Headphone Jack Splitter Review:

“Since i bought a new computer it only had one audio port on the back and my surround sound needed three otherwise only two speakers would work being very sceptical i decided to go for 2 of these although the reviews where good i was unsure that they would give me full 5.1 going through 2 splitters but they did! and at perfect quality all i can say is they are very well built and work very well and especially for the price”

Say no more. I’m off off to pick up two of these and 5.1 up my tape player.  I’ve a suspicion that my Peter Gabriel collection will sound just amazing in DTS.

Although it was basically just a text adventure game of the kind so popular among a certain demographic of the time (read: unloved nerds), The Realm of Grigzax had a highly advanced parser and was blessed with some extremely sophisticated AI. NPCs and creatures moved dynamically throughout the world as the game was played, undertaking quests and performing actions of their own with which the player could either help them or hinder them altogether. Coupled with a dynamically realised, fully rendered and randomly generated game world, this ensured that no two games of The Realm of Grigzax would ever be alike. At the time, various gaming magazines described The Realm of Grigzax as “Less of a computer game, and more of an experience”.

It is therefore with great pleasure that I have chosen TRoG as the first release in what I hope will be an ongoing series of open source games for the discerning public to enjoy.  The code is for the Commodore 64 version of the game, so you may need to acquire an emulator from somewhere if you want to give it a go, but I can guarantee if you do you may well be playing this game non stop for days. Simply enter the code as shown below and type “run”, then hit enter. When the game starts you will be presented with a tutorial which will allow you to customise your character, and then the world of Grigzax is your oyster!

Good luck, adventurer!

The Realm of Grigzax - a thrilling adventure where you, the hero, get to shape the fate of an entire world!

]]> http://wankingandcrying.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/open-source-gaming/feed/ 0 igorsbrain The Realm of Grigzax (Open Source) http://wankingandcrying.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/visiting-the-neighbours/ http://wankingandcrying.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/visiting-the-neighbours/#comments Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:58:29 +0000 igorsbrain http://wankingandcrying.wordpress.com/?p=35 ]]>

Yeah yeah, so it's bigger than us. So what? Size isn't everything - we have GUNS!

So this link’s a little old, a little “welcome to last week”, a little “time to take Old Yeller out behind the tool shed” as it were, but not so very long ago astronomers hit the jackpot in their search for potential life-sustaining planets. Now if you’re like me, then my attempts at cloning have been successful. However, if you simply share similar interests and points of view with me then you’ll probably be speculating on all the possible forms of life that might be on good ol’ Gliese 581c as we speak – burrowing, swimming, flying or possibly crawling things – just waiting for humanity to pay them a visit, catalogue each and every one of them and then hunt them relentlessly into extinction for sport. If we’re very lucky they might even inject their hideous larvae into us first so that they can live on for yet another generation of being pursued by bored rich people and their many, many dogs. Exciting prospects, these, but it’s never going to happen unless we can find some way of getting to the Gliese 581 system without either a) running out of air or b) gouging out our own eyes and strutting around in the nuddy like Sam Neill did in that Event Horizon documentary.

But how, I hear myself ask in an excited staccato, could we possibly get there when the furthest we’ve ever sent anyone so far is the astronomical equivalent of “just down the road for a packet of lamberts”? Well for the answer to this conundrum I invite you to join me on my brief five minute tour of google and wikipedia as I summarise their well written articles in a completely inaccurate and unprofessional way…

Sub Light Travel

1) Nuclear Pulse Propulsion

Method: Launch a ship into space using a series of nuclear explosions to achieve a speed roughly 10% that of light.

Pros: We could feasibly arrive at our nearest star system (Proxima Centauri) within 40-50 years, just about within a single human lifespan. Once there, radio transmissions could be returned to earth within around 4-5 years confirming that, in fact, there is bugger all at Proxima Centauri and the crew have wasted their lives and must now die alone in the cold, uncaring vacuum of a distant solar system.

Cons: Aside from the fact that this method would be illegal under the Partial Test Ban Treaty, and ignoring the average 10 deaths from fallout with each launch, it would take around 205 years to get to Gliese 581 using Nuclear Pulse Propulsion. So don’t forget to pack a good book.

2) The Bussard Ramjet

Method: Use a large Ram Scoop (and by “large”, think “City to Nation sized”) to compress hydrogen and fuse it, creating a rocket exhaust that can be used to accelerate the ramjet to a theoretical speed of 77% that of light.

Pros: This would be a much, much faster method of arriving at good ol’ Gliese 581, with only a bare minimum of blood orgies and terrified Latin recitals. Also, the ramjet could in theory collect a constant amount of fuel as it travels from the light of distant stars, allowing it to keep accelerating.

Cons: Unfortunately, our old friend Physics seems to take umbrage with this idea, as later and more accurate calculations suggest that the drag would eventually outweigh the thrust (like a snowplough in the antarctic or… er… a bulldozer in the… antarctic… damn…), and the ramjet would probably just slow down at some point and stop altogether. Amusingly, this would result in a bunch of astronauts stranded in space with no hope of ever returning home in their lifetimes, doomed to eventually starve or suffocate depending on their provisions. As a best case scenario, they would die of old age, probably after going completely insane.

