tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946916641850178817.post978270182030605942..comments2024-01-29T18:11:40.469-08:00Comments on The RPG Consoler: Game 3: Ultima: Exodus (NES) - Progress, at a Snails PaceZenic Reveriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16441583549326102945noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946916641850178817.post-40761020160666226182012-04-03T10:20:08.783-07:002012-04-03T10:20:08.783-07:00It happens less and less as we move forward, but t...It happens less and less as we move forward, but there are a few notable games that do break the fourth wall. Thousand Arms is one that comes to mind.Zenic Reveriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16441583549326102945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946916641850178817.post-502523799570848232012-04-02T11:21:20.009-07:002012-04-02T11:21:20.009-07:00That probably comes from western tabletop RPGs, wh...That probably comes from western tabletop RPGs, which I suspect most CRPG writers of that period graduated from. Early D&D was filled with jokes and in-refrences, and it wasn't until later that realistic or heavily plot based games came along; they were certainly around by the 80s, but if most of the writers were from the Gygaxian school...<br /><br />Examples: The lightning bolt spell in D&D required an ebony rod, a glass rod and a bit of rabbit fur. Fireball required sulphur, bat guano and charcoal. Robilar's orc henchman was named after a word he'd used to cheat at scrabble. When Robilar was about to go adventure on the Moon his mechanic built a giant catapult to launch him (Which, to Gygax's great annoyance, he refused to use, though it would have worked). Another character (who became a minor god), run by Gygax's best friend, had 2 wands shaped like pistols and a holy symbol of a gold star (I'm not sure if the character became a god before or after the player passed on at a young age in real life, but the player was a huge western fan, so Gygax bent the rules a bit to allow him to play a cowboy in a fantasy game; as a result you can worship a cowboy imported from another game in Greyhawk to this day). <br /><br />The most famous examples were Journey to the Barrier Peaks, which had a crashed spaceship in it, and an adventure that moved D&D characters to contemporary London (Which is now quite out of date, and would be almost as confusing to me as the D&D characters!).Canageekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03770924810559440307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946916641850178817.post-54275825330377728272012-04-01T14:34:52.456-07:002012-04-01T14:34:52.456-07:00"Funny" 4th wall-breaking dialogue was p..."Funny" 4th wall-breaking dialogue was pretty much endemic to computer RPGs of the early-to-mid-80s, and Ultima was no exception. I think console RPGs are generally better about this, possibly due to data restrictions.Jonothanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06305455959377150878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946916641850178817.post-25174694208577489402012-02-25T09:39:14.779-08:002012-02-25T09:39:14.779-08:00I checked again with Chrome and its system stats t...I checked again with Chrome and its system stats thing: Not sure why your blog took up so much memory, it doesn't seem to use an excessive amount. I'll see if it happens again. That or some javascript in one of your widgets doesn't like Firefoxes JS engine, but is fine on Chrome. Who knows.Canageekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03770924810559440307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946916641850178817.post-27826481434582005692012-02-25T09:00:54.573-08:002012-02-25T09:00:54.573-08:00I think I noticed it on other sites as well, possi...I think I noticed it on other sites as well, possible The CRPG Addict, but as I said, it is hard to say-- I opened up about a zillion tabs this morning and noticed that after closing you and Chet's blogs physical memory went from 4 GB used to 2 GB used, whereas closing all the fancy BBC pages, Metafilter, etc did roughly zip. I think the problem was just that I opened every comment left on each of your blogs since yesterday, and each page is taking just slightly more memory then it should. <br /><br />Also: Firefox.Canageekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03770924810559440307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946916641850178817.post-34320320824443937652012-02-25T08:19:58.801-08:002012-02-25T08:19:58.801-08:00No fancy scripts, just straight Blogger. I thought...No fancy scripts, just straight Blogger. I thought it could be the images since I upload them as rather large .bmp files, but it looks like Blogger pares them down to pretty low size .jpg files. Maybe it's something in the side bar? Do you see the same spike from other Blogger sites?<br /><br />As for hints, I'll just wonder around for now. I'm not too into a rush. I don't know if you can tell from this post, but I noticed I jumped around from topic to topic. I have a lot of points I want to hit, and I'm trying not to make very long posts. So, more posts to make my points is helpful. I need to work my flow a bit. Also, I haven't run out of places to explore yet.Zenic Reveriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16441583549326102945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946916641850178817.post-10632334481346198582012-02-25T07:58:03.556-08:002012-02-25T07:58:03.556-08:00It probably has a lot to do with the browser you u...It probably has a lot to do with the browser you use, although that doesn't explain the discrepancy between other websites and this. Beyond that, it's hard to say.killias2https://www.blogger.com/profile/00398131197947456691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4946916641850178817.post-11495039938555530312012-02-25T07:27:59.250-08:002012-02-25T07:27:59.250-08:00Nice posting Zenic: Do you want me to read over th...Nice posting Zenic: Do you want me to read over the spoilers and give you some ROT13ed hints?<br /><br />Off topic: I loaded up a bunch of your blog pages in tabs, to read each comment in turn. This rapidly ate up about 2 GB of ram. Do you have any idea why I can see a memory hit every time I open a page of your blog? Do you have any fancy scripts running or something? This could be just Blogger being stupid, but your blog seems to take more memory then say, bbc.co.uk or cbc.ca which seems odd. I could be wrong here, as I'm just opening pages and trying to view the little green lines in Resource Monitor, but wow, it doesn't feel like blog pages should eat up 2 GB of ram when they are just text and images.Canageekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03770924810559440307noreply@blogger.com