Command and Conquer

While Dune 2 may be the granddaddy of realtime strategy (RTS) games, Command and Conquer (or C&C) is the father of the genre. It followed in the tradition set by Dune 2, and set the standard for RTS to come. Similar to Dune 2, there was the need to build up a base, gather resources, produce an army and destroy the enemy.

The story line is simple. The bad guys (Brotherhood of Nod) are going to take over the world, so the Global Defense Initiative has to stop them. Each side has similar units (base, resource harvesters, foot soldiers, vehicles) but there are also differences. To get better units, you need to build certain buildings. There are also structures that you can build to help defend your base. And there was the superweapon, the trump card for each side, such as the ion cannon for the GDI and the nuclear missile for Nod.

The missions were not limited to the "build the base, build the army, destroy enemy" type. There were also missions in which you were given a limited number of units to achieve a certain objective (kill a certain enemy, escort a certain friendly unit to a certain location, etc.) These were sometimes more difficult as you are unable to build units to replace those lost during combat.

C&C was but the first of a whole series. Recently, EA has released Command and Conquer: The First Decade, which is a compilation of the C&C series released to date. I tried to capture a screen shot of C&C playing it on Windows XP, but as you can see from this post, I was not able to get the screenshot successfully.

Command and Conquer at Wikipedia
Command and Conquer Series at Wikipedia

Budokan - The Martial Spirit

This game is from Electronic Arts, and apparently has been included in a recent compilation of EA old games, called EA Replay for the Playstation. The game objective is simple: train your skills and go on to take part in a martial arts competition held at the Budokan.

As the player, you get to practise four different martial arts: karate, kendo, nunchaku and bo. Practise in the dojo (training hall) can be in the form of shadow boxing, or sparring against a fellow student. Within each martial art, there are various moves available for the player to choose from, and you can come up with your own "killer combo" by stringing together a series of offensive moves. You can also block your opponent's attacks, allowing you to build up ki, which allows subsequent attacks to deal more damage.

The sparring mat allows you to pit your skills in a certain martial art against those of an opponent practising another form of martial art. This is as close as it gets before you start off to take part in the competition at the Budokan itself. The sparring mat also allows you to spar against another human player. However, that means sharing a keyboard, or using a combination of keyboard, joystick and mouse.

The sensei (teacher) has a house too, and you can visit him to ask for advice. If you like Zen, with people talking in riddles, you may want to spend time listening to the old master. However, if you spend too much time bothering him and too little time practising, he will tell you off. By the way, once you think you are ready to start the competition, you have to visit the sensei and let him know. He will then send you on your way.

The competition at the Budokan comprises of twelve matches, each against an opponent (usually of increasing difficulty) who either practises one of the four martial arts that you know, or obscure, lesser known martial arts that you have not practised. You are allowed to use each of the four martial arts four times throughout the competition. You are allowed three tries against each opponent. If you lose to one opponent, you fall back to the previous one, whom you have to fight again. The last match is against a "shadow" of youself. He tries to copy your moves and use them against you. Defeat him, and victory is yours!

The real Budokan is found in Tokyo, and real martial arts competitions and performances are held there on a regular basis. It is also used for performances by bands and the occasional exhibition.

From one of the people who brought this game to you.
A review at Mobygames.

The Magic Candle

This is an old game by Mindcraft, the first in a series. The hero is Lukas, tasked with finding the way to keep the demon Dreax imprisoned in a magical candle after the guardians sustaining the magic were found missing. Lukas forms his party from a pool of characters found either in the castle of King Rebnard, or at the Crystal Castle. All characters, including Lukas, start with fix statistics, which can be improved during the game either through use, training, gifts or gods.

The game is a process of travelling, finding people, finding the key to solving the puzzle, while fighting monsters. The party either walks or take a boat. It can also teleport via spells or teleportals. Party members can find a job to earn money. Certain mushrooms, when eaten, confer combat-related bonuses. To gain access to more spells, spellbooks can be bought from renown wizards living in secluded towns. Unlike most RPGs, charisma is actually a required attribute, as key people will not talk to those with lesser charisma.

