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Each computer gaming company has areas in which they excel. One area in which Automated Simulations excels is their satisfying portrayal of individual combat. From the Temple of Apshai on we have seen them develop software that gives us exciting hi-res battles. In DRAGON'S EYE they have carried this strength to new heights with the striking eye level view of combat between your character and a host of fantasy monsters. The graphics are very nice and the battle actions are pleasing.
This is one of the few games that graphically treat individual combat to the point that you must combine combat moves into a logical pattern to prevail over your opponent. For example, a player with a scimitar might enter a rapid sequence of orders that will cause his character to leap forward 6 steps, bring a smashing downward blow upon the monster's head, parry, duck, then back away. If this tactic doesn't work he may try the same sequence with a chop (across the waist) as opposed to the smash (head to toe). It is almost certain that a thrust (straight into the monster) will not bring good results because the scimitar is not made for thrusting. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
There are some things that the player must do before he gets into battle with all sorts of menacing monsters so dastardly disdainful (get used to it, that's how the rulebook is written). The Dragon's Eye is a magic amulet that is the key to the power of evil in the Seven Provinces. The player's task is to search through the Provinces seeking treasures, dispatching monsters, and hopefully finding and returning the Dragon's Eye to Fel City before 21 days have past. Although the exact point system isn't given, you will receive points for killing monsters, finding treasure, avoiding death (which can occur more than once in an adventure), and finding the Dragon's Eye.
The typical activity for a day might include examining the immediate area in the morning, moving to a new area, examining it, fighting a monster, resting up from the battle, further examining the area again, and if the sun hasn't already set for that day moving on to another region. Sounds like typical fantasy role-playing right?
That's what DRAGON'S EYE is for the most part.
The strategic map that governs movement between the several regions in each of the provinces is similar to maps in other fantasy role-playing (FRP) computer games. However, the lines drawn between the regions are not becoming to the visual effect of the map and look a little like a schematic diagram. In the final analysis it is the individual combat system of DRAGON'S EYE that sets this game apart from others of similar type. It is very well done, challenging to play, and fun. If you like FRP style combat this is the game for you. DRAGON'S EYE, by Automated Simulations, runs on the Apple II (48K with Applesoft in ROM) or the PET (32K Cassette) computers.
My rating for this game is 4.0 out of 5.
Play Arcuz the free RPG game online at www.swfplay.co.uk
How to Choose the Regular Device Driver
Most people understand that the "hardware" part of their computer is the real physical parts, like the keyboard, mouse, modem, hard drive and so on. They understand that the "software" is computer bits stored on the hard drive, CD-ROM, or other storage media. But most people are a little hazy about exactly what a "driver" is.
In this article, I'm going to reveal in plain English what a driver is, why we need drivers, and exactly where the drivers are hiding. To give you a basic understanding, I'm going to go back, way back, to the early days of computers.
The Early Days
The year is 1981 and the world is in the midst of a severe resession. IBM's main frame business has slowed and the company is losing money. Up until now they had been laughing at the array of microcomputers on the market: Atari, Commodore, sinclair. Toys really, mostly used to play computer games.
The problem was, these "toys" were selling like hot cakes. IBM had to get into that market and get into it fast. They didn't have time to design and build a computer complete enough to compete in the market, so they built an "open system". They used commonly available electronic components and they published every design detail (including the code), and they even provided plug in slots so that others could build components for their computer.
And people did provide components for the IBM PC. They provided video cards, memory expansion cards, input-output port cards, game port cards, hard disk interface cards, and much more. How were all these various devices able to interface with the PC's operating system? That's where a "driver" comes in.
A hardware device is constructed with various electronic components using various control signals, but the software interface to the operating system is standardized. A device's interface to the operating system must follow the interface specification. A driver is a piece of software that translates the hardware's control signals to signals that the operating system expects, and translates signals from the operating system to the hardware's control signals.
When the computer is started up, it would look in the "system" directory for files with the extension ".drv" and load them into memory. Specific files like autoexec.bat, config.sys, and win.ini were used to inform the operating system about drivers. Hardware would be configured through these files, or through jumpers located on the device itself.
The driver specification evolved along with the PC. Today when a PC starts, it executes the program which queries the hardware components and builds the registery key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEHARDWARESYSTEMCurrentControlSet. This key exists only in memory and is created each time the computer boots. If all the drivers are loaded successfully, a copy of the key is saved as ControlSet00X.
Under the registery key CurrentControlSet, the subkey "Enum" contains a subkey for each harware device on the computer. Each device key contains fields for Hardware ID, Driver ID, Device Parameters, and other configuration data. The 32-bit drivers are files with the extension ".sys" and can be found in the folder C:/winnt/system32.
Driver Signing
Microsoft has been the brunt of much criticism because of the poor reliability of the Windows Operating System. I feel that much of this criticism is justified. On the other hand, as I described in part 1 of this article, the PC was designed by IBM as an "open" system. Anyone can sell a hardware device (or software) for the PC. Should Microsoft be held responsible for the quality from a third-party?
About the Author
This question is for you OLDER PC users and gamers....?
Back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth and the Commodore 64 was champion, there was a very simple, but extremely addictive multi-player game called "M.U.L.E."
This game was about colonizing a planet. You got to choose plots of land, and sometimes there would be auctions to sell off more parcels. Then you bought these mechanical mules, outfitted them to produce energy or food or ore and set them up on your plots. Each round the mules would produce "bars" of whatever it was designed to produce, you'd go to market and sell the stuff to make money and buy more mules.
The game went 12 rounds, and whoever had the most money and land at the end won. But the whole colony was judged as to how successful it was, so it didn't make sense to completely decimate your rivals.
Anyone know where I can find a PC version of this? I've tried emulators and ROMS and some of the games work, some don't.
Another C64 game I loved was "Pirates".
It has been a few years since buying a Commodore 64 at Foleys in Houston. Seems like it was in 1978 or so. So do I qualify as an OLDER PC user? As a Gamer, I may not qualify. Anyway, a Yahoo Answers cricket asked me to look at your question, and I now have.
Have you tried the Commodore 64 emulation under Linux? It works, and turns your PC into a Commodore 64 quite realistically, allowing it to run all the old Commodore 64 games you can find.
I understand that a Java applet attempts to do the same, with less impressive results. Google (sorry Yahoo!) for 'Commodore 64 emulator' for the details.
Programming the Commodore 64: the Definitive Guide
Mirk writes "Back in 1985 it was possible to understand the whole computer, from the hardware up through device drivers and the kernel through to the high-level language that came burned into the ROMs (even if it was only Microsoft BASIC). The Reinvigorated Programmer revisits R. C. West's classic and exhaustive book Programming the Commodore 64 and laments the decline of that sort of ...
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