No, wait, not “amusingly”, the other word. “Tragically”. That’s the one.

3) Light Sail / Photon Sail / Solar Sail / Whatever the hell you wanna call it

Method: Uses large membrane mirrors to reflect photons, creating a teeny-tiny amount of thrust. Using the sun or (preferably) lasers, it would be possible to accelerate the spacecraft to a significant fraction of the speed of light (depending on the size of the sail and the output of light).

Pros: Hypothetically, this method would require next to no fuel – light is basically free, after all.

Cons: Well, it might require some fuel. The laser wouldn’t power itself. Also, in order to make interstellar travel feasible using this method you would need to construct a sail wider than the Earth, and generate more power for the lasers than all the power being output by humanity today! Plus, a big giant sail on the back of your spaceship? Lame.

4) Building a Really Tall Tower

Method: Build a really, really tall tower to reach any star of your choice. Want to go further? Simply build more floors!

Pros: Fancy exploring strange new worlds? Want to seek out new life and new civilizations? To boldly go, in fact, where No Man Has Gone Before? You’ll find it on floor 21576652989923-A, just use the lift! Don’t forget to tip the bellhop though – It’s a long way back down…

Cons: Aside from the possibility of having to take the stairs if the lift breaks down, there are no drawbacks to this idea. It is flawless in design, and would be just as flawless in execution. Watch out for hijacked planes though!

Lots of people moan about space travel, saying it's too expensive and money should be spent feeding and clothing the poor or something. Bollocks to that, I say - if god wanted the poor to be fed he'd never have made fire look this awesome.

Faster Than Light Travel

1) Warp Drive

Method: Bend space and time around your spacecraft, allowing the rest of the universe to do all that tricky “breaking it’s own speed limit” stuff while you just sit back and write erotic Star Trek fan fiction. Basically, stay where you are and let your destination come to you. Really, really, quickly.

Pros: You could get to any of our nearest stars, document a few new lifeforms or strange types of polystyrene rock and return home in time to tape that episode where the Holodeck goes wrong and all the cowboys start to look like Lt. Data

Cons: As with the Holodeck, Warp Drive technology remains pure fiction. Although NASA started giving it a serious go in 1996 with their Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program, they discontinued it in 2002, deeming it the crazy pipe dream of a million socially awkward shut-ins.

2) Wormholes

Method: Fold space-time to create a “shortcut” from point A to point B, just like they did in that Event Horizon documentary!

Pros: Travel would be practically instantaneous using this method and would require no fuel once the wormhole has been created and stabilised. This method can also – in theory, at least – enable you to travel through time to some extent.

Cons: No…. there will be no escape….the Gateway is open, and you are ALL COMING WITH ME!

These were the only  methods I could be bothered to read up on, anyway. Thanks Wikipedia and google (but mostly wikipedia)! I’m sure more information is available on Nasa’s website or something, although I couldn’t find much on building a really, really tall tower. Still, if I can find ways of getting there in a five minute google search, I’m sure those guys are well on the case. Last one to conquer Gliese 581c and replace its inhabitants’ culture with our own is a rotten egg!

Note: BBS anyone?

One day I'm gonna MAKE my parents respect me! FUCK YOU MOM! FUCK YOU DAD! FUCK YOU KID-BROTHER-WITH-MUSCULAR-DYSTROPHY! I hope you all get cancer! Except you, mom, because you already have it and you DESERVE it for not buying me Assassin's Creed 2 you BITCH!

So because of Mr. “I’m-so-goddamn-perfect-in-every-way-and-I-fucking-hate-kids” Myer I get home an hour late and my parents are all up in my face because I was supposed to get home on time today to do my chores and look after my kid brother because my mom has to go to the doctors to get her cancer medicine or some shit like that and I’m all like “What is your PROBLEM ffs! It’s not my fault my school hates individuals!” and then I storm off up to my room and that BITCH mother of mine tries to take away my xbox! Well of COURSE I’m not putting up with that, duh! That’s abuse! So I kick down the door to my parents’ bedroom and take back my xbox and my dad stops me on the landing and gives me an earful about how he has to bust his balls 18 hours a day to put food on the table and how my mom is at death’s door and my kid brother’s muscular dystrophy means he needs constant attention and blahblahblah the usual crap and finally I get sick of his abuse and shout “NO FUCK YOU DAD!” and punch him in the face and I tell you what it was so sweet, he fell right on his mean old man ass! But then, as I’m walking into my room with my xbox in hand I hear my mom burst into tears and she starts arguing with my dad but I’m all like “whatever man, I’m gonna kill me some japs on call of duty”. But ffs, they just don’t understand me at all!

It’s so unfair!

In fact, I’ve had nothing to say. Why did I register for a web log anyway? I’m a waste of space. Virtual and physical space.

Someone pleeeease delete me.