I believe graphically both the ST and Amiga were used to their full potential, I just think the games available on them aren’t actually designed well, as in they had access to so much more memory, but for the most part didn’t know how to create a compelling gameplay or story experience with the additional creative freedom those better specs allowed.

As I say there are a few exceptions on both platforms, I think Another World on the Amiga is a good example of a developer using that extra power extremely well to create a truly novel and innovative experience that stands the test of time.

Hunter is definitely trying to be innovative, but the hardware wasn’t ready for a full 3D open world, and personally I don’t think it holds up as a ‘good game’ today.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that within the still existing limitations of that era of hardware, most Amiga and ST devs did not have the design chops or writing ability to create a compelling game within those restrictions that would make it a standout even today. Consoles from around the same period such as the Sega Genesis and SNES have pretty similar hardware restrictions to the Amiga and ST, but still have a fairly beloved library of games due to those seeming to attract more talented designers.

I think the main issue with the Amiga is it was never picked up by businesses much like the PC was, and from what I remember it was more costly to add a hard drive in comparison to other platforms?

The final nail was that Commodore was essentially killed from the inside by the new CEO that gutted the company to enrich himself and the shareholders. Without the R&D to keep up with x86 processors gaining huge leaps in power, the Amiga, at least in the US, quickly lost appeal to gamers. And it likely didn’t appeal to most families who also wanted to use productivity software, where PC was superior for the most part.

In the UK though, the Amiga was quite the success, but, and I think this is partly why I consider it a hot take somewhat, I think almost all UK game developers at the time just weren’t very good designers, save for a few (X-com as an example, which is to this day a masterpiece).

To be honest, I feel the same wasted potential also applies to the ST :/

I’m not sure that entirely explains the reputation Babylon’s first season seems to have online, though.

As an example, TNG is almost entirely episodic and made in the same era, yet it’s generally regarded well. The first season there is also known to be bad, but more so because it’s actually poorly implemented until they discovered what works in season 2, which is still episodic.

The same for DS9, which has a poor season 1 that has to be pushed through as they find their feet. That too remains mostly episodic until the later seasons with the dominion war, yet I haven’t seen the same suggestions for watch guides to skip most of the early seasons to get to the serialized stuff, people usually still consider the good episodic standalones of DS9 to be worth watching, from what I can tell.

There’s something oddly unique about the Babylon 5 community suggesting watch lists to avoid any episodic content from the first season specifically, despite the show starting out on way stronger footing than either DS9 or TNG. At least for me, it gave a perception that the first season is nigh unwatchable dreck that most only tolerate once for the setup it provides, emphasizing to grind through it for the pay off.

But my actual experience with it makes the near universal dislike of it’s season 1 bewildering, especially as they are not entirely episodic in the sense that virtually all of them so far have seemingly contributed toward the bigger arc in some way, even the monster of the week episodes.

To anyone who hasn’t played this; I’m a huge adventure game fan, been playing them my whole life, and I couldn’t stand this game.

The protagonist is insanely unlikable (and not in a good way), and the puzzles weren’t terribly fun in my opinion.

It has nice art, and the world is cool, but just beware that it’s very much a marmite sorta game (love it or hate it).

Holy shit, that must be what inspired the food man dummy puzzle in Space Quest 6. I’ve never seen that painting until now yet it was instantly recognizable.

I think the Commodore Amiga’s potential as a gaming platform was never truly taken advantage of despite the massive hardware advancement from the C64, and that save for a handful of exceptions, its game library is mostly poorly designed shovelware that people only go back to for nostalgia.

I’m watching for the first time now, so far on Ep 6, and I’ve read a lot about season 1 being bad, and specifically to use this guide to avoid the bad episodes, but I decided to watch the low rated ones anyway just to see and I actually found that I liked them quite a lot, even the monster of the week soul hunter episode I thought was quite well done.

I can see how some may bounce off the wooden acting of the main character/commander (and the second in command in the pilot who was really bad, but replaced with the other actress who plays the role far better. Though a shame they weren’t able to keep the doctor from the pilot, I thought they did a much better job than the replacement IMO), but overall I’m finding season 1 so far dramatically better than DS9, which I’ve bounced off like 3 or 4 times and never was able to enjoy due to how dull it felt.

