phenomenon had its humble beginnings with the development of one game: Dungeons and Dragons. Over the years, D&D has had a rather bad reputation, largely thanks to uninformed religious groups. I agree, that it is unfortunate that in the game's infancy, a few teenagers abused drugs, got carried away, and took their own lives, but that is not what the game is about. Even if you think dragons are minions of the Devil, and dice are wicked, this is little ground for creating a whole moral panic against the genre. Others say impersonating another character, role-playing, or acting are sins and should be forbidden, but for those groups, I would like to ask them how many of their church groups employ members of the congregation to participate in a Nativity scene at Christmas? Sorry people, but playing a shepherd or one of the three Wise Men is no different than playing a Knight who is commissioned to rid the world of evil. Apples are apples.

Role-playing is not a new thing. Children role-play all the time: They pretend they are firefighters, parents, athletes, superheroes, etc. It is one of the ways that these children learn about the interactions of our world. The major difference between children playing "make-believe", and Dungeons & Dragons, is that the creators of the game were clever to discover that they could use statistics and the randomness of dice to determine outcomes. An outcome could have to do with the outcome of a battle, or the ability of detecting a trap, bribing a guard, or what kind of item is locked within a chest. Using these statistics, a player who was good at picking locks, for instance, would have a higher percentage of successfully picking the lock than a novice would. This adds excitement to a game where what happens next is a big part of the fun of the game.

To successfully play the game, you need a minimum of three players. You need two or more players who are willing to play characters (the roles). These characters are the heroes who will depart for adventure, in whatever form they desire. But the player needs to communicate these ideas to a referee, or game master, who tells the players of the outcomes, describes the places, situations, and characters they meet. It is these interactions that bring a role-playing game to life.

If you ever played a game of Dungeons and Dragons, you will probably know that when a battle sequence ensues, it can take hours to finish. It can be fun, but it is sometimes a slow and painful process, especially, if you are sitting on the sidelines. Sometime in the late seventies or early eighties, somebody discovered a way to speed up the process -- with a computer.

A computer is quite good with statistics, calculating modifiers, variables, and (somewhat) adequate with random numbers. A computer game could crunch a few hours' battling into a mere minute or two. So people began writing adventure games for the computer, and the first ones were rather disappointing.

The first we will discuss are the text-based adventure games. They featured no sound or graphics, and often began with a corny phrase like: "You are standing in a dark and narrow passageway with exits to the north and east". Commands were given in a cryptic form that rarely resembled the English language, and commands were quite limited. Some of these games managed to have some success. The Zork series fared quite well, but I think the interface was more or less lacking. It did have the heart and soul of the Role-Playing game. It was descriptive, and unfolded much like a Game Master would describe the scenario to the players. The problem is that computers do not work well with human creative thinking, and creative actions are pure fun in role-playing situations. A programmer would have to think of nearly every possible situation and outcome, and attempt to program it into the computer. The next problem, of course is that the computer often ran out of memory before the programmer could code the number of possible commands a human could conceive.

Around the same time, programmers devised a dungeon exploration game called NetHack. It could be argued that all role-playing games are derived from this creation in one way or another. This game used a number of the statistics from Dungeons and Dragons, as well as a low-res GUI to represent dungeon walls, creatures, doors, or objects. The difference in this game is that there were only a set number of commands given for the player to use -- but there were still dozens of them. In NetHack the character is given armor to wear, weapons to wield, spells to cast, monsters to slay, and treasure to plunder. The character obtains experience by killing monsters, and with greater experience, the player become more powerful in his abilities. Like the role-playing games that followed, NetHack is a game that can take hours to play.

NetHack still exists to this day and runs on every computer platform imaginable. Code-wise, it is a very small game, though programmers develop new code and add it to this game that is approaching 25 years old. Within NetHack, there are scenarios and commands that still have not been integrated into the super RPG's of today. I sometimes like to get away from all the heavy graphics and sound and play a simple round of NetHack. Beware, you might get hooked!

Computer and Game Console RPGs have increased in complexity with the increase of memory, storage, and processor speeds. The latest games now have three-dimensional graphics, and automated battle scenes. This often speeds up the play of the game, but sacrifices the strategy of turn-based battle engines. Not to say this is a bad thing though.

I have watched the Final Fantasy game series evolve from its humble beginnings on the Nintendo console to the computer phenomenon it is today. The length of the newer games, the storyline, battle engines, strategy, races, spells, and objects are absolutely breathtaking.

So why do I love these games? I guess it is the idea that I can immerse myself in the plot and the characters. I can escape the real world for hours at a time, and become a hero of my own will. I don't play these games for the violence; I play for the advancement of plot and character. New objects and spells are always exciting to test on unsuspecting enemies. Best of all, in these games I am the best and strongest, and good always prevails over evil!