I'm new here & I have a few questions about fine-tuning the resolution/"blur" for Little Big Adventure on my laptop.

You might have a better chance of getting help by posting in the games' own forum:

https://www.gog.com/forum/little_big_adventure_series#1479329348

And I was all set to talk about the fun I had in Interceptor a few weeks back.

Yeah, pretty bad thread name choice. :P

If old = 10years+
UT2004; Nethack; MoO2 all played a bit this week.

Lots of people here play lots of old games.

Sounds interesting, let's derail the thread!

just finished citizen kabuto. playing need for spped 2. mortal kombat 4. started the tomb raider series from gog, last week. estimated time of completion, 2/3 years. so i'm pretty backlogged for old games. especially since some games don't have an end e.g. nfs 2 ;-)

I like the spirit here!

It was... a pretty fun game actually. I eventually hit a bug (and I probably could have kept playing) but some highlights:

Immediate support out of the box for my modern flightstick. I never could get the hat to work, but rotation along the axis of the stick and in game setting of all (12!) on base buttons worked like a charm!

The overall sim was actually pretty decent. In flight felt a bit weak at first, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that you develop better weapons, vessels, targeting systems and such in game. So what I initially perceived as a "weak" or somewhat "floaty" sim is actually the game accounting for your mediocre starting pilots / gear. You as a player and your skills have some input, but so do the raw stats of your resources.

Because I LOVED the X-Com aspects of grooming your favorite most skilled pilots and slowly researching new tech, this really worked for me. It was a nice balance between player's skill, input and overall research level. If you liked the first Mass Effect, you'll "get" what I'm talking about.

It also incorporated some of the classic "TIE Fighter" power allocation systems, which I really enjoy. You'll constantly be balancing out where you want your cannon, engine and shield recharge rates to be. And you can do the immediate "power dump" into your cannon or shields. All good stuff.

Another highlight for me was the way base expansion worked. You can only expand so far from your existing bases. So you slowly "crawl" outward along a path established by where you built previously. Really felt like setting up forward outposts and remote stations in deep space. Because you can only have so many bases (and they are expensive + time consuming to build!) you'll be scrapping bases that you used merely to inch further into the void. While this serves to artificially "slow" the pace of the game (much like research rates) it was actually one of my favorite parts. Picking out a path to where you wanted to go and explore was a fun little mini game.

So, how's THAT for a solid derail? ;)

A thought occurred to me: Super Mario Bros. 3 is not exactly friendly to speedrunners.

To explain, I will look at the Any% no credits warp category, which is the fastest intended way to beat the game, and is a route you could have easily taken playing the game casually. This route involves getting both warp whistles in World 1, then using them right after another (use the second whistle while in the warp zone), then entering World 8 and clearing it normally. Anyway, here are two reasons the game is not speedrun friendly on this route:

1. Autoscrollers. Speedrunners do not like autoscrollers because there is no way to speed them up. (I, on the other hand, actually enjoy them.) In World 8, there are no less than 4 autoscrollers, all of which are mandatory levels.

2. RNG. There is one point where there are three squares on the world map that you have to cross, and each time you try to cross, there is a random chance that a hand will grab you, forcing you to play through a short level. In order to get a good time, you have to not get grabbed at all, as playing even just one of these levels will significantly increase your time. Even worse, this happens after two of the autoscrollers, so if you reset after getting caught by a hand, you have to play through them *again* to try again.

In conclusion, Super Mario Bros. 3 is not speedrun friendly.

(Of note, the Any% with credits warp routs doesn't play any autoscrollers, but it does take advantage of a clearly unintentional glitch that allows for arbitrary code execution.)

Like this one?

Great!

Sounds like you had fun. I've heard a lot of bad on the account of that game. I've been hesitant to play it, even when I already have it in library from some humble bundle. Hearing so much praise, I might try it someday. I don't have joystick though. Maybe it won't be so bad with mouse or something. Base building and research with space sim is pretty unique concept. I remember playing demo as a kid and wished for full game. Now I has it, but 100 other great full games with it, but no time to play them, argh!

Reading these two things together reminds me of this PETA game (PETA = People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

So PETA doesn't like furries? After all furries send out the message that it is ok to wear fur...

Btw. I never understood the skinning alive thing. Isn't it easier to skin a dead animal?

WTF, I was all set to read about your fun in Interceptor on WinUAE.