Posts

Posted on

Hoarding games

Abi and I are book hoarders. We buy lots of books, and we keep them. Even after we’ve read them, and even if we have no real intention of re-reading them, we usually hold on to them. Most of them (about twenty-five carboard boxes full) are sitting in our loft right now, but some day we would really like to have a house with a library so we can have them all out on display. Mmmm. Lovely boooooks. Our precioussses.

I’m starting to turn into a bit of a games hoarder, too. There are a bundle of games that I’ve played, and have little intention of re-playing, that I can’t really bear to get rid of: Grand Theft Auto III, Ico, Metroid Prime, Ratchet and Clank. I can sort of understand myself holding on to racing games, beat-em-ups, sports games, and other things with decent multi-player options (Mario Kart), but is it really worth keeping story games?

A book is guaranteed to be backwards-compatible. If I really enjoy a book this week, I won’t re-read it immediately, but I might want to read it in ten years’ time. I know that won’t be a problem. A videogame, however, is not likely to stand the test of time quite so well. For a start, I’d have to hang on to my PS2 and GameCube to make sure I’ll still have the hardware to play the games on. But will the televisions a decade from now still be compatible with all the connectors and wires from the early 2000’s?

Games like Metroid Prime and GTA III are cutting-edge right now: MP in terms of its immersive graphics, sound, and music; GTA in terms of its wide-open environments and freeform gameplay. But games are going to take enormous leaps forward in the next ten years. Dusting them off and playing them again won’t be the same experience as it was the first time. It’ll be retrogaming. The games will look old-fashioned and quaint. They may allow me to revel in the nostalgia of the age, but I’m sure that I’ll long to return to the wonders that game developers and publishers will have in store for me in 2013.

Some books don’t age well, but classics remain classics. I can pick up one of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels from the 1970s and enjoy it just as much as his latest adventure. Classic games like Elite still have their fans, but how many of them did not play the game the first time round? Is the original version of the game still atracting new players in the same way that, say, Jane Austen is still attracting new readers?

So does it make any sense for me to hang on to these games when, if I were to sell them on, I could use the cash to fund new acquisitions? Intellectually, I’d have to say “no”, but my heart is currently exercising its veto. I might never play them again (well, apart from Ratchet and Clank, which Alex is very fond of), but they have great sentimental value. And so…I hoard.

Posted on

Blake’s 7: The comeback?

Via Blogdex comes news of the return of Blake’s 7:

“One of the stars of cult sci-fi series Blake’s 7 has signed a deal to bring the show back to screens more than 20 years after it ended.

“Paul Darrow, who played the ruthless anti-hero Avon, is in a consortium that has acquired the rights to the show from the widow of its creator, Terry Nation.
“…A new TV mini-series, starring Darrow, will have a budget of $5-6m (£3-3.7m), the show’s website said.”

Which leads to the show’s web site. Looks vaguely promising.

The Register warns not to be too optimistic for a succesful relaunch, though:

‘But don’t hold your breath for A Rebellion Reborn. Planning is at an early stage. In a message on its flashy web site, B7 Productions says it will not be entering pre-production “until April/May 2004”.

‘Which marks a step-up on the last time the show was supposed to return to the screens. Reg Reader Andrew Larcombe has pointed us to an almost identical piece of pre-production puff – from three years ago.’

But the BBC’s article from 2000 says that the producers were “lining up” Paul Darrow to play Avon again. Yesterday’s article refers to Darrow as being part of the consortium that is producing the show. That somehow sounds a bit more definite.

I just hope they’ll remember what made Blake’s 7 great: strong story lines, snappy dialogue, and excellent characters. Blake’s 7 was never about special effects, which is good, because they were rubbish. And even now, in the age of digital effects, the BBC has consistently proved that they are still rubbish at them.

If I want to see cutting-edge space special effects, I’ll go and buy the latest Star Wars film on DVD. (Actually, I did…and it was still pants.) Nothing the BBC (or any other sub $100M production facility) can do will even come close, so don’t even try because it’ll only disappoint. Spend the budget on some decent script writers, some half-decent costumes, a couple of well-built sets, and the hire of a Welsh quarry for a couple of days’ filming. The space ships are just cut-scenes to get from one place to another.

