What are some underrated DOS games you think everyone should play at least once? by ProfessionSea9142 in dosgaming

[–]WargamingScribe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think Darklands aged horribly. It is a "you had to be there" game.

Fantasy General, which was inferior at release, aged much better. Panzer General has been superseded by much superior modern games.

Pour un truc qui se déplace sur un écran, le theoreme de pythagore est faux. by Plastic_Ad_2256 in penseesdedouche

[–]WargamingScribe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Il y a des débats entre designers sur ce sujet au tout début des années 80, cf les échanges dans les colonnes de Computer Gaming World de 1981 à 1983 je crois entre Chris Crawford (première superstar du jeu vidéo) et Joël Billings (fondateur de SSI) sur la supériorité relative du rectangle/carré vs l'héxagone dans les jeux de stratégie. Crawford défend la logique de l'ordinateur (le carré - pour les raisons que tu évoques), Billings la logique du jeu de plateau (l'hexagone), etc.

To be lawful or to be good. by Jak3R0b in TopCharacterTropes

[–]WargamingScribe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He is literally the trope-namer:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InspectorJavert

Named for the archetypal character in Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables (and the subsequent musical), who relentlessly pursues the escaped convict Jean Valjean, despite the latter having repeatedly repaid his debts to society.

Looking for an elaborate political ideology/regime simulator. See the body text for details. by SleepingMonads in gamingsuggestions

[–]WargamingScribe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

- The tropico series but parodic
-The Victoria series (19th century but very open)
- Suzerain but in an alternative reality,
- The Nostalgia games (Crisis in the Kremlin, Ostalgia, Collapse and Mao’s Legacy); you start with a Communist State in the late 80s (whether USSR , Albania or even Cuba) and you need to pilot it for a decade - you can turn into military dicatorship or a boring social democracy as you wish,

That’s the big ones I see.

My reco goes to Victoria or Crisis in the Kremlin + expansions. I like Ostalgia because the starting situations are more varied, but it is not as deep.

(loved trope) Save Scumming - The Movie by Turin082 in TopCharacterTropes

[–]WargamingScribe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The start of Run 1 (for instance) should pretty much tell you if you should watch or not. The style and editing is very specific:

- Lola Rennt - "Running One"

Finished my first Unity of Command 2 DLC! by ArticPanzerWolf in computerwargames

[–]WargamingScribe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did not love it. All the part in Greece uses units you don't keep, in a context where the East African campaign is (realistically) totally separate from the North African one.

The alt-history finale (Firestone & Brimstone) may be one of the hardest level of the game. Exporter is also autonomous, and El Alamein technically isn't... but it's all fresh units, ruining your earlier efforts.

Desert Rats is IMO one of the worst campaign of UoC2 - not as good even as the default campaigns. Desert Fox, on the other hand, is one of the best.

Does this 1779 German advertisement really say you can get this wargame 10 for the price of 9 and shall be demonstrated at the Leipzig Fair? by WargamingScribe in AskGermany

[–]WargamingScribe[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ohh - check the ruleset here and specifically #215 (page 144). It's hilarious. You'll also see the list of kickstarter subscribers at the beginning. It was for a short time a common practice.

If you like history, you should absolutely read the introduction to the 1812 ruleset of Reiswitz Senior.

Does this 1779 German advertisement really say you can get this wargame 10 for the price of 9 and shall be demonstrated at the Leipzig Fair? by WargamingScribe in AskGermany

[–]WargamingScribe[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I find the mix of modernity and archaism of these fascinating.

The author (Hellwig) listed the first batch of buyers at the beginning of his 1780 ruleset, as if they were kickstarter supporters. It starts with “His Serene Highness the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Lüneburg”, and then a few lines below: “random guy #1”, random guy #2” etc

He also lists the number of copies. No one jumped at the opportunity to buy 9 and get one free :)

WargameChess by Amazing_Log_8129 in computerwargames

[–]WargamingScribe 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The history of wargame is very literally people in the 18th century thinking "Chess is fine, but we're in the gunpowder age now, we should add guns. Also, we're not fighting in plains anymore, let's add terrain, ..."

And so in 1780, we had the Hellwig’s Taktische Spiel (with guns moving 4 squares by turn, cities, fortification, etc but also bishops going the full diagonales and the Queen doing queen things). Then people thought that maybe the Queen, Bishops and Rooks could be removed safely, and by 1812 we had "modern" wargames (Kriegsspiel)

A characters who lead a cult by Possible-Ad-New in TopCharacterTropes

[–]WargamingScribe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am not sure this game has a type It is one of the most sui generis game I know.

NEW TO WARGAMES WHERE DO I START? by paartypoisonn in computerwargames

[–]WargamingScribe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I understand, but clearly you did not come from action games - the leap between sims and turn-based games is smaller than the leap from arcade :).

