HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: sjked@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Subject: Virtual Reality Survey
Reply-To: sjked@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 17:46:23 GMT

Virtual Reality is far from being a reasonable system for
playing computer games. However, it is becoming 
increasingly easy for anyone to experience virtual reality.
I'm only 15 years old, but I'd like to start a discussion
of V.R. and perhaps eventually go into such a career. Please
e-mail responses to this short survey, or feel free to 
respond with comments about V.R.

1. Have you ever tried V.R.?

2. What did you think of it?

3. How much would you pay for a complete V.R. home
computer system (with the computer?)


Currently, 2 such systems exist for the Macintosh. One
is a complete V.R. studio and sells for $58,000!

4. What do you hope to see in the future of V.R.?

Send replies to:
sjked@ritvax.isc.rit.edu 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
From: K_LEPA@unhh.unh.edu (Kristen   Lepa)
Subject: Re: Spectre Info WANTED (in a post!)
Organization: University of New Hampshire
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 04:30:05 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.12

In <1992Jul29.034834.2448@sactoh0.sac.ca.us> zpb@sactoh0.sac.ca.us writes:

> --
>  
> Could someone send me info on Spectre that was on the net a few months
> back? Things like how to give yourself points when customizing a tank,
> strategies, tips, secrets, etc, etc, etc. Thanks.
> -- 
> #############################################################
> # Zach Babayco   zpb.@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US                     # 
> # Star Trek Lives!!    Die-Hard Trekkie                     #
> #############################################################




COULD SOMEONE PLEASE POST THIS INFO?  I'M SURE OTHERS, ESPECIALLY ME!, WOULD
LIKE THIS INFO, TOO!
	THANKS,
		-KRISTEN
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
From: lidz@quads.uchicago.edu (adam lidz)
Subject: Re: Virtual Reality Survey
Reply-To: lidz@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 03:37:03 GMT

In article <1992Jul21.174623.22414@ultb.isc.rit.edu> sjked@ritvax.isc.rit.edu writes:
>
>3. How much would you pay for a complete V.R. home
>computer system (with the computer?)
I wouldn't pay over $500.  V.R. by definition is ANY program that puts "you"
inot the "characters" mind.  In other words, anything in the first person.
This means that even the simplest of InfoCom games are V.R.!

Now, if you're talking about the media's defintion, that's something different.

It's up to the media to distort the real definitions in order to confuse the
public.  Look what they did to the term "hacker," which means something completely different now than it originally did.  

Don't trust the media- They're out to get you.
(My opinions, not anyone elses)
lidz@nes.nersc.gov if you wish to mail me.
From: kempkec@fog.CS.ORST.EDU (Christopher Kempke)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Why No Games For Mac?
Date: 25 Jul 92 05:26:53 GMT
Article-I.D.: CS.1992Jul25.052653.21730
Organization: Oregon State University, Computer Science Dept.

In article <1992Jul25.042447.23688@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> jxs52@po.CWRU.Edu (Jonathan Sheir) writes:
>
>I have a quick question.  I know IBM and its compatibles make up a 
>much larger share of the market.  But the main reason IBM is so much
>bigger is because 99.9% of businesses use them.  As far as recreational
>use goes, I think it is much closer.  So why is there only one shelf
>of Mac games at computer stores and a dozen shelves of IBM games?  The
>only ones that seem to come out are the Sierra games (and always way after
>they come out for IBM)  Where are the Mac games?

	Purely as a guess, I suspect that the "home market" probably is
	still mostly IBM, since people tend to buy for their homes the same
	machine that they use at work, and since until very recently Mac's
	were priced quite a bit higher than an equivalently-useful PC clone.

	Also, don't discount those business users.  A LOT of games are
	played during business hours.

	The "second" reason is that it's harder to program the Mac than the
	PC.  (This is, of course, a generalization).   And half-hearted
	Mac implementations don't sell well.  "Event-driven Programming"
	isn't in every programmer's repetoire yet.

	The situation does seem to be improving.  And the new "lower"
	cost Macs can't help but increase the trend.  I will personally
	accept that the Macintosh has "made it" in the game world when
	we get a recent Ultima :-).

