Video game thread

@Sapphie  
You didn’t like scanlines and TVs/monitors half the size of the modern average that weighed 80 times as much? Don’t you miss the camaraderie that came with working together to move a 28 inch TV to another room?

@Sapphie  
I miss getting blinded when turning off the TV at night and shocking people by collecting all the static electricity off the screen.

@Azure Fang  
Probably not, I can’t exactly since it’s a jamma supergun designed to play jamma arcade pcbs on something that isn’t an arcade cab. If I had the money and room, I’d totally get a candy cab to stuff the taito f3 system in though

I finally watched the Final Fantasy 16 trailer. I was disappointed. It looks like they’re doing FF15 again, just with a darker tone and a medieval/renaissance setting in place of the faux contemporary setting.

@ANoobis  
First I’ve even heard that a 16th entry was in the works. Which is a really, really sad statement about the state of what was once one of the most popular franchises on the planet.

Out of all the weird things that happen in Skyrim, I can’t say I expected town guards to run away from a bunch of hired thugs that attacked me.

so, company of heroes, a game released in 2006, is getting another overhaul mod  
im impressed such an old game like this one still gets sizeable fan content and mods

@TeamBlueplant  
Remember? They’re still a thing, mate. Here’s my weapon of choice: https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/mice/mx-ergo-wireless-trackball-mouse.910-005178.html  
Still a nightmare to clean, though. The “crud” that builds up on the stabilizers likes to fragment and stick to the cavity or, worse, smear if you use a solvent. So, pretty much just like cleaning the crud bands off of the axis rollers in old mechanical mice. I can’t imagine using a “traditional” mouse over a trackball anymore, let alone gaming with one.

@Azure Fang  
I don’t understand how anyone can use a trackball.

@Officer Hotpants  
I can understand if it were an arcade game or pre-4th gen console game.

Back in the 1990s Microsoft sold MS-branded PC accessories. They made a digital joystick called the Sidewinder of which I have fond memories. It was one of the first USB joysticks. There was a problem with the firmware that gave them all a permanent drifting problem, but I really liked mine and used it entirely too much in Air Warrior 2 and Jane’s WWII Fighters. It had a twist rudder control and a separate throttle and was one of the first to allow for a true HOTAS setup for flight sims. It was an enormous step up from the Atari 2600 joysticks I used as a kid.
 

@Azure Fang  
what is that abomination? looks like a piece of modern art

@Anonymous #0A6B  
For me it was A-10 Tank Killer II and this thing:
 

@TeamBlueplant  
It is the MX Ergo, one of the better trackball mice on the market right now. Right-hand thumb marble control, 7 inputs (2 standard, two side, one wheel click, 2 wheel tilt), DPI toggle, dual-link (can be linked to two different devices and hotswapped with a button press), and magnetically-attached ergonomics plate. About the only gripe most users have is the stock marble: it has a micro-finish that makes its “feedback” against the stabilizers feel gritty, as if the cavity was filled with sand. Most users, especially trackball gamers, tend to buy or salvage an M570’s (also made by Logitech) marble and swap it in since they’re the same diameter. That, and it’s comparatively expensive.
 
@Absol95  
As to what games they’re good for, it really depends on the individual. You’re right that they’re great for arcade-style games by default. They’re also edge-worthy for most RTSs and some 4Xs. But, just like “traditional” mice, they’re fully usable in any game type with experience and have their own pros, cons, and limitations that require different forms of compensation and muscle memory. Just like traditional mice, you just get used to using whatever you use, and after almost thirty years on trackballs I can game just as strongly as my traditional brethren in any game type.
 
@Anonymous #0A6B  
I remember when I first saw a Sidewinder. I wanted one so bad after seeing a friend using one, but ended up getting one of the early Logitech WingMan sticks instead. I still have my WingMan Extreme 3D Pro (the last of the WingMan line) kicking around.
 
@Officer Hotpants  
You saying “tank” makes me think of the Mega Jockey 9000:

@Azure Fang  
Ohhh. Is that from one of those complex tank/mech simulator games that they tried to make a go of for a brief period?

@Officer Hotpants  
It’s for one specific game: Steel Battalion on the original Xbox. However, enthusiasts have modded support for numerous games, one of the more recent being Kerbal Space Program.