I think what sets this game apart from other RPGs of its time was that of earning money and gaining access to spells through spellbooks. Most RPGs allowed you to roll up a character; The Magic Candle gave you all the characters pre-rolled. It is up to you the player to choose who to bring along, and how to use the abilities and limitations. There is also a time limit for completing the game, with the number of days given depending on the difficulty level chosen.

This link leads to an online shrine for The Magic Candle.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

Flags of Our Fathers

I went to watch Flag of Our Fathers yesterday night. It has been showing in Singapore for some time now, finally I had a chance to find time to go watch it. Its sister film, Letters From Iwo Jima, is already showing in Japan.

Watching the film brings back memories of when I visited Iwojima. My first impression of the island was that it was just a piece of rock. The island was small, with two airfields currently in use with the Japanese Self-Defense Force. Both airfields sat on top of a plateau, and the other prominent geographical feature was the hill at the southern end of the island, where the famous flag was planted.



At the top of the hill now are two memorials. The white one is a memorial by the US, and stands at the place where the flag was planted. The other memorial beside it is the one erected by the Japanese. There are other memorials in various parts of the island too.



From the top of the hill, one can see the beach on which the US Marines landed. This scene was shown at the end of the film too, during the credits.



The American Flag is no longer planted on top of the hill. However, just as the US Marines planted an American flag on top of the hill, someone planted a Japanese flag on top of the hill. After all, Iwojima has since been returned to Japan.



The movie had a scene in which an entrance to a tunnel was found. It also showed the insides of the tunnel. Well, I had a chance to visit the tunnels used by the Japanese. They were poorly dug, compared to the ones at Okinawa. The picture below shows one of the entrances leading to the tunnels used as the Japanese HQ. Photography inside the tunnels are prohibited, as these tunnels are also the resting places for Japanese and American soldiers whose bodies have never been found.



There were also tunnels running under the airfield. Climbing into one of them really gave me a taste of how life was like for the Japanese defenders. It was dark, humid, and claustrophobic. Being in there for less than 10 minutes was more than enough. It really makes you wonder how people could have stayed in the tunnels for more than 30 days. Below is a picture of the entrance to one of the tunnels below the airfield.



The movie itself showed how costly an amphibious landing can be, in terms of lives. And it also showed how people never chose to be heroes. Heroes are not special. They are ordinary people who did extraordinary things. And all those who gave their lives for their country are heroes in their own right. It does not matter whether they were Americans or Japanese, they all fought for their countries. The movie showed the American side of the story. The sister film, Letters From Iwo Jima, will show the Japanese side of the story. I am waiting for it to be released in Singapore sometime early next year.

At the end of our visit to Iwojima, we were told to check the soles of our shoes. Nothing was to be brought off the island, for what may look like a stone stucked to your sole may well be someone's bone. The whole island is a big grave, a sacred resting ground for heroes from two nations. May they rest in eternal peace.

What do doctors work for?

I was driving home today when I heard some news on the radio. Someone was interviewed about his views on merging of two major kidney dialysis organisations in Singapore, and his reply was that it may need more consideration, as it may make renal medicine less attractive to doctors looking to specialise in a field. After all, if they do merge, renal specialists may end up with only one big employer.

Huh? Does that mean all doctors are looking for is the one who can pay them best? Aren't doctors there with a higher calling, answering to a sense of wanting to help others? Or are most doctors just looking for a way to fill their pockets?

I want to believe that doctors choose to enter their professions because they believe in the calling to help others. Earning a lot of money is just a consequence of their decision to commit to helping others. Helping others, not making money, is the aim. Making money is just a happy side effect. Otherwise, the next time I see a doctor, how can I be sure that he is there trying his best to help me, rather than to pull a quick one to earn more money?

Stellar Crusade

This was one of my first games. The concept of this game is to colonise star systems, build up economies on them, build up a fleet of starships, and take over the colonies of the other side. Similar to other turn-based strategy games of the era, it allowed you to play against each other, or the computer.

