Ok for the start of my comments, I also like Matt like Malcolm McDowell as an actor, in fact he has a role in a film that manages to blend one of my favorite actors and writers in one movie (not the best work of either in that case). But that is not where I want to start with this, so that will maybe come later.
The thing that gets me with all of the reviews is just how hard it is to get a vintage "multimedia" title to work on any system today. What will this be like in 15-20 years when people do not happen to have ANY dos related experence? Will it be up to the OLD WIZARDS to make these games run one more time? By that time most people may think of a keyboard as unusual as a 8 inch floppy.
[soapbox]
The reason I say this is although Bill and other collectors may preserve the software in thier original boxes those packages are uselss without the hardware, and the NON-HARDWARE based OS's with the basic drivers that would enable loading these programs and be able to execute them.
You have to ask yourself, could I find and boot MS-Dos and Windows 3.11 at will from a floppy today, even if I had the disks sitting on a shelf? Odds are you could, but then you have to wonder if sound, video, or any other add in drivers that those cards need may be able to use will be emulated.
These may end up being the hardest games to keep alive over the long term. You may be able to find that one strange .dll file you need somewhere today, but where will it be in 20 years if we do not make a effort to preserve that operating environment that those games need today?
[/soapbox]
Back to that movie I mentioned, it was 'The Puppet Masters' where Malcolm McDowell played the lead role. I loved that story where McDowell's part was as the over thinking boss, but I felt that the rest of the cast was there for thier looks. Over all I would have to say that the way the story came across on video was less than great, but I am and will be a fan of it as it is one of Robert A Heinleins' notible shorts.
The question is why do I like such a dorky story?
I guess the reason is that it works for me.
There are many other of Mr. Heinlien's stories that I like more..
Ok for the start of my comments, I also like Matt like Malcolm McDowell as an actor, in fact he has a role in a film that manages to blend one of my favorite actors and writers in one movie (not the best work of either in that case). But that is not where I want to start with this, so that will maybe come later.
The thing that gets me with all of the reviews is just how hard it is to get a vintage "multimedia" title to work on any system today. What will this be like in 15-20 years when people do not happen to have ANY dos related experence? Will it be up to the OLD WIZARDS to make these games run one more time? By that time most people may think of a keyboard as unusual as a 8 inch floppy.
[soapbox]
The reason I say this is although Bill and other collectors may preserve the software in thier original boxes those packages are uselss without the hardware, and the NON-HARDWARE based OS's with the basic drivers that would enable loading these programs and be able to execute them.
You have to ask yourself, could I find and boot MS-Dos and Windows 3.11 at will from a floppy today, even if I had the disks sitting on a shelf? Odds are you could, but then you have to wonder if sound, video, or any other add in drivers that those cards need may be able to use will be emulated.
These may end up being the hardest games to keep alive over the long term. You may be able to find that one strange .dll file you need somewhere today, but where will it be in 20 years if we do not make a effort to preserve that operating environment that those games need today?
[/soapbox]
Back to that movie I mentioned, it was 'The Puppet Masters' where Malcolm McDowell played the lead role. I loved that story where McDowell's part was as the over thinking boss, but I felt that the rest of the cast was there for thier looks. Over all I would have to say that the way the story came across on video was less than great, but I am and will be a fan of it as it is one of Robert A Heinleins' notible shorts.
The question is why do I like such a dorky story?
I guess the reason is that it works for me.
There are many other of Mr. Heinlien's stories that I like more..
-Cecil
-Cecil