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Ishanda · 11-13-2002, 01:28 AM

I'll tell you a small story about crashes. My very first computer in 1986 was a Sinclair ZX80.

For those that do not know, it plugged into a TV, had 16Kb (!!!) total memory ran at a speed in the region of 1Khz, had no storage medium save for a tape drive. It had a transformer power suppply which was very edgy. Programs for it were kinda rare. One evening my brother and I spent 6 hours programming a flight simulator into it (you had to program everything in BASIC, then save it on the tape drive, then run it), when he accidentally touched the power supply. BLIP...gone.

To be truthful, that sort of thing happened MANY times., but we just started over again from scratch.

Today it is easy. And we are spoiled.

On the same note I have to say this, after I had the ZX80 I got myself a Spectrum 48. (memory 48kb). If you never knew this baby, let me tell you, it is shocking to know how much code they crammed into the small 48kb memory.

So take NWN as an example. I think programmers are spoilt by having no hardware restrictions. I can ABSOLUTELY GAURANTEE that if you stopped getting hardware advances that within a year you would see games that are worlds more superior, far better graphics, runs without bugs, the whole lot. See this is what happens to things like a Playstation. They have limits so they have to program intelligently. I can not understand for the life of me why some games on a PS2 look far better than ANYTHING I have yet seen on a PC when my PC is 5 times more capable than a PS2 in the Hardware department. Programmers have become lazy. In the old days it used to be rocket science, now it is just like learning a language - everyone can do it, few are good at it.

Bring back the days of Assembler, I'd like to see these guys programming straight in that.

11-13-2002, 01:28 AM	#8
Ishanda Dungeon Master Join Date: September 23, 2002 Location: South Africa Age: 51 Posts: 61	I'll tell you a small story about crashes. My very first computer in 1986 was a Sinclair ZX80. For those that do not know, it plugged into a TV, had 16Kb (!!!) total memory ran at a speed in the region of 1Khz, had no storage medium save for a tape drive. It had a transformer power suppply which was very edgy. Programs for it were kinda rare. One evening my brother and I spent 6 hours programming a flight simulator into it (you had to program everything in BASIC, then save it on the tape drive, then run it), when he accidentally touched the power supply. BLIP...gone. To be truthful, that sort of thing happened MANY times., but we just started over again from scratch. Today it is easy. And we are spoiled. On the same note I have to say this, after I had the ZX80 I got myself a Spectrum 48. (memory 48kb). If you never knew this baby, let me tell you, it is shocking to know how much code they crammed into the small 48kb memory. So take NWN as an example. I think programmers are spoilt by having no hardware restrictions. I can ABSOLUTELY GAURANTEE that if you stopped getting hardware advances that within a year you would see games that are worlds more superior, far better graphics, runs without bugs, the whole lot. See this is what happens to things like a Playstation. They have limits so they have to program intelligently. I can not understand for the life of me why some games on a PS2 look far better than ANYTHING I have yet seen on a PC when my PC is 5 times more capable than a PS2 in the Hardware department. Programmers have become lazy. In the old days it used to be rocket science, now it is just like learning a language - everyone can do it, few are good at it. Bring back the days of Assembler, I'd like to see these guys programming straight in that.