			--Chris
			.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
From: jpb@umbio.med.miami.edu (Joe Block)
Subject: Re: Spaceward Ho! 3.0 Comments Response
Organization: Gene Police - Interstellar Enforcement Division, Sol III Office
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 14:49:33 GMT

How about giving construction on a planet first dibs on the metal mined
there - anything left over goes into the global pool, but it is
ridiculous (in 1.0 which is what I've seen) that a mining world doesn't
have enough metal to build a satellite force.

jpb
(eagerly awaiting 2.0 in the mail)
-- 
Joe Block (jpb@umbio.med.miami.edu)
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
 deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin
                                        Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
From: carlton@apollo.hp.com (Carl Hommel)
Subject: Re: Looking For Spaceward Ho! 3.0 Suggestions
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 16:15:24 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA
Keywords: MultiPlayer Strategy Game

Here are my suggestions:

1.  Put in a sf-background story
    I can think of a justification for the "galaxy-wide" metal -
    interstellar transporters!  After a colony ship carries the
    transmat hardware to a planet, people and metal can move
    on and off the planet freely.  This rationalization fixes the
    following holes:
    A.  Why the population grows so fast.  10 -> 100K in 100 years?
    B.  Why is all your metal put into a "bank account".
    C.  Where do the people go when you abandon a mining planet?

2.  SimEarth-like graphs
    I find it a big pain to compare my empire to other players.  I
    want to do it every turn, to see whether those expert computer
    players are getting tech faster than me.  A SimEarth like graph,
    in a floating window would be a big win.

3.  Reward for knocking a player out
    What happens to a players $$ and metal when he loses his last
    planet?  Give a fraction of it (1/2, 1/3) to the player taking
    that last planet. 

4.  Bug report
    Fix the following refueling bug.
    Lets say I have a ship with range 20, and speed 15.  I want to
    go visit a new planet.
    A.  Send 9 ships from range 15.  Arrive with 5 fuel remaining.
    B.  Send one ship from range 5.  Arrive with 15 fuel remaining.
    C.  Highlight the ship with 15 fuel left.
    D.  Pull down the "Organize Fleet" menu, and join the ships.
    E.  Ta Da!  10 ships now have fuel 15!

    The fix would be to total up all the remaining fuel in the ships,
    and average them out (dropping fractions, of course).  So, the
    combined fleet *should* have only 6 fuel.  (Which still might
    be enough to get them to a neighboring colony...)

    Using this bug, I can take over a rectangular galaxy faster and
    using less ships than seems possible.  Build 10 fighters and two 
    colony ships at planet A.  Divide the fighters into a group of 9,
    and a group of 1.  Send 9 fighers + 1 colony, and take out planet B.
    Send the 9 fighters, and two ships from A to planet C.  Group the
    fighters, and get fuel.  Split the fighters into 9 + 1.  Send 9
    fighters and the colony from B to planet D.  <REPEAT>.

I also agree with being able to set fixed percentages and amounts.
I want to spend 30% on R&D, dammit!  I want to add $10K/turn to my
savings bank!

Publish the details on interest rates and combat ratios.  After all,
the expert computer player knows just how many ships to send to take
out my satellites.  (To bad for it that I built some more since then...)

Love this game,
Carl Hommel
carlton@apollo.hp.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Jewel Box!
From: jdavis@husc15.harvard.edu
Date: 27 Jul 92 11:56:04 EDT
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

Well, since a thread just started on how there are no Mac games, I thought
I'd suggest one.

Take a peek at Jewel Box, currently available on sumex.  It's based on
the game Columns which has been out for a while, but it is a vast
improvement.  It is, in my opinion, what a Mac game should be.  It requires
13" 8-bit color, and has a really nice constant soundtrack.  The game
sounds are tuned to fit in with the current chord of the soundtrack, which
is a *really* nice touch.  The graphics are good too.

The shareware fee is only $10.  It's certainly worth downloading, and, if
you like this kind of game, it's certainly worth $10.

I have no affiliation with the author except that I will be a registered
user as soon as I get my own color Mac.

