X-Plane 8.50 for Linux - No Sound
Beginning with the last couple of release candidates and then the final release of X-Plane 8.50 for Linux I was dismayed to discover I no longer had sound. Thanks to a thread I found on forums.x-plane.org it turned out to be a problem easily corrected by upgrading my OpenAL audio API to the latest version.
I started X-Plane and placed myself at CYVR (Vancouver International). Once again I could hear the rain pelting against the windscreen of my 172.
CYVR 180500Z 09009KT 10SM -SHRA FEW020 BKN045 OVC060 07/07 A3010 RMK SC2SC4SC2 SLP193
As of February 11, 2006 the most current version of OpenAL is openal-0.0.8-1.
posted: 23:18 | 0 comments | tags: games, linux, simulations, x-plane
A return to HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I find it remarkable that over 20 years have past since I last played a text-based computer game, HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
It was 1984 and my computer was an Atari 800 with 48K of RAM and an external 810 5 1/4-inch floppy drive. That 810 drive stood about 4 inches
tall and had a spring on the door release mechanism that would propel the disk from the case with an audible "twang-wooosh" if depressed
correctly.
While researching the almost sub-culture that interactive fiction still enjoys I discovered that one can now play HitchHiker's Guide to the
Galaxy online. BBC has an online flash version here and I found a Java based version of the original game on the Douglas Adam's site.
The gameplay is exactly as I remember it; right down to my character being struck in the head again and again by a stray brick as a result
of the bulldozer demolishing my house. Frustrating.
Shawn Alexander said, "Time heals all wounds, unless you pick at them." I believe that after 20 years I am picking at something
I should have left well enough alone. We'll see.
posted: 01:14 | 0 comments | tags: atari, games, interactive fiction