B5 in comparison has such a rich 90’s soundtrack and is absolutely dripping with color and well framed shots, it’s a feast for the eyes, like a classic Baen book cover come to life. I also find I enjoy the characters far more than DS9’s.

I fully agree being able to build your own DIY batteries is indeed very solarpunk. I only wanted to clarify that we allow non-literal BIFL suggestions, as you mentioned that all personal ev’s are not technically BIFL (which is true).

The replies you are receiving are not from slrpnk.net accounts, but instead are from off-instance, likely from people who simply subcribe to this BIFL comm or saw it in in the /All view, and who do not consider themselves solarpunks.

This community also allows recommendations for items that only last significantly longer than usual, not just literally something that will last for an entire lifetime :)

MandaloreGaming is in a similar vein to Civvie and Ross’s Game Dungeon, all great game content makers/reviewers.

Think about the entire culture of the West, do you think anarchism would spread further than a few percent of the population?

Considering how close the US was to a socialist revolution in the 1930’s before FDR tamped that out, yeah I could see it spreading. Most boomers would obviously never go for it, but the younger generations who are the most shafted by capitalism are already becoming quite favorable socialism. They’d just need to be made aware that Anarchism exists and is a viable option.

Side note:

We actually have a Cool Zone Media community on our instance, !coolzonemedia@slrpnk.net :)

Hi @socialistpartyca@slrpnk.net, this video and all of the other videos on this youtube channel are AI generated, which goes against solarpunk ideals (AI use funds fascist AI companies and causes increased environmental destruction).

Because of that, I removed it, but I hope that doesn’t discourage you from finding good non-AI created posts in the future :)

Historically, based on every revolution or attempt at revolution, the end result is worse than the starting point. The most dangerous, violent, charismatic person makes it to the top and they become a dictator.

This is only the case for revolutions with authoritarian marxist-leninists at the helm, which do exactly as you describe without fail.

However, anarchist revolutions which are built upon decentralizing power as much as possible so that there can be no centralized leadership from which dictatorship sprouts, has shown the opposite; that it can result in a long-term egalitarian society where there is no charismatic dictator or vanguard. This was demonstrated most clearly with the Spanish Anarchists during the Spanish Civil War, who documented how they organized in a horizontal, egalitarian way.

Rojava in northern Syria and the Chiapa Zapatista movement in Mexico (both inspired by Anarchist political theory) also demonstrate that an egalitarian society can function well for long periods without a decent into dictatorship.

There’s a couple ways to use Lemmy and make it nicer to use, one is curating a well fleshed out subscribed list, the other is using all but blocking every community that doesn’t interest you or has topics you actively dislike, making it just as pleasant as your subscribed view.

Personally I do both. My subscribed view is just things I like and no news communities. My All feed blocks everything I don’t like, let’s me discover new communities, and gives me a dose of news when I want it.

Does it work through this Invidious instance? (it’s a youtube front-end/proxy based in the US, which played for me).

For the majority of people who didn’t yet have a BBS or internet connection (or a friend who would copy the shareware onto a floppy), they also sold a boxed version of the shareware version in stores for a low price, like 5 or 10 bucks I think.

I actually recently blasted through the first 3 chapters of The Telwynium by the same creator, and absolutely loved it (I’d say it was one of the best point’n’clicks I’d ever played, up there with Robin Hood from Sierra, which is the sole departure from them where the puzzles all make sense), so I’ll definitely be picking up the drifter at some point (and the steam release of the Telwynium which will have the 4th chapter).

I liked exploring it as a kid, but going back to it as an adult it kinda lost me with how gamey some of the puzzles were despite it trying to sell you on the idea that this is a lived in world. Like, who is going to design a door lock to correspond to some nearby whistling holes in the ground?

From what I’ve read, the sequel Rivan did a better job of making the puzzles feel more integrated into the world, but I only played that briefly as a kid and haven’t gotten around to trying it again.

The ‘Company’ in the list is apparently the publisher, not the developer. The Westwood Monopoly is indeed the one in the list, as it was published by Hasbro according to the wiki entry.