Jason Davis
jdavis@husc3.harvard.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
From: rroberts@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Ross Allan Roberts)
Subject: Re: Sub Battle Simulator
Organization: The Ohio State University
 <1992Jul24.181552.21488@news.csd.sgi.com>
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 15:35:59 GMT

>I think that none of these games have aged gracefully.  Certainly none of them
>are supported any longer. Neither of the sub games will work on anything but a
>68000 machine running sys <7.x (correct me if I'm wrong here folks).I've seen
>SBS run on an SE/30 with 6.0.x but it's age was showing-graphics drawn in 
>wrong areas of the screen and occasional crashes.  PT-109 still worked on 
>680x0 machines with 6.0.x but it was pretty shaky and some features didn't 
>work.
>Andy Fabans

The Original SBS, no. The Color version, however (for those of us with color on
our /30's) worked great! I even had it working on 7.0.0, with the exception of
asking for the master disk.... if it wasn't there, it would ask, read it, and
bomb on the ejection. So I just left it in when I fired it up. Alas, 7.0.1
seems to have finally done it in... but I also have 6.0.5 and SysSwitcher, so
it doesn't take much to start playing again!

Falcon is coming out with an upgrade... will Spectrum Holobyte do the same 
w/PT-109? (PLEASE, oh PLEASE!...)

 #############################################################################
#Ross Roberts (rroberts@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)|'85 IT200, '81 MX100       #
#DoD#0340, still patiently awaiting the 6ooF2...  |'88 YFM350 Warrior         #
 #---------------------4-stroke good, 2-stroke gooder!---------------------- #
 #       Today's Lyric:'I don't believe in love... it's never worth          #
 #                   the pain that you feel' -- Queensryche                  #
 #############################################################################
From: doug@abby.chem.ucla.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Covert Action
Date: 22 Jul 92 20:46:49 GMT
Reply-To: doug@abby.chem.ucla.edu
Organization: Department of Chemistry, UCLA

Sounds like you need to pay more attention to the amount of time that has
passed since you last saw the enemy... if you haven't seen them for quite
some time, all you have is a projection of where they are.  To avoid this,
use the old run-and-drift technique (full speed for a while, then slow down
to improve sensor performance, then speed back up).

To end a mission, go to the rendezvous point.

-Doug Gibson
 doug@abby.chem.ucla.edu

Neither UCLA nor the National Science Foundation has a clue what I am doing.
They just pay me to do it.

This is a properly spelled version of the mimetic signature virus.  Copy it
into your .signature file and join in the fun today!
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
From: dcutter@oregon.uoregon.edu (dann cutter)
Subject: Ultima for the Mac
Organization: Stellar Enterprises
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 23:32:32 GMT

I have given up waiting for promises of a ultima like product. I would like
to encourage all of you  to call Origin systems, and bug them until Gariott
realizes there is a market (he loves the bloody mac after all). And from
them, would be nice, cause the conversion off Exodus wasn't great. I mean,
come guys, the nintendo has a more current version of Ultima...

				Origin systems   1-800-999-4939

anybody know a email address for a rep, or an ftp site(or newsgroup) they
use maybe??? dann

_______________________________________________
"I know that one is left. And that once you 
figure out that, then the other hard is your right.
Then basically all you have to do is make a choice.
But the question is, how do you figure out that 
first part." dann Cutter
dcutter@oregon.uoregon.edu
From: zeke@reed.edu (Zeke Koch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Spaceward Ho! 3.0: Keep Historical Info
Date: 30 Jul 92 22:55:54 GMT
Article-I.D.: reed.1992Jul30.225554.22749
Organization: Reed College, Portland, OR

commons@Sunburn.Stanford.EDU (Peter Commons) writes:

>Although this sounds rather more complex than might be easy and desirable to
>do, we have imagined 3.0 having some way to show at least recent history, like
>a graph of metal, money, and ship power over the last 20 turns.
>
>Comments? Thoughts? Would this be useful. What would you want? How much disk 
>space and update time would you be willing to sacrifice for such a thing?

Hmm, I like the smaller game file but I would definatly be willing to 
lose some time to see such info.  I've been looking for that sort of
thing for a while now.

Zeke


-- 
                           zeke@reed.edu 
"NeXT has made it possible for Tiny Tim to over-extend himself and buy
a Ferrari for the price of a Hundai and now Tiny Tim is pissed because
the gas station attendant won't sell him gas for 3 cents a gallon."
From: eric@hpsad.sad.hp.com (Eric Lucas)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Should I buy SHSpaceHo?
Date: 29 Jul 92 18:41:03 GMT
Organization: HP Signal Analysis Division - Rohnert Park, CA


  After seeing all the comments regarding Spaceward Ho 3.0, I wonder
'Gee, I guess this game is really cool.  So, why don't I buy it?'
My question to you is should I buy it?  I love Strat. Conq. and it sounds
like SH is a lot like SC.