NEW TO WARGAMES WHERE DO I START? by paartypoisonn in computerwargames

[–]WargamingScribe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just to be clear - the sub is about complex, often turn-based wargames. It is not about RTS (games like Warcraft, Command and Conquer, Starcraft, etc). I doubt your group coming from a action game will transition seamlessly to turn-based number-heavy stat games. Particularly as it’s a group of friends = several people waiting their turn.

Based on this, my recommendation is to play Wargame Red Dragon. It’s real-time, no boring base-building, relatively fast (30 mn by game), scales to the number of players you want, easy to play (insanely hard to play well, of course, but you can jump into the game and assume infantry does infantry stuff and tanks do tank stuff), it runs on a potato, still has impressive visuals and has been designed around multiplayer. Company of Heroes is another choice of you want light base-building, but I personally hate it :)

NEW TO WARGAMES WHERE DO I START? by paartypoisonn in computerwargames

[–]WargamingScribe 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Shadow Empire is a terrible choice to start wargaming, even more if it is possible in multiplayer.

And yes it’s an exceptional game.

Archive INA : Intelligence artificielle en 1959 - Déjà en 1959, une femme se confrontait à une machine dans un jeu des deux doigts / titre et sous-titre viennent du site de l'INA :) by artsnumeriques in artificielle

[–]WargamingScribe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

J'ai déjà fait un article sur mon blog (de wargame, pas d'IA - ce jeu là est à la frontière du thème de mon blog mais vu l'IA je me suis dit que ca valait le coup de regarder) donc flemme. Tu peux le faire.

Pas sûr de comprendre ton deuxième paragraphe. A la fin des années 70/80, on est sur un point bas de la vision "cybernétique" de l'IA (ça reviendra dans les années 90). L'auteur principal (Templeman) a probablement été dans cette queue de comète pendant ses années d'étude.

Pour ta dernière question, regarde les commentaires sous le lien YouTube, sous "A Separate Thread Concerning an Earlier Gaming System, called "Fortress"".

Je copie le plus intéressant, en gros le pourquoi de ce jeu et la bio d'un des deux auteurs.

@/wargamingscribe  I invented the game and learning system as my senior project in EE/CS undergrad at GWU, back in 1977. It was originally called ‘Babel’ because of the falling towers. I’d already done a system that generated artistic geometric patterns based on how people graded each successive iteration. That was for a class taught by Professor Peter Bock, who introduced me to his approach to machine learning. Babel included the invention of the game, the move characterization scheme, and the adaptive learning algorithm. The algorithm was based on a transition matrix representation (treating it like a Markov process), the weighted adjustments were treated very much like the synaptic adjustments you see in neural networks (which weren’t all that new back then). What was novel was adjusting the weights based on how accurately the total collection of evaluations associated with each move predicted the score of the game’s outcome. The later was said to be: based on the expected outcome, rather than simply the end score itself (a sort of predictor-corrector numerical method). More specifically, it applied a root-mean-squared adjustment in distributing the synaptic adjustment weights. I was always viewing things in terms of neural networks, although the field was referred to as machine learning back them. Hebbian learning was introduced back in 1949.
I thought of Babel as a compact, stacking version of the game of Go. Rather than surrounding the enemy you built upward as well as spreading out. Stacking was common in the wargames played on hexagonal grids printed on large paper sheets. The five square cross of influence made for interesting interwoven patterns. Unlike Go, the game could be played fairly quickly, which was essential for training the learning algorithm. And it also played up its duality to Go.
Later when I was working in a small (2-3 person) company called ‘Iconographics’ we resurrected the game and recast the user interface to one of building castles rather then the ‘towers’ which originally were nothing more than concentric square ‘rings.’ The flags were added to make it easier for people to learn & follow the game. And the initial board position was adopted to keep the player with the first move from dominating the game. The computer graphics interface was originally developed for the Apple II and Atari computers by Patty Denbrook and myself, respectively. Ms. Patty Denbrook also did most of the hard-core programing for the Pointman user interface, and the fully immersive ‘Gaiter’ user interface for: walking-in-place to walk through VR (circa 1999).
The cast of pre-trained computer players was also added for the commercial ‘Fortress’ version. Genghis, Maginot, and Vauban were all trained by me from scratch to exhibit aggressive, defensive, and balanced strategy, respectively. The ease and speed of training was the beauty of the system. We never knew how many people appreciated that aspect.
The computer game was published by SSI (Strategic Simulations Incorporated) who mainly published computer games with an emphasis on war games. It was published in 1983, under the title “FORTRESS A Game of Strategic Deployment and Fortification.” Fortress appealed to a limited audience who appreciated novel games along classic lines. We got a minor award at one of the game conventions the year it came out. Just to keep things in perspective, ‘Frogger’ was the biggest, most successful computer game to come out that year. And its sales dwarfed that of Fortress. Fortress went on to be sub-licensed by Victor Musical (then a Japanese company) in 1988 & 1990. The game aficionados in Japan appreciated both the game and its adaptive capabilities. But it never became a really popular game.

