Thursday Link Dump
February 22nd, 2007 -- by Augie De Blieck Jr.
Miscellaneous Tech Geekiness:
- A history of Electronic Arts. It’s interesting to see my fun time of childhood explored as an historical piece. It’s weird to think that they were just games I played 20+ years ago. But there were actually PEOPLE behind those games and interesting behind-the-scenes stories. Thankfully, there are those who write these things down before it’s too late.
- LucasArts is opposing Digg’s trademark on the basis that it owns the trademark on the computer game THE DIG from 1994. I can’t imagine this one will stand up, but you just never know anymore.
- Guitar Hero for the Commodore 64. It’s a crazy crazy world out there.
- That whole Apple/Cisco ‘iPhone’ thing has been settled. Apple can use the TM. So can Cisco. The rest of the terms are secret. Anti-climax.
- In the beginning, there was Perl.
- Beginner’s Guide to Web Page Design. Simple steps.
- Startupping is a site for those interested in learning the lessons of past internet startuppers.
February 22nd, 2007 at 11:48 pm
Why does Lucasarts even care? It’s not like The Dig is a very hot property for them. There was a slight amount of hullabaloo in 1994 about it because Spielberg came up with the concept, ILM did some effects on it, and Orson Scott Card wrote some of the dialogue (which doesn’t really show. The dialogue in the game is pretty flat). But, honestly, as a Lucasarts Adventure it’s not exactly one of the most famous. You’re likely to get more of a reaction in a conversation about old games if you bring up Monkey Island or Maniac Mansion than The Dig.
Just replayed the thing a few weeks ago. Beautiful, beautiful game. A bit boring and lonely though. Reminds me of playing Myst, after a while you start thinking “I’m in a room by myself with no one to talk to, playing a game where I’m in a world by myself with no one to talk to …”). You can see why it wasn’t exactly a big moneymaker, though. By 1994, adventure games were dying out and The Dig was just basically the same old product with slightly better graphics.