Eric

eric
hpsadm1
HP SAD RP ID

Mo money, mo money, mo money

spent on software.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
From: shaase@microsoft.com (Stephen Haase)
Subject: Re: Looking For Spaceward Ho! 3.0 Suggestions
Date: 30 Jul 92 18:30:54 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation

>> 3. Technology isnt very good when building ships - who uses less than
>> maximum shields or weapons when building ships. The only reason would
>> be to adjust the mini if you are short on metal or cash. It makes those
>> scroll bars useless if they are always put to maximum.  My suggestion 
>> would be to only let the user set the mini technology and pick a hull
>> type. Add some hull types replace fighters with frigates, destroyers,   
>> battleships (and Deathstars!, maybe not).  They would differ in price
>> metal and combat capability (possibly allieviate problem 2 above).
>
>I agree wholly to this--NOBODY uses those sliders for less than full amount
>(especially with development costs where they are!) I really like the idea

I must disagree. I once sent a fleet of about 30 ships to a computer occupied
planet that I had visited much earlier in the game. When I arrived, I 
encountered a HUGE fleet of sat's that had a good weapons rating and NO shields.
By huge, I mean close to 200 sat's.  The result of the battle was that I never
even got a shot off.  The computer wasted my fleet before it ever got to my 
turn.  The only way around it was to construct a fleet of comparable size to
take them on(I made a similar fleet with decent weap and no shields).  Now,
from time to time, I use the same tactic and it infuriates the people I'm 
playing against!

steve
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
From: torkel@sics.se (Torkel Franzen)
Subject: Re: LTOI 2
Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista
	<1992Jul21.002009.22537@leland.Stanford.EDU>
	<1992Jul21.020742.2892@cbfsb.cb.att.com> <c+fm_1k.derek@netcom.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 13:38:52 GMT


  Well, I just went out and bought The Lost Treasures of Infocom II. I started
playing Infocom games in 1983, on an Atari 800, but I never got around to
some of the games in this collection - Border Zone, Sherlock, Plundered Hearts.
Infocom used to have an ad picturing a typical graphical computer game
adversary of that period - a very primitive figure - and contrasting it with
the level of sophistication found in their games. These days - or more
precisely, since Dungeon Master appeared - the level of graphical
sophistication has increased, and the best graphic adventures and dungeon
games offer a high a degree of atmosphere and "realism". Infocom certainly
lost a selling point there, and perhaps that is why they went bust. Never the
less, and taking the nostalgia factor into account, I think many of their
games were wonderful works of art and will be recognized as such for
a long time to come. The present package of course lacks the loving care
that went into the "documentation" for the games, having instead a cheaper
reproduction of the essentials in the accompanying manual. The games
themselves remain as great as ever!

  I think my having played Trinity was the main reason for my going to
London in 1987, to look at the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens.
From: afry@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Alan R. Fry)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Spaceward Ho! 3.0 Comments Response
Date: 30 Jul 92 01:52:55 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester (Rochester, NY)

In article <1992Jul29.201847.18732@lclark.edu> joshua@lclark.edu (Josh
Rochester) writes:

>> 5) For those who always slam their weapons/shields bars to max. Try attacking/
>> defending with a high speed/high weapons/no shields force. For those who
>> get killed by such a hs/hw/ns force, try building a really large fleet of 1/1
>> ships. There's a lot to say for really large numbers of ships.
>
>Tricks like these are neat, but how and why do they work? What is the weight
>in the combat engine. When the program resolves the battles, what factors are
>most important--numbers, techlevel, etc? It would be nice to have detailed
>information on this in the manual so that people don't have to figure it out
>by trial and error.

I actually think this is a neat feature of the game; one does not really
know how to fight a good battle until one has tried a number of different
strategies!  Although this is slightly 'realistic' (yuck!), it makes the
game much more interesting; one can't just sit down with the necessary
formulae and crank out the 'optimum' fleet.  Besides, different kinds fleets
are going to do better against different kinds of opponent fleets, so there
isn't really a universal algorithm.

At this point I'll jump on the multiple ship-type fleets (like 1.0) and
different attack positions ("save the women and colony ships!") bandwagon.