There are a few scenerios, with each sides starting with various star systems already under their control. The long campaign is basically a raw start, in which both sides start out with only two systems, and have to colonise other systems and build up their forces from there. The short campaign is a jump start, with most of the star systems already under the control of one of the sides. There are also specific scenarios for different starting dispositions.

One things about this game is that it allowed you to design your own spaceship. Each ship can have up to 15 modules, and you can choose from transport/cargo, point defense, short range attack, long range attack, and area defense modules. While you cannot control individual ships during combat, these modules will affect the defense and firepower of your fleets in combat.

See what Carl A.Lund has to say about Stellar Crusade and some other SSI games by clicking here.

OpenOffice.org

While many have heard of Microsoft Office, there exists a free (yes, free, as in, you don't need to pay to use it) office suite known as OpenOffice.org. This is open source software, which started out as StarOffice. Similiar to MS Office, OOo (as OpenOffice.org is known in short) has a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software, as well as database software, mathematics formula creator and vector drawing tool. OOo offers compatibility with MS Office (it is able to open and save files using MS Office formats) and additional features not found in MS Office. Best of all, it is free!

To get OOo, just click on the OOo button below.

Rain, rain, go away...

It is the northeast monsoon now. Rain is a part of life. It was raining the whole of yesterday. And it was raining the whole of today. And I am not talking about your usual rain. I am talking about pouring cats and dogs. At times, it was as if someone was pouring buckets (very very BIG buckets) of water down from the sky.

Visibility is reduced, roads get wet, and road accidents happen. Sometimes, it is not even a vehicle hitting another. Today, there was a tree that fell on a car. The heavy downpours also caused floods in certain areas of Singapore, notably around Seletar, where I heard they had water up to knee-level. Which caused cars to stall. And traffic jams.

So if you like rain, like to get wet even when holding an umbrella, do visit Singapore during the rainy season. I am sure the tropical rainforest section of the Singapore zoo looks very much more realistic in the rain.

Thank you and all the best

A person that I truly respect is leaving the organisation that I work in soon. When I first entered the organisation, he was a role model for us rookies. While his no-nonsense attitude might not have left good impressions on many people, it earned my respect for him. He held true to his beliefs and taught me what it meant to be a man of principles.

Sir, you will be missed, if not by anyone else, at least by me. Thank you and all the best in your future endeavours.

The Singapore Garden Festival

I went to the Singapore Garden Festival today. Coming from a family that has been involved in the landscaping business for three generations, I was of course interested in anything to do with landscaping.

By the way, a word of advice for those planning to go down for a look. Go during the weekdays, and bring along your Passion card (or NTUC card) if you have one. Weekday admission is S$6 for adults, with those cards, it is S$3.50 only.

Anyway, the 4th level exhibits are mostly orchids, with some exhibits on gardens in Singapore and agriculture as well. Of course, if you want to go shopping for garden plants, accessories and tools, there is a retail section there as well. There are talks during the day too, you probably need to check out the timings beforehand.

At level 6 is the exhibits on landscaping and gardens. You get to see gardens designed around certain themes. There just isn't much variety, though. You have the English garden, the louder American garden, and various types of tropical gardens. The exhibit by Far East Flora about what may happen if we ignore our environment, though, is quite interesting with its theme on conservation.

All in all, it is okay paying S$3.50 for the admission, just don't go during the weekends and end up paying S$12 for admission, unless you really need to find someplace to escape from the rain. Even then, spending that money shopping in Suntec may be a better idea.

Go, Linux, go!

In the papers today, this Indian place known as Kerala is going to get Linux instead of Windows. They are going to train people to use Linux instead of Windows, because Linux is free. Yes! One more goal for open source. Go, Linux, go!

I was standing at the magazines section of a bookshop today, looking at the IT magazines. A year ago, I could find only one, at most two, magazines about Linux in a bookshop. Today, I found four! While this is still a small number compared to the many other Windows (and Mac) magazines, it is an increase. Go, Linux, go!

Fedora Core 6 is out, for those who have yet to upgrade, it's time to start downloading. And for those who have their doubts, well, why not try it? The installation allows you to partition your harddisk for dual boot, you can always install Fedora Core and see if Linux is for you or not.

