Computers
Many a happy afternoon was spent playing computer games when
I should have been outside enjoying the sunshine, but I did
get some sun as it shone in through the window! I played too
many games to remember and have owned several different
computers, some of which I still have and get out now and
again for a play; at some time or other I have owned the
following computers and games consoles: Commodore Vic 20, Commodore 64, Atari
STe, Atari STF, Atari STM (out of curiosity!), Atari Falcon,
Atari Jaguar, Atari 2600, 386 PC, AMD PC, N64, eMac, and not forgetting my
current G4 Cube and PS2!
Some of my favourite computer games include Turrican 2
(C64), Carrier Command (ST), Civilization (ST),
Railroad Tycoon (ST), Dune & Dune 2 (PC), Clumsy Colin (C64),
F-19 Project Stealth Fighter (C64 & ST), Ishar series (ST),
Transarctica (ST), Lords of Chaos (ST), Frontier - Elite
II (ST), Driller (C64), Goldeneye (N64), Waverace (N64), Duke
Nuke 'em (N64), Red Faction (PS2), Return to Castle
Wolfenstein (PS2), GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas.
These days I'm also interested in the creation of games, or
at least the graphics for them; I've always tried my hand at
computer graphics no matter what computer I had at the time
but my most recent computers are much more interesting to
play with:
As well as the G4 Cube (above left, more on that later) I own a couple of Silicon Graphics workstations,
although the number of games available for them is
absolutely minimal there's a heck of a lot of freeware
utilities and software that enables you to do just about
anything you want with them, and if the software doesn't
exist it's a small matter to make use of the existing
libraries and online books to write it (knowledge of C or
C++ recommended) but considering the number of years that
the core OS (UNIX) has been around, and the number of people
who've used, it it's unlikely that someone hasn't already at
written any program you might require. An earlier version of this web
page, for example, was created using Cosmo Create, a freebie
WYSIWYG web page creation tool, running on a Silicon
Graphics Indy. Now I use my O2 and Octane2 which have
hardware texture support, very useful for making those
textured VRML worlds.
As an example of some of the things I use my SGI's for, you
could check out my VRML pages elsewhere on
this website, and the following stills:
Cosmo Worlds and a VRML scene. Why is one of the trees not
reflected in the pool then, eh? Media Recorder (right), used to
capture images, movies or sound from a variety of sources
including the digital Indy / O2 'Moose' Cam and composite AV.
I have also been investigating 3D graphics programming using
libraries, which for those who do not understand anything
about programming is a set of pre-written functions that are
designed to be used many times in a program, and which often
make use of specific hardware or software capabilities of
the computer it is designed to be used on; some libraries
are standard and exist on most computer platforms, but
others (such as the Open Inventor and Performer libraries
for Silicon Graphics workstations) are unique to the
platform they exist on. For anyone interested in
programming, this is certainly the most interesting way I
can think of learning and of expanding ones' knowledge,
seeing how professional simulations are programmed and
learning all the neat little graphics tricks you maybe don't
notice in games and such. I find myself playing games now
and saying 'Oi! That's a flat texture!' or 'Look! A
billboard!' (See a book on 3D graphics or Ian Maplesons'
graphics web pages for an explanation)
As a bonus while I am learning about 3D graphics I am also
learning unix fundamentals and important administration
stuff. I created my
SGI Indy on the internet guide after
the necessity for me to get my own SGI on the internet
taught me how to do it, and a friend persuaded me that
others would benefit from my research. It is this kind of
sharing of information that makes the unix community so much
stronger and easier to be a part of than that of any other
current computer system.
I own an Apple eMac, but also a G4 Cube which is a great little computer with a considerable
amount of power for it's size, and as a bonus it has silent operation. The big
advantages for me are that it's small, has USB / Firewire ports, runs OSX
"Panther" very well, and when I want to go and do something else for a while
I just touch the top power button and it goes to sleep (it's actually just a
touch-sensitive area of the casing with a glowing power light beneath the surface).
I had a bad experience with my eMac when the display circuitry went faulty
(this happened after I did quiet-fan and CPU speed boost mods during my
experimenting phase); it would cost far too much to repair, and although
I can run it perfectly well with my 22" SGI monitor I find the Cube much more
convenient, and the silence is golden compared to the loud fan noise of the eMac,
besides which the Cube has PowerMac specs whereas the eMac is just like an
overgrown iMac, i.e. cheaper with lower specs, the only advantage it has is
twice the MHz but the Cube still beats it on some Photoshop operations.
Some legal stuff :
"Silicon Graphics, Inc. is not responsible for or affiliated with,
and does not endorse, this Web site's sponsor, operation, products,
services, viewpoints, or content, and shall not be liable for any acts,
omissions, use and/or misuse thereof".
Gumball
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