Steam Winter Sale!
So, I just saw that Shadow Warror (2013) is -90% on Steam, I will definitely
buy a few copies to gify people I know. I will have to go over to Steam and
see which Linux games are on sale! :D

Games I played in 2016
I love playing games, but I have difficulty finding the time, or rather, taking
the time to play them. It is not that I am extraordinary busy, but that I often
feel like I should spend my time on more productive things (which I don't really
want to do anyway, so I end up doing nothing at all). Even so, I've managed to
play a few games, not all to completion, but many, and here follows an unordered
list of the games I remember playing in 2016 and my thoughts on them.

Redneck Rampage (1997, DosBox)
I really enjoyed the RR games, they are very competent build-engine games, with
(for the most part) very interesting and well-designed levels. They have great
humour, and the gritty graphics of the era fits the theme well. They are quirky
and it takes a little while to learn how to play them, but I really got into
them, and had an absolute blast! There were a few bugs and glitches, but some of
those may have been due to the DosBox I am using (which is hacked quite a lot to
allow for smooth 60 fps gameplay) so it would not be fair to count that as a
source of frustration. The only thing which really frustrated me about this, in
a bad way, was the end of the very first level, when you meet Bubba, and after
a long time, I gave up, I had no idea what to do.. I tried pressing space at him
and jumping on him and shooting him (from which he dies), I really could not
figure out how to end the level! I ended up finding a playthrough video on
youtube and felt like a major idiot for not trying to hit him with the crowbar.
At least that was the only time I cheated during the completion of the game.

Redneck Rampage: Suckin' Grits on Route 66 (1998, DosBox)
Same as above, some levels were a lot larger, and some had a feeling that this
was more of a quick cash-grab addon than a full game, it had an interesting
but where you have to preload some fix-code before running the game, I missed
that on my first try and ended up in a level where I couldn't see the walls and
some sprites and textures were messed up, however, using the fix, it worked!

Redneck Rampage Rides Again (1998, DosBox)
Same as above, I can't get enough of these games, and this one was really a
great game as well, it felt like much more effort had gone into it, almost as
much as the first game, and it was obvious that the level designers had gotten
a lot of experience from the previous games. I did enjoy the vehicle action too,
quirky as it was (don't drive too fast on the motorcyle). The only times I was
frustrated was one or two levels that just felt too big and maze-like, and then
the final time where I rage-quit the game, was after playing through the steam
boat levels, and ended up at a spot that was obviously meant to be the end of
the level, but Bubba was nowhere to be found! I spent another hour or more,
trying to find him, but he was nowhere to be found. I ended up killing myself
and playing through the level again, and this time Bubba showed up at the place
I expected him to.

The nGlide wrapper
Back in my day (as a 11 year old kid), the 3dfx Voodoo accelerator card was the
absolute pinnacle of PC graphics, and by some luck, I was able to save enough
money to get one for my Pentium 100 mhz with 16 MiB memory and 812 MiB HDD.
The Voodoo card used a graphics API called Glide, and many games during that
time would come either with support for this API or patches would be released,
and luckily, during this time, many PC magazines cames with CDs, for people like
me who did not have access to the Internet, and on those CDs were often patches
prociding 3dfx Glide support to various games. I would look over the contents of
the CDs in the shop to decide which magazine to buy. I also read the magazines,
some times. But the Glide API was not to last, Direct3D and OpenGL came to rule.
Leaving those glorious Glide games behind to die and be forgotten. Even games
like Diablo 2 shipped with Glide support, which actually provided the best
visuals for the game. Luckily, nGlide came to save the day, it is basically a
library which implements the Glide API calls and redirects them to OpenGL so as
to allows Glide games to be played under OpenGL. The performance is perfect and
the wrapper provides extra nice things, such as the option to force the games to
run at a custom resolution, meaning I can play a game meant for 640x480 at my
displays native 2560x1600 resolution. The way nGlide does that is very elegant
and all game and UI elements are scaled correctly, making it a better experience
than the original game. Luckily, nGlide wraps to OpenGL, and WINE likes OpenGL,
so playing a windows game with nGlide in WINE works just perfect. I dare say
that WINE might be more compatible when it comes to older games than Windows 10.
( http://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide )

POD (1997, WINE+nGlide)
I remember playing this only shortly at a classmates house, and I was blown away
by the gritty futuristic visual style. I had a Pentium 100 Mhz at that time, and
a Voodoo accelerator, but this game, or at least the demo version I had on a CD,
required the MMX instruction-set extention which my P100 did not have. So this
game was lost to me for the longest while, until I saw it on GOG.com and thought
what the heck. So I got it, and it shipped with the nGlide wrapper. It runs very
nicely in WINE, and looks just amazing too, I have put up a youtube video of the
gameplay ( https://youtu.be/FGctP_RVVkI ). It is an arcade racer, and not a very
long game, I completed it in two short evenings, but it was a great experience!
Maybe because of the fact that I've waited for so long before getting to play,
or maybe because it's a solid and simple racing game. I enjoyed the game a lot,
and I think I will return to it sometime in the future.