Goals

How many people actually know what they want from life? What do they want to do with their life? And how many actually get down to doing it? How many actually achieve what they set out to do?

I know what I want to do with my life. I even have a plan. Yet, carrying out that plan always seem so... troublesome. Difficult. Why? Why can't I just commit to doing what I want to do, rather than putting it to yet another day, to some other time? Why does my mind wander, rather than stay focus? Is diversifying and keeping options open a good thing? Or should I focus my energy one achieving one goal at a time?

My goal? To do something that I want to do, which is to write and influence the lives of others. The current reality, though, is that I am working, and can spare little time to write. Options? I am exploring one of them now, which is blogging. Another option is to write a page a day, so that at the end of the year, I would have a book. And of course, I could always write full-time instead of working for someone else. My choice? I have set my mind to do the following. I will write something each day. I will write something on my blog each day to improve my writing skills. I will write a page for my book each day so that I can have something to show at the end of the year.

The GROW model is a good self-coach method too. Try it. It may help you achieve your goals. Who knows? I will let you know when I achieve mine.

Mirkwood BBS

I had my own BBS once. A long time ago. It was in the tradition of Lothlorien BBS, where people can come to exchange views. It was started with the aim of continuing the good tradition of Lothlorien, but somehow, it was started when the time of BBSs was at an end. It was the beginning of the age of Internet. Thus, Mirkwood never really did take off.

It was a dabble in setting up and running my own BBS. Together with my brother, we set up RemoteAccess (check out what Wikipedia has on this) as the BBS software, and installed the BlueWave maildoor to enable offline mail reading. My brother did the ANSI graphics for the BBS, since he was good in art. The BBS was open to only our friends, since it was still in an experimental stage and still doing a lot of testing. But before it took off, most people had lost interest in BBSs and were moving on to the Internet. And thus, Mirkwood died from neglect.

All that was more than 10 years ago. The ANSI graphics for Mirkwood has since been lost, as the old computer which Mirkwood resided on was discarded... or is it still lying somewhere?

DOSBox

DOSBox (see Wikipedia for more info) is a x86 emulator with DOS. It allows people to run their old DOS programs and games on their new operation systems, including Linux, Windows XP and Mac OS. For those who do not know what DOS is, you probably won't be interested in DOSBox. But for those who remember the days of typing "dir" and "cls", DOSBox allows you to relive those old memories.

DOSBox is compatible with many older DOS games. Check out the DOSBox page for a list of games and their compatibility with DOSBox. For myself, I had no trouble running the old Koei games, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2 and Uncharted Waters, on DOSBox. Games like Dune 2, Warlords, Daggerfall and Eye of the Beholder ran well too.

Installing DOSBox is easy. Just download the correct version for your OS, install it as you would any other software. You may need to use a text editor to change some of the settings for your DOSBox configuration file, though. What usually needs to be changed is the settings for CPU cycles, sound and graphics. There are some DOSBox GUI frontends out there, you can find out more about them from the DOSBox download page.

My Linux Journey

I started using Linux back in 1999. This was back in my university days, when I was a computer science student and looking around for a good programming environment. Linux offered me a no-frills environment for C programming. I had tried to look for a free C programming tool on Windows, being the poor university student. Sad to say, most Windows C programming tools require you to install this and that and if you wanted GUI, it gets even more complicated.

Linux? Linux comes with a C programming environment in-built. GUI? I was spoilt for choices. I could of course stick with the basic X Windows. There was TK and TCL. KDE was available too, though it wasn't 100% open source. GNOME, using GTK, was yet another choice. Since most of these came as part of the standard Linux distribution, I didn't really need to download and install them separately. All I had to do was install them as part of the initial set-up.

My first Linux distribution was Debian. It sounded all so powerful and mighty back then. Back in 1999, installing Linux on a laptop was a pain. Hardware support for laptops was lacking, and getting X Windows to work was a challenge. But I managed to do it anyway, playing with configuration files and spending hours troubleshooting. However, I soon hit a wall with Debian. It was language support. Being in Japan at that time, I needed Japanese language support, which somehow I was unable to get to work with Debian.

