Rubénerd Blog :)

Up until recently, the worst crimes South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson committed were against common sense, civil liberties, free speech and defamation of law abiding computer gamers. Now it’s personal.

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@HawkGeminus has just put the finishing touches on the main page for GrowUpAustralia.com.

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Here’s another Rubénerd Fun Fact for all you rabid Official Rubénerd Fun Fact fans. I know you’re out there, I can hear you furrowing your brows and sighing.

R18+ games are designated as such for the pirate sound one makes when pronouncing it.

This is my own personal contribution to the debate started by NotGamers.net. Don’t let the name fool you, despite claiming they lied, they’re not gamers. Unless they are.

Thank you.

Sometimes it’s just so simple for people like Michael Atkinson to pass the legislation he wants. Other times though this dang thing called democracy gets in the way and ruins everything. What’s the point of being able to pass laws if the people the law will effect want to debate? Sheesh!

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Reading the always entertaining Slashdot I saw a story claiming the Russian government pulled Modern Warfare 2 (screenshot above… uh, yeah!) from stores, allegedly because they weren’t too happy having their citizens being demonised as terrorists. Eldavojon asks "Is cultural sensitivity becoming an overly played card in the gaming world? Not too long ago, Wolfenstein was recalled in Germany for containing Nazi symbols." and I attempt to answer.

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Sometimes a short train trip late at night through the Marias Pass train route in northern Montana with the 2001 era DirectX graphics and sky is just what I need to relax just before going to sleep.

I first got Train Simulator in 2002, it was the first game I tried on my desktop at the time, the first game I tried running with Boot Camp with my then-new MacBook Pro in early 2006 (Windows gaming on a MacBook Pro), and is still one of the reasons I keep a copy of Windows XP lying around for the 3D acceleration in software like VMware Fusion.

For someone who moved around so much as a kid and could never have huge trainsets, this was the closest I ever got, and I still find it fun :).

I wasn’t born when the DEC PDP-8 computer came out and was only a few months old when the Commodore 128D did with it’s Zilog Z80 awesomeness, so the earliest nostalgic computer memories I have are of our old DOS machine from the early 90s. As I’ve said here many times before we ran DOS with PowerMenu and originally Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions, then Windows 3.1.

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So I was talking to somebody online about Taekwondo and wasn’t sure about the spelling, so I looked up the Sports section on the South Korea Wikipedia article. In hindsight I may as well have just looked up the Taekwondo page itself. You do silly things when you’re half asleep.

According to Wikipedia, as it turns out StarCraft is South Korea’s national sport. If it’s on Wikipedia, it has to be true! A WikiAnswers page corroborates this.

I learn something new every day; and forget two other things. Komapsumnida.

My sister’s reignited obsession with The Sims 2 on my Mac has led to me playing it a bit again myself. I don’t play many games because I find them a waste of time generally, but along with the SimCity series (not including SimCity Societies, yuck!) The Sims is one of the few games I’ve ever played that I’ve found engaging and more addictive than… something addictive. It messes with your brain!

For some retro fun, while looking through the Mod the Sims 2 website yesterday I came across an object by Numenor which is none other than a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Yes, your Sim can now write Basic programs on a retro ZX Spectrum right there in your Sims 2 house, or play original games complete with the same generated music sounds and tape loading noises!

There’s something so right about this!

I was born in 1986 so I was only a tiny person when the home computer wars at that time were playing out, but since 2001 I’ve been buying and playing with some of these inexpensive 1980s home computers, including a ZX Spectrum which has since become my favourite. The fact these tiny, beautiful, quirky machines are still functioning even today attest to the durability, quality and robustness of their designs. Granted machines made today are a magnitude of order more complicated and powerful than machines made then, but I doubt most personal computers built today will still be running without problems in 20 years.

I left my Spectrum back in Singapore, bummer! I’ve been using it on a plasma screen television too, I’ve been meaning to find a tiny little colour TV to use with it, or even a small LCD with a TV tuner. Time is the problem, perhaps for now I’ll let my sims play with one, and I’ll live through them :).

My sister this afternoon would like to inform you that her sim in The Sims 2 just earned 50,000 Simoleons from her job as a Mad Scientist. I had to temporarily relinquish control of my MacBook Pro for her to play that game, but I’m glad it wasn’t in vein!

The question on my mind is: can you convert Simoleons into Aussie or Singapore Dollars by any chance? What’s the going price for a Simoleon? Wait, don’t answer that, I’ll just fantasise for a bit longer. A new 17 inch MacBook Pro, some Singapore Airlines tickets to half a dozen destinations, a small bright yellow Piaggio scooter and some rainy day money would all go down just fine.