Cheers,

Alan
--

  Alan R Fry                   \    Find the hidden faces in this .sig
  afry@troi.cc.rochester.edu    \   and you win a free straitjacket!
From: moody@brahms.udel.edu (John David Moody)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Help with Unkuulian Unventure II
Date: 31 Jul 92 02:47:48 GMT
Organization: University of Delaware

I must apologize that I have lost my kuul.  I have been stuck on 81/400 points
for a good while.  These points were attained by:

Rubbing figurine
Entering outhouse
Getting across the river
Getting to the top of Dawg Rock
Getting back across the river
Going underground
Finding secret chute
Getting behind the waterfall, and
Entering the outhouse

Right now I have several questions:

1.  Getting by the alligator
I have carefully examined the room and the alligator.  So far, none of my items
seemed useful in driving him away.  Any suggestions?

2.  Getting the password.
I have searched the programmer, but I could only find a piece of paper in which
the first letter was T and the last was E, but the writing between was too
illegible.

3.  Drying the labcoat.
I have tried to dry the labcoat over a fire in the woods, but that did not
seem to work.  I also tried to get my acmid back that I put in the washer.
I also considered the fake acmid, but so far have found no good ideas.

4.  Finding an egg?
Yes, I ran into that old man by the retreat.  It seems like I know eggsactly
what he wants, but I have been unable to locate an egg.

5.  The dragon
I had a couple thoughts on this.  First, he stomps on me when I climb down to
the ledge.  It is because he is nearsighted and doesn't see me.  I had thought
of giving the dragon my X-ray specs so he could see.  However, I must get his
attention.  No problem getting the dragon's attention by dropping a lead
brick on him.  But I have been unable to give the dragon the specs.  I had
also thought of dropping the lead brick on the alligator, but I am unable
to climb with the lead brick.

As you can see, I have tried everything but the kitchen sink, and would also
try that, but I am unable to find one.  I do have quite a list of items, but
in order to do some of these things, I need to combine them.

Maybe I also need to do more looking.  Any ideas?

Please mail requests to moody@brahms.udel.edu instead of posting.  Also
"hints" are more welcome than blantant answers.  Any help would be gratefully
appreciated!

Thanks,

-- John David Moody
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
From: jswartz@mbunix.mitre.org (Swartz)
Subject: Gnuchess for the MAC Question
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA
Distribution: comp.sys.mac.games, gnu.chess
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 17:22:56 GMT


I have a question for those of you who have used gnuchess for the Mac,
which I FTP'd from a site which I can not remember at the time.

My question deals with the opening book.  Is it possible to edit the 
gnuchess.book file (using a text editor such as Microsoft Word?) so that
gnuchess uses a different book?  Does this require that the code be
recompiled (I don't have a C compiler)?  I would like to add some entries
to this file if possible.  Anyone tried this?

--John

-- 
JOHN A. SWARTZ - The MITRE Corp. Bedford, MA * John_Swartz@iegate.mitre.org
"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
 One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."  J.R.R. Tolkien
From: Babak.Gohari@f421.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Babak Gohari)
Sender: Uucp@blkcat.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: LOOKING FOR SPACEWARD HO! 3.0 SUGG
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 12:40:39 -0500

Suggestion to a new ship type attribute: how about adding a type of "radar" to
ships, which can determine things from farther away (range of radar increases as
radar tech increases), give you a slight edge in combat, etc.  You can make
radar very expensive to prevent the people from adding radars to all their
ships.  I mean, you can have like one or two expensive radar ships in a fleet.

Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
From: ckd@eff.org (Christopher Davis)
Subject: Re: Looking For Spaceward Ho! 3.0 Suggestions
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation Tech Central
	<1992Jul29.164204.12804@lclark.edu>
	<1992Jul31.043331.28515@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 18:02:01 GMT

Mike> == Mike Gormish <gormish@leland.Stanford.EDU> 

 Mike> Making it harder to tell humans from computers (no check marks on
 Mike> turn done)

The check marks are nice so you know who's holding the game up.  Maybe
have the computers put in their check marks at random times or
something?  *shrug*
--
Christopher Davis * ckd@eff.org * System Administrator, EFF * +1 617 864 0665
   ``The First Amendment is often inconvenient.  But that is besides the
  point.  Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation
         to tolerate speech.'' --Justice Anthony Kennedy, in 91-155