In the end, I installed a Japanese version of Turbolinux. It offered me language support, and at the same time still providing the basic Linux programming environment that I needed. Gaming support was primitive, as Wine wasn't working that well yet, but I was not a game person anymore at that time, since I was busy studying! It was also at this time that I switched to playing MUDs, which worked well enough on Tintin++ running in a terminal window. Limitations with Wine meant that I couldn't run MS Office, though, and thus I started looking for an alternative. I came across StarOffice, which later became OpenOffice.org.

By the time I finished my university studies, I had become a Linux person. I no longer needed native Japanese language support, so I started to look for something else. And found Fedora Core. It had the things I was looking for. The in-built programming environment. The GUI (GNOME and KDE are both available). OpenOffice.org was there, and I needed it since most of the people at work still used MS Office. Support for running Windows games was still laggy, but I didn't play much games by then. Instead, I switched to playing old DOS games on DOSBox, which ran well in Fedora Core.

Over the years, installing Linux has become easier. My first installation of Linux back in 1999 required me to do manual partitioning of my harddisk, and some tweaking to allow dual-booting of Linux and Windows. Running on a laptop, I had to configure X Windows manually too. Now, Fedora Core allows you to partition your harddisk during installation and set up dual-booting easily. X Windows can easily be configured for desktops and laptops without having to go down to writing your own configuration files. Upgrading software is as easy as running yum. And upgrading the whole distribution is easy too. Just boot up using the new distribution CD-ROM or DVD, and select the upgrade option.

For those who think that Linux belongs to the geeks, think again. The geeks have made Linux so easy to use, the average home user no longer has any challenges installing and using Linux at home. And best of all, Linux is free!

Old Games Blogs

Some sites and blogs related to old games:

tungwaiyip.info
Hypercubed Blog
Gamener
The Games of my Life
71/78: A Gamer's Blog
DOSBox (The ultimate open source software for running DOS games)
The Good Old Days
Abandonia
http://www.alex-soft.net/
Justin's site on games
Virtual PC's Guy Weblog (Virtual PC can be used to run DOS games)

Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2

Today I shall talk about this great game that I played for a year. A friend of mine lent me this game, and I ended up hogging on to it for a year before returning it. Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2 (aka RTK2) was my first Koei game. Like other Koei games, it was turn-based. It involved building up the civil resources of your state. It required you to train your armies. You needed to recruit able people to lead your armies and help you administer your states. You go into battles to gain more territory. The ultimate aim was to conquer all the states and become the next Emperor of China.

The game was set in the later period of the Eastern Han dynasty of ancient China, around the period known as the Three Kingdoms period. The Eastern Han dynasty was falling, and warlords started to rise and claim territories for themselves, as they proceeded to war against each other in the name of "bringing peace to the country in the name of the Emperor". But what they were really after was the throne. In the game, you start out as a warlord with some generals under you and a piece of territory. Through good administration and skill in warfare, you will slowly gain more territory as you expand into empty states or conquer those of other warlords. Diplomacy allows you to form alliances with other warlords, but alliances are as easily broken as they are made.

San Guo Zhi 三国志 is the historical work that documents this period. Romance of the Three Kingdoms (aka San Guo Yan Yi 三国演义) is actually the title of a book written by Luo Guanzhong 罗贯中, a Ming dynasty author. His work is a novel based on the historical events of the period. As with Dune 2 and Flight of the Intruder, I ended up reading the book too, my interest in the Three Kingdoms period now stirred up by the game.

Some sites related to RTK:
Romancing Cathay (information on Three Kingdoms period and related games)
Kurakat's blog (plays RTK series)
D_luaz's blog (has a review on RTK2 and Dune 2)
Kongming's Archives (lots of stuff relating to RTK series of games)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms Frontier

New Car! Part 2

Yesterday, I came back home to see my neighbour washing his car. It immediately warranted a closer look. New car! I had just booked a new car (Honda Airwave) the day before, and here was my neighbour, washing his brand new gold colour Jaguar! When would I even afford something like that?