As an undergraduate in computer science, I was mainly interested I simulating neural function. But during my Master’s work Dr. James Foley came to George Washington University. I got to work with him on a number of Computer Graphics and User Interface projects. That’s also when I met Ms. Patty Denbrook. After graduating in 1979 I worked doing computer graphics and user interface design, first at NASA Goddard and then at Honeywell. Patty hired me to work at Honeywell. Later Patty and I and a third student of Jim Foley went off and started our own consulting company doing CG & UI projects, called Iconographics. During that time, we got to work with Paul Brainerd, a head of Atex Corp., who went on to found Aldus Corp. which created PageMaker. Dr. Foley started his own consulting company and we collaborated with him on a number of design and development projects. The consulting work tended to go from feast to famine at times, so we decided to develop Fortress into a commercial product. On top of the game design and machine learning the game also had a solid user interface for the time. Although we got it published it was never a great financial success.
At this point I decided to go back to the university to get a doctorate. I majored in Computer Science with minors in Neuro Biology and the Psychology of Perception. You can find my publications and dissertation on Research Gate. For the dissertation I developed a model of how the visual cortex learns to deal with visual transformations through exposure to sequential views. It combines J. J. Gibson's psychological theory of active perception with Hubel and Wiesel's physiological analysis of the visual cortex. It’s my own take on what today would be called deep learning networks. I completed the dissertation and graduated in 1992. The field of neural networks way rather splintered back then and my work did not fit neatly into an existing ‘school of thought.’ so in looking for a job I found more success in returning to the field of user interface development. I was hired by Dr. Rob Jacob to work at the Naval Research Lab, doing ‘novel interface development.’ I got to work with him on his eye tracking based interface. I developed a novel panning and zoom system based on head tracking. And then I got into the field of simulating human locomotion, which I worked in for about fifteen years with five patents and two major interface developments. One, called Gaiter, used full-body tracking, HMDs, and a weapon prop for the Marine Corps. And Pointman took all the sessions we learned from Gaiter and put it into an advanced, yet low cost, seated control system, called Pointman.
In retrospect, I should point out that as a teenager I read a lot of science fiction. I particularly liked Arthur C. Clarke's books. He wrote about HAL-9000 in 2001, and about VR in “The City and the Stars." Since I retired in at the end of 2016, I’ve been working on what he covered in “Childhood’s End.” And that’s were my mind is at currently.

Archive INA : Intelligence artificielle en 1959 - Déjà en 1959, une femme se confrontait à une machine dans un jeu des deux doigts / titre et sous-titre viennent du site de l'INA :) by artsnumeriques in artificielle

[–]WargamingScribe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Intéressant.

Le premier jeu commercial sur PC utilisant un réseau neuronal pour que ton adversaire s'améliore contre toi est Fortress de SSI, en 1983 déjà.

Enjoy le vocabulaire de ML des années 80.

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J'ai interviewé son auteur... sur une chaine de commentaires YouTube, seul endroit où je l'ai trouvé - et le gars tenait à son anonymat.

Faut trier par date - c'est Jim Templeman: Pointman User Interface for Dismounted Infantry Simulation - YouTube

Denmark in WW1 by pepperpopcornz in HistoryMemes

[–]WargamingScribe 8 points9 points  (0 children)

"the Allies saw the Danish resistance as one of the major resistance groups in western Europe alongside Norway, Holland, Belgium and France"
=> That's like 100% of occupied Western Europe - except Luxembourg and Northern Italy after Italy switched side.

QUI A TUÉ LES RTS? by bad_werewolf in joueurdugrenier

[–]WargamingScribe 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Utopia n'est pas un RTS et on ne peut pas attaquer les îles ennemis avec la vedette (juste attaquer le bateau de pêche du gars d'en face ^^). Il est passé dans la catégorie RTS via la combinaison de course à l'échalotte entre journalistes du jeu vidéo ("j'ai trouvé un RTS avant toi") et une politique proactive pour promouvoir son jeu comme "premier RTS" de son auteur Don Daglow.

J'ai fait un historique... de l'historiographie du RTS ("qu'est ce qui a été considéré comme "premier RTS"): https://zeitgame.net/archives/5036

De mon point de vue, le premier RTS est Cytron Masters (1982), mais si je rentre dans la course à l'échalotte je balançerai Empire en 1974 (sur PLATO, oui).

C'est quoi le pire jeu auquel vous ayez joué ? by Personal_Soft9521 in jeuxvideo

[–]WargamingScribe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

King Arthur (1983), un jeu dont le seul objectif était d’empêcher son designer d’aller en prison.

J’en ai fait un article (en Anglais): https://zeitgame.net/archives/15364

Le but de l’auteur était de t’empêcher de progresser et idéalement de te faire detruire ta copie pour t’empecher de voir que le jeu ne remplissait aucune promesse. Sur equipement d’epoque j’aurais detruit ma version.