Engineer. Retro console modder. Pen and watch enthusiast.

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Joined 2Y ago
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Cake day: Jul 01, 2023

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Battlezone II had force shields. They used your vehicle’s weapon energy. The shields used energy, and also taking hits would drain your energy. You needed a ship with fast energy regen to make the most use out of them. One ship from the X-Mod mod, the Jade Falcon, could actually regenerate faster than the shields drained. So you could keep them on all the time, and still shoot some. It wasn’t invincible by any means, but that regen speed plus the fact that the radar ping twice as frequently made it my absolute favorite ship.


I can see somebody inquiring about the amount someone has, and if they would be willing to share any. Boom. On a list.



Not sure if this counts, because I’m not sure if there is a wrong way to play Fallout. I am going through New Vegas again, but for the first time in years. Completely disregarding the main storyline. Just wandering the Mojave, helping people as I go. Like David Carradine in Kung Fu. Mostly trying to do things peacefully, and gain as much karma as I can. Completely opposite of how I normally play Falmouth game. I need all that karma to offset how many people I’ve eaten, which is tremendous. Don’t die around my character if you want an open casket. I gave myself lockpick and science skills via the command line, because this playthrough is about my interest in where the storyline take me, not about grinding to be able to open a lock.


In Battlezone II single player, there is a custom map called “Moon 2000” that I love. It is a huge, open lunar crater, with a big flat ledge around the outside. It is difficult to get your recycler up onto the ledge, but I will take the time to do it. Then, I build a huge, sprawling base up in a flat corner. Absolutely surrounded with defenses. To the computer, an impenetrable fortress. To me, an experimental playground.

I have an area that I take enemy ships i have sniped the pilots out of, where I perform weapons and explosives testing. I have a whole series of nav points set up where I can go out and hunt for more enemy ships, and I can direct my tugs to come pick them up and take them back to base entirely by keyboard (they are dumb and will get stuck if you send them directly to base). It’s not a matter of beating the computer. That could be done easily. It’s purely the joy of collecting samples for my research. I have taken my findings, and have deployed them against my brother.

We would typically play X-Mod 3.3. That adds nuclear silos. We, as gentlemen, have an agreement not to use them. Same with APCs. However, naquada bombs were still fair game. Those have a 30 second timer, and give you a notification that shows their exact location so you do have a chance to destroy them. One thing I found that I was only able to use once, was my discovery that the X-Mod probe Droid could have its forcefield replaced with a naquada bomb. So, I made 50. Had to make 50 naquada bombs, too. It took forever. But, finally it was time to attack. The probes are so small and fast, they didn’t show up on his radar until it was too late. Their small size and speed helped most slip through his defenses. Suddenly, upwards of 30 naquada bomb notifications flood his screen. I can imagine the confusion then shock he must have felt. The horror that even if he destroyed one per second, it still wouldn’t be enough. One was enough to take out his recycler. The bombs went off. Almost all of them. It was a good sized base, with healthy defenses. The bombs detonated in quick succession, leveling it entirely.

That tactic was immediately outlawed. But I discovered other deadly weapon combos to unleash on him. I still have and play the same save game of my test site, decades later. For what was intended to be like, a 30 minute battle against the computer.


Don’t know yet! I would assume get a phone that supports Graphene or Lineage. But I’m not opposed to some PDA sized Pi Zero Frankenstein abomination if it does what I want it to.


Wait until it affects me. Just like when I ditched Chrome. Just like when I ditched Windows. I used Vanced long after they were stopped, didn’t switch to ReVanced until Vanced literally could not play anymore. I’m the latest adopter, for sure. By the time I make a change, the path of what I want to do has been well-tread by others.


Yes, they totally can. My brother and I have played Battlezone II over LogMeIn Hamachi. That was probably 8-10 years ago, is there a better free VPN these days?


It was a lot of fun. We really wanted to play some CoD United Offensive, but I just could not get that to install on Lutris. There must be a trick to it. My long-term goal is to get XP running on The Beast, but until then this is what I’ve got.

I also could not get Mod Manager 5 for Battlezone II to run properly in Lutris, either.


My brother and I used to sit face-to-face with our Compaq Armada E500’s, playing Battlezone over the infrared ports. Good times.



Having grown up in the middle of nowhere, I feel you.

Maybe! It would actually be pretty neat to get a group of Lemmings together for some online gaming.


Sounds like automotive interiors tooling. Ive been with 3 companies over the last 13 years, and now I’m at a place that has gathered up 11 people I’ve previously worked with. Customers join the company as program managers. Coworkers leave to join customers. It’s almost incestuous.


We sure did. I’ll be honest, it didn’t quite hit the same as it did 20 years ago. Still way better than online, though.



It’s an E-Yooso Z-19, with Glorious Panda switches, and double shot pbt caps, the brand escapes me.

The top half of the switch housing I replaced with clear ones I had from some other switches when I lubricated them. The original ones didn’t let a lot of the RGB through. Not that I ever really use it, but it better work if I do. I found the caps and the keyboard at a bin store, $12 each! Fantastic luck, as they are both just my style.

Edit: How could I forget about the damping o-rings from Captain O-Ring! They’re the perfect thickness.



I’d love to let you, but I keep my XP machine gapped from the internet. You in the greater Detroit area? Lol


No way!! Really? That is so cool. Man, Secret Weapons and Vietnam were amongst our favorites. We never played vanilla or Road to Rome. Vietnam was really, really good. I actually installed everything from my original discs I got freshman year of college! You worked on a huge part of my college experience, and some really great memories with my brother. I made friends in my dorm I still have to this day. Thank you.