What I really want to see is Avon snarling and plotting and scheming. I want to see his predatory, ice-cold grin as he cuts the heart out of his enemies’ fiendish plans. I want my childhood back….

Posted on

Check and sign, please

“Check and sign, please.” Thus goes the debit card mantra. I pass the shop assistant a copy of Bill Brysons’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. He scans the barcodes, and tippety-taps something on the cash register.

“That’ll be twelve pounds, please,” he says. I hand over my Switch card. He swipes it, and twirls it idly in his fingers while he waits for the network authorisation. The cash register spews out an itemised receipt, and a voucher for me to…

“Check and sign, please.”

Where’s the dotted line? There it is. I scrawl and scribble something that looks like india ink seeping into a cracked windscreen. I hand him back the pen and the signed slip. He compares it with the stylised and miniaturised version on the back of my card, and decides not to call his supervisor for a second opinion.

He pulls a plastic back from a pile under the counter, flaps it open, and slides the book inside. “Shall I just put the receipt in the bag?.”

“Nah,” I say, “I’ll get it in my wallet.” Along with dozens of other pink, green, blue and white slips recording my spending habits over the last couple of weeks.

“Cheers,” I say. “Thanks very much.” And the transaction is complete.

…or is it?

A couple of days later I was emptying out my wallet and bringing our accounts spreadsheet up to date. £31.45 at Safeway, £12.71 at ScotMid, £33 to renew my bus pass, and… hang on…. £120 for the Bill Bryson book?

When they say “Check and sign, please,” they mean that you should check the amount, and then sign the slip. Not just check to see where you have to put your autograph. I thought that barcode scanning took care of all these pricing issues, but apparently there’s still plenty of scope for human error.

The folk at Waterstones were very good about giving me a refund for the excess £108, and they all had a good giggle about it. So did I, once I had the money back.

Posted on

Joey’s Worst Date Ever

You are keeping up with Joey deVilla’s account of his Worst Date Ever, aren’t you?

With lines like this:

If life were a highway, Crabs would be the guy in the eighteen-wheeler with a bottle of cheap Tequila telling the monkey in the passenger seat “Hey buddy, you take the wheel for a while.”

…it’s utterly hilarious.

Posted on

Password Safe

“Many computer users today have to keep track of dozens of passwords: for network accounts, online services, premium web sites. Some write their passwords on a piece of paper, leaving their accounts vulnerable to thieves or in-house snoops. Others choose the same password for different applications, which makes life easy for intruders of all kinds.

“With Password Safe, a free Windows 9x/2000 utility from Counterpane Labs, users can keep their passwords securely encrypted on their computers. A single Safe Combination–just one thing to remember–unlocks them all.”

There’s not much more you need to know. When my list of accounts and passwords became too much to memorize, I started keeping them in a little “keyring” file on my PC. First it was just a plain text file (*embarrassed cough*), but more recently I’ve kept the text file in an encrypted zip file. I’ve seen numerous little programs that take care of this password tracking job, but until now I have never found one that a) doesn’t try to do more than I want it to, b) is a pain in the arse about backups and transporting files, c) is inexpensive, and d) comes from a vendor I trust.

Password Safe nails all of these issues:

  1. All that Password Safe does is hold passwords. You give each item in your list a title, a user name, and a password. There’s also a small space for additional notes if you need them. But that’s all it requires: three small pieces of data per password. And once you’ve entered this information, it shows up in a simple list. It’s clean, simple, and elegant.
  2. Your passwords are stored in a single .dat file. The .dat file is encrypted with the Blowfish algorithm. Transporting your passwords between computers is a matter of taking your .dat file with you, running Password Safe on the other computer, and making sure you know the master password (the “safe combination”) to open the file.
  3. Password Safe was originally developed by Counterpane Labs, but it’s now being developed as an open source project. It’s free.
  4. Counterpane Systems was founded by Bruce Schneier, one of the biggest names in computer encryption and security. He invented the Blowfish algorithm. He developed the Solitaire algorithm used in Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon–one of the best fiction books ever written about code-breaking and computer hacking. He has written many other books about cryptography, computers, and privacy. He publishes the monthly Crypto-Gram newsletter about computer security and cryptography. His credentials are beyond reproach. Do I trust this utility knowing that it comes from his company? Absolutely.

Password Safe. It’s the way to go.