At work today, a colleague of mine was asking around about cars too. Seems like he is interested in getting a new Honda Accord to replace his Beetle. Its either the bonus, or the still-low COE prices. Car dealers must be enjoying themselves now.

New Car!

Just booked a new car from Hua Yang yesterday, a silver colour Honda Airwave 1.5G with skyroof. Heard from my friend that Hua Yang is a bit expensive, and the price they offered me for my existing Vios is not that great either, but in the end, I decided to book the car due to their reputation and long history. I am expecting to get my new car by the end of Jan 2007, so be on the lookout for a car review then!

BlueWave Offline Mail Reader

A special note needs to be made here to this wonderful software. BlueWave was one of the more popular offline mail readers used in Singapore back during the days of BBSes, before the Internet gained popularity. A BBS would configure a BlueWave mail door for users to access. Through the mail door, users were able to select the discussion boards that they wish to download, including filters, etc. The mail door would then compile the mails into a mail packet for download.

Once the mail packet has been downloaded, the user can then read the mails and reply to them offline using the BlueWave offline mail reader. Replies can be crafted and consolidated into a reply mail packet. This packet is uploaded to the BBS through the BlueWave mail door.

The offline mail system meant that users do not need to stay online to read and reply their mail. For BBSes which had large mail traffic and limited phone lines (most BBSes operated only one phone line for remote access), BlueWave allowed more users to exchange mail as users no longer need to hog the precious phone line to read and reply. It allowed BBSes like Lothlorien BBS to see mail traffic averaging 150 to 200 mails daily with a single dedicated phone line.

Sad to say, with the rise of the Internet, the mail door and offline mailer has lost its grounds, but the BlueWave graphic shall remain part of the fond memories I have of my teenage years.

Lothlorien BBS

I was surfing the Net yesterday, and was wondering about this BBS that I used to frequent back in the 90s, when BBSes were in and the Internet belonged to the universities. I found, to my surprise, that someone has decided to set up a forum to try and revive the old Lothlorien BBS. This new Lothlorien BBS can be found here.

The old Lothlorien BBS was run by a sysop going by the handle of Celeborn. In real life, I think his name was Marc Tan. It was a very different BBS from the rest in Singapore during its time. Most other BBSes focused on exchange of files, with upload and download ratios. Others focused on door games, such as Legend of the Red Dragon (aka LORD) and Barren Realms Elite (BRE). Lothlorien was different. It focused on people and their thoughts. People were known by their handles (aka aliases) such as Darkness, Midnight, Cipher, Modeus and Prim & Proper. There was a main discussion section, where everyone can read the messages that someone wrote to someone else. There was another private mail section known as Les Liaisons Dangereux (LLD in short) for times when you didn't want others to see you messages to one another. The syspop Celeborn had his own section too, and Cipher had her own too. There were a few door games, but most people logged in for the mails, not the door games.

At its peak, Lothlorien BBS (affectionately known as Lothy) had more than 300 mails a day in the main discussion area. On an average day, there would be 150 to 200 mails a day. Most of us would log in, download the mail packets, and read them offline with an offline mail reader such as BlueWave. With 300 mails, it takes around 3 hours to go through the mails and reply to those that interest you. Topics were varied; everything under the sun was discussed. For a teenager that I was then, Lothy introduced me to people from all walks of life, people whom I would otherwise not meet had I stayed in my little well. It allowed me to learn the viewpoints of others, to learn the fact that everyone has their own opinions. No one is always right, and in most cases, no one is ever right or wrong. The denizens of Lothlorien also had gatherings, where we were able to put a face to a name. It was through them that I learnt about the card game Magic: The Gathering.

Lothy started to go down with the rest of the BBSes when the Internet became more popular. With Singnet offering connection to the Internet, more and more online users started migrating from BBSes to the Internet.

I have yet to really join in at the new Lothlorien BBS, but it lacks the familiar feel of the old Lothy. Maybe it is because the discussion areas are not named the same. Maybe it is because the user base is not the same. I don't know. Lothy was to me a great board, one that deserves to be remembered as one of the fond memories of teenage years. I really miss the trees of Lothlorien.