I love DC. I was the only one of my buddies that could fly the helicopters well.


Thanks! That really sucks yours didn’t pan out… I’ve never really had a group of more than 4, I bet 9 would have been a great time.


The group is a bit smaller these days, just one buddy. We're doing some XP gaming. I got Battlefield 1942 running here, with the Battlegroup 42 mod. My Dimension E510 can really handle up to BG42 version 1.35b, but apparently they aren't hosting that on ModDB anymore. I had to find it on some shady ancient Russian file hosting site. But I got there in the end. This is the first time out for my Precision 690, I've been working on it for about a month. I rescued it from a rage room, it was going to get beat to scrap. I asked, and they gave it to me! I swapped the single Xeon 5160 for Xeon 5355's. 2gb of ram for 32gb. The crappy display adapter for a GTX 980TI. It is an XP era powerhouse. I have not gotten XP x64 running on it yet, but it's running Mint 22.1 like a champ. I put an XP theme on it until I can dual boot the real thing. I am super stoked this thing is running. Mint might be the better option for it, actually! Good 32bit compatibility with Wine and Lutris, and full use of the 32gb of ram and 8 cores. ![](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/49f9315a-90ae-4a5c-b718-773cac10ff11.jpeg) ![](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/85ad0070-df80-4516-84dc-a22e1223738a.jpeg)
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All of those are true. But I still love it. Why? I like airships. And I like that I take my whole home with me as I explore, and don’t have to travel back to a fixed point to store my treasures. Is it derivative? Yes. Is it repetitive? Yes. Does it tick all the boxes for me to relax for a couple hours at night? Absolutely.


Yeah, you’re right it is pretty linear. Astroneer is fantastic regarding freedom, I totally agree. And I love that it doesn’t have the food and water requirements, just air. That really lets you focus more on the exploration. Haven’t played the other two you mentioned. I’d definitely say Forever Skies is a casual game. If I weren’t playing that at night, I’d probably be playing Boggle Plus or Dr. Mario on the GameBoy. If I had the time (not at 11pm) to really get into a game where I cared about story or interesting mechanics, I would be playing something better. I could finally finish F.E.A.R., after 20 years. Or start MechWarrior 5.


I love it. I only have 32 hours into it so far, but I keep coming back to it more and more. Really, just because it’s so chill. The survival aspect of it is so easy. Catch some fat dust moths, cook, and freeze. Tanks of water ready to be purified at any time. So really, it’s just a chill game where you float around and collect stuff to build a better ship. I play it for acouple hours late at night after my wife and kid are asleep to unwind. It’s not a game that takes a lot of skill or concentration, it’s just relaxing. And when I’m in my glass walled bedroom, ship swaying back and forth in a storm, I’d say it’s downright cozy. Float around, find blueprints for a new chair or lamp, call it a night.


$602.41 for 50 games in 18.4 years. Cost at today’s prices: $698. I’d say that’s a win.

2,095 hours. 72% of games played. Guess I need to get to work.

I wish I could track my pre-steam numbers. Id be interested to see how much time I put into Mechwarrior 3, or Rollercoaster Tycoon, or Unreal Tournament.


That looks awesome. It would look a little out of place next to my other pinball machines, as they’re vintage. But I’d still love it. I don’t want to have to sell two watches to afford it, though. That’s pretty expensive.


I love Midnight Club 3 so much. That and Black just seemed (to me) to just push the envelope of what the PS2 could do. They’re gorgeous. Black can output 480p, and even with all the crazy physics and detailed textures, it never seems to experience slowdown.


Yeah, I forgot about Tron 2.0. Surprisingly good game.

Not Monolith, but remember Prey (2006)? That was another one that surprised me with how good it was. Oh, and Tribes Vengeance. Pretty sure it’s still have my discs for all those. I should bust them out and try to get them running with Wine.


Oh, that sucks! I’d say just play it on a PS2 because modding has gotten easier and cheaper for it these days, but I recently priced out some options for my cousin and it was way more than I thought. Like, if you get a system that boots but can’t read discs for $30, that’s a pretty good deal! And the easiest and cheapest option is a $20 memory card from AliExpress that you can load FreeMCBoot on, and all your games. But then you have to add in the controller, and those as-is systems usually don’t come with a power supply. And you likely need an HDMI adapter. I don’t know if you can put the whole thing together for under $100.



I’ve been playing San Andreas on the PS2 recently. Man, I miss that era of gaming.


Battlefield 1942, especially with the Battlegroup 42 mod.


8 is so good. And the music is great. I haven’t finished 9 yet, same issue as you with the lack of time. But I’m hopeful I’ll get back to it soon.


Ys Seven for the PSP. I have Ys VII and Ys: MoC for the Vita and Ys IX for the Switch, but there’s something about Seven that keeps me coming back.


I don’t buy hardware until it drops below a certain price point, so when I finally have a PC capable enough, the game price is coincidentally also lower.


Oh, i complete misread your comment. Sorry! I see that now. Steam and GOG are the only stores I have, I don’t play a lot of new games.


Fair points. Controllers work in big picture mode, but I get what you’re saying. But on the other hand, the Steamdeck and Proton have done a lot for making Linux gaming more accessible.


I hope so. 3 was awful, I didn’t even finish it.