@Azure Fang  
Ah yes. I believe I’ve seen screenshots of this one before. And given what I know of Kerbal, I don’t even want to think about how much more difficult it would be with that thing.
 
Can you imagine if Steel Battalion had done well enough to start a trend? What the industry would be like now?

@Officer Hotpants  
Steel Battalion actually did insanely well, for its price. I’m just surprised HOTAS controllers never became very popular (Mega Jockey 9000 technically falls into the category).

@Azure Fang  
HOTAS is popular in its niche, which seems to be PC flight sim gaming. Some of these guys are very dedicated.

@Anonymous #0A6B  
Assuming every knob and switch does something, that’s a whole lot of mapping to do.

@Anonymous #0A6B  
Not uncommon for guys to be dedicated to a HOTAS.

@EverfreeEmergencies  
I agree, but a detailed, at least semi-realistic flight sim needs a lot of stuff that you can’t really hunt-and-peck on the keyboard while you’re flying. A hat switch to look in different directions. A button to extend the flaps one notch and another to retract them. For military aircraft, war emergency power and different weapons, and so on.
 
Some aircraft even require multiple throttles to allow you to do the tricks with them that real life pilots used. Like the Lockheed P38 with its twin engines. There was a desperation move the pilots would use in low-speed turning fights called the Lockheed Stomp. They’d push down full rudder on one side, while dropping the engine on that side to idle and cranking the one on the opposite side to full emergency power. It allowed them to swing the nose around a little bit faster, but it had the potential to force the plane into an uncontrolled and unrecoverable flat spin or even destroy it altogether.
 
In WW2 flight sims, by the way, I love the P38, especially the early F model, which was so much lighter than the G and K that followed it. Its turn radius and sustained turn rate were just a little better and if you used the flaps right you could hang with the early lightweight Spitfires in a low speed turning fight, though never with a Zero or a Wildcat or a Ki-43. And above 250 knots you CAN turn with the Zero or Ki-43, because their controls got stiff and lost authority at high speeds and they didn’t have hydraulic assist for the control surfaces. I love the P40 too. Under 12,000 feet it out-climbs, out-dives, and out-accelerates even the early Bf109s with their monster fuel injected engines, and can turn with them easily. It can’t turn with a Zero in those low slow fights, but nothing can, except maybe a Ki-43 or a Brewster Buffalo.

@Anonymous #0A6B  
Can you guess my favorite WW2 aircraft?  
Oh yeah, it’d be a whole lot better than memorizing keyboard binds, especially for throttles, brakes, rudders, flaps, etc.
 
As for WW2 sims, I’ve been looking into IL-2 Sturmovik. The flight models look good and it seems to have a large number of areas on each aircraft that can take damage. Multiplayer aircraft is a big plus too. Player gunners would make flying ground attack aircraft much more exciting.

@EverfreeEmergencies  
Your avatar makes me think of a Navy plane in the early-war livery, maybe 1942-ish. I can’t tell what it’s supposed to represent. Her goggles look a bit like the windscreen on a Grumman TBF. That’s the only thing I can think of, and I could be wrong.
 
I had a copy of Il-2 around here but lost it. Yes, it was impressive, though my 10+ year old desktop PC doesn’t really have the guts to run it as well as I’d like.
 
For a free to download lightweight sim, maybe try YS Flight. It’s very 1990s untextured polygon looking, and not all the models are highly detailed, but it feels nice, and the author created it as a hobby. There is a big modding community for it in Japan. Lots of WW2 era planes are available, along with modern jets. Tiny Combat Arena seems to have a similar look and feel, but it’s not going to be free, and it’s a dedicated jet-era sim.
 
I do like some jet era sims also. Strike Fighters: Project 1 from Third Wire Software is a favorite of mine, with lots of 1950s-60s aircraft available. I enjoy taking an F100 out with the early, touchy, unreliable Sidewinders to intercept Il-28s, or to start a gunfight with MiG-19s. Strike missions in an A4, doing five hundred knots fifty feet off the deck loaded down with Rockeyes and Mark 84s, those are fun too.
 
I remember Jane’s USAF, too, and how gorgeous it looked, and how it wouldn’t work correctly on anything later than Windows 98, no matter what compatibility mode settings you diddled with.

This is why I love nukes.