Duke Nukem 3D (1996, DosBox)
I distinctly remember buying this game. I can't remember if it was the first
game that I ever bought, but I don't think so. It was the first game that I
was really excited about though. I don't know exactly how I came to understand
that this would be something special indeed, but anyway, I ended up with the
glorious big box version, and I had some fun with it. Most of the time was spent
in the level-editor, learning how to make maps, and getting the idea that I
want to be a level-designer when I grow up (I was 10 or 11 at the time), I'm
glad I didn't, because I don't have a knack for design at all. Anyway, it was
not until much later that I actually sat down and completed this game without
cheating. I'm glad I did, it was actually not as difficult as I had expected and
it was shorter than I'd thought too. It was the first build game, and for that
it deserves some respect, but to be honest, I've enjoyed RR and Blood more.

Blood (1997, DosBox)
This has to be my favourite build game. It is beautiful, so dark, gritty and
humorous at the same time. The weapons are over the top, and the game is just
really VIOLENT, and in a really GOOD way! This has to be one of the games I've
enjoyed the most of all time. There's so much to say about this, and yet so
little. It is very difficult, and at times it becomes frustrating, but for each
frustration you overcome you are generously rewarded! The technical use of the
build engine is not as impressive as RR:RA or SW, but the visuals and the rock
solid feel of the game is unsurpassed by any build game in my opinion.
I wish there had been expansions or more build-based blood games.
A new blood game could work, maybe on the Doom2016 engine. Blood 2 is not worth
mentioning, it does not look very good, and I've failed to get it working.

Shadow Warrior (1997, DosBox)
Likely the most difficult Build game I've completed, and the most buggy one too,
but it makes up for this in humor and scale. The game is huge, the weapons are
great and the humour is over the top stereotypical. I enjoyed playing through
this, not as much as Blood and RR, about the same as Duke Nukem 3D.
The last map is insanely unforgiving, but short, and the game ends in a very
unspetacular way. A short animation starts the millisecond the last boss dies,
and then the start menu appears.

Shadow Warrior (2013, Linux)
There is one thing that really pisses me off about this game: Places you can't
go for no god damn reason other than stupid invisible walls. This is NOT okay.
Use the level geometry to block the play, not as decoration with added invisible
walls. It frustrates me so much to see geometry where I clearly fit, but can not
go for no reason. Other than that.. This is a really great game! I definitely
enjoyed it, more than the original even, and I'm glad I've played both, as there
are some references to the first game, even parts of level geometry and textures
hidden in there. The game looks stunning and as with the first game the Katana
is the best weapon in many situations, and it has even been upgraded!

Interstate '76 (1997, WINE+nGlide)
Not much to say about this one, i bought it as a kid, and didn't care about
story in games during that time, so I only messed around in skirmish a bit which
was good for a few hours of fun but not much more. I've not yet completed this
as it is unforgivingly hard, and I'm stuck, but I will continue to try, and
I will stream it on twitch.tv as I've done with most of the games mentioned here.

Carmageddon 2 (1997, WINE+nGlide)
I've completed this before, but recently started playing it again in WINE. It
is even better than I remember, and the graphics holds up perfectly, it has
aged very gracefully.

Devil Daggers (2016, Linux)
This game almost killed me, I poured hundreds of hours into in in a short time,
not getting exercise and missing sleep. It is unforgiving, it looks beautiful,
the griddy aesthetic and the rock solid feel. There's not much to say, it's a
passion. I managed to get into the top 4th percentile, which I'm proud of.
Here's a video of me playing it. ( https://youtu.be/_-3DfnZL2Mk )

Firewatch (2016, Linux)
I have not completed this yet, and I'm finding that I enjoy playing it the most
while talking to a friend on Skype, as sort of a background noise. I'll return
to it at some point, but I don't know when. I think it looks very pretty, and
it managed to evoke some sense of calm in me, while at other times being quite
upsetting.

Limbo (2010, Linux)
This is the game that has had me closest to crying (end scene), and while it was
short, it still managed to be very challenging, it introduces you to new things
gently, but it does not lead you in such a way that you feel like you're being
led. The visuals are stunning, and I'm glad I bought this when it was on sale.
I didn't know much about it, and I had gotten it into my head that it was an
artsy, pretentious thing, but it's a beautiful and rock solid physics puzzler,
that manages to show a lot without telling anything in particular. Lovely.

Endwords
I may have missed something, but these are the games I remember playing in 2016.
I am looking forward to playing more games and streaming as well.
I am not very good at streaming, and I doubt that many will find it entertaining
but myself. So I'm streaming for myself, inviting random strangers to sit and
watch and talk. I enjoy interacting with the people who watch, hear and tell
stories and just have a good time,

- Out

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