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From the movie "The Heroic Trio".

Sierra won't be doing squat, because Sierra doesn't exist anymore. The company that initially bought them doesn't exist anymore, having been eaten by Activision. The Quest games probably still belong to Activision. Leisure Suit Larry was sold to Codemasters, and then to someone else.

But the rights to lesser known series or one-off games like Codename: Iceman, or Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist? I'd hazard a guess that they're buried somewhere in the bowels of Activision Blizzard, probably right next to the No One Lives For Ever license.

Regardless, nobody really gets sued over fan games. At worse, you might get a cease-and-desist letter from some lawyer, which is usually what does happen, if anything happens at all.

EDIT:  The Gabriel Knight IP also still resides with Activision Blizzard, it seems. I think we can take it as likely that most of the rest still do as well.

[Guido & Maurizio de Angelis]

Very, very cool stuff in general!

Indeed. Unfortunately, Spotify, and most streaming services in fact, lack a substantial amount of soundtracks for a number of key Italian composers. For instance, both Spotify's and Apple's Guido & Maurizio de Angelis offerings are noticeably lacking, although they do have a few choice tracks, such as...

But, conversely, they don't have...

Or Keoma, which is...oh, man...so f'kin amazing. I'm serious; listen to it, and at first I guarantee you'll be like "What? Wait...What?", and then you'll immediately fall in love with it. For a soundtrack that has been widely ridiculed, both at the time of the movie's release and even today, I think it's a masterpiece, and up there with the soundtrack for McCabe and Mrs. Miller (which is what Keoma's producers told the composers to ape.)

A fair few Nico Fidenco soundtracks don't seem to be available, such as his Black Emanuelle scores, which contain some great music...

I recently bought a German "mediabook" blu-ray of Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals specifically because it came with a soundtrack CD, and it's just...(chef's kiss).


I'm always on the lookout for giallo soundtracks, and one which seems to not have any sort of digital release (at least not that I can find) is Trans Europa Express' soundtrack for Il gatto dagli occhi di giada...

Or Stelvio Cipriani's super-lounge soundtrack for L'Iguana dalla lingua di fuoco, which I love for two reasons; one, because I love Cipriani in general, and two because that particular giallo was shot in Ireland, and features a number of shots of my hometown, and a number of Dublin landmarks (such as Davy Byrne's pub on Duke Street!) are featured in it!

Cipriani's fantastic soundtrack for Blindman is, thankfully, widely available...

I tend to ramble on about Italian movies/soundtracks whenever the topic is even hinted at, like an answer to a question nobody asked...so apologies if this post is a little long.


EDIT: All these movies are worth watching, by the way, though your mileage may vary...

Haha, my Italian summer vibe is a lot more chill and a lot less disco than this

Gianfranco Plenizio did a bunch of movie soundtracks that are well worth checking out. Most of them are on Spotify, if you have access to it. Django Strikes Back is a particular favorite.

Anyhoo, I'm feeling quite Irish at the moment...

I once saw Sinead sitting in a restaurant in Dun Laoghaire; I was outside, walking past, and she was looking out the window. We made eye contact. Not the greatest story, but, when she died, I remembered that moment. She was a very special person. And The Lion and the Cobra is a great album.

Ah, the ha'penny bridge...I love this video because it reminds me of so many Dublin landmarks...and Phil was so f'in cool! Despite being deep into a heroin addiction (that would claim his life four years later), The Philip Lynott Album, on which this track features, is a testament (one of many) to his talents.

I know I posted this before, but bear with me. The National Prayer Breakfast were one of those bands that seemed to disappear into the ether (an interesting article by one of the members is here). Feeding Frenzy became the unofficial theme for a Dublin pirate radio station, Phantom 105.2, and as such holds a special place in many Dubliner's hearts.

I get quite emotional when I drink (if it's Saturday night, Fish is drinking!), but, as I said, I'm feeling very Irish at the moment. There's so many more I could post, but perhaps I'll save them for another time.

EDIT: Actually, here's Cork's The Sultans of Ping F.C. with a stone cold Irish classic...

Ah the Gameboy Colour... I still have mine. And the box it came in. And all of the games. And all of those game boxes. And all of the manuals. All in almost pristine condition as well. (Am I sitting on a gold mine?)

Yes. Yes you are.

...

Maybe...

Buying and selling Gameboy games is apparently a minefield, and everybody is suspicious of everybody else, due to the amount of fake cartridges floating around. But authentic boxed games in very good condition can fetch hundreds of euro/dollars, depending on the titles. Even boxes and/or manuals can fetch decent prices, without the cartridge.

You can use a pricing website to gauge how much a game is worth, such as this random one here.

Nice!

I still have a bunch of GB/GBC carts...somewhere. Off the top of my head, uh, Metal Gear Solid, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, Link's Awakening DX, Perfect Dark, Star Wars Racer, Pokemon Pinball, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Pokemon Blue, Pokemon Yellow, a really battered copy of Super Mario Land, maybe more. Some are boxed (MGS, the Zeldas, the Pokemon, and Perfect Dark), the others were bought as ex-rentals (I think). All were obtained during the GBC's original lifetime, and I owned more (Azure Dreams, R-TYPE DX, Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, Resident Evil Gaiden, Alone in the Dark, etc.) but these were traded-in, somewhere back in the mists of time.

Seeing Pokemon Pinball in your picture, reminded me of the built-in "rumble" those lumpy carts had. For such a limited system, the feedback in Pokemon Pinball, and especially in Star Wars Racer, was actually really well done. Perfect Dark was less impressive.

My purple GBC disappeared way, way, back, but I still have my original GBA (jet black, Toys'R'us exclusive, apparently ) purchased in...cheezus, when was it? 2002? I'm actually lucky to still have that GBA, as I had a hard case that I usually kept it in, along with a few carts, and that case vanished into the ether during a house move, along with the carts inside. It still bugs me that I can remember the exact carts, too; Super Ghouls and Ghosts, Golden Sun, Columns Crown, and the copy of Super Mario Advance 2 that came with my GBA. But I had, for some reason, put the GBA itself back in it's original box before the move. So it remains.

https://boingboing.net/2024/05/24/googles-ai-enhanced-search-suggests-users-add-glue-to-their-pizza-and-eat-one-small-rock-a-day.html

Ah, yes. Madness, the...etc, etc...

https://boingboing.net/2024/05/20/scarlett-johansson-denied-openai-the-right-to-use-her-voice-for-chatgpt-they-used-it-anyway.html

Ah, yes. Thievery, the cornerstone of AI.

80s Europop:

90s Iggy Pop:

Crazy Roboto Pop (I also find it hilarious that Dennis DeYoung sings "I am the modern man" as "I am the modren man" which is how I pronounced modern when I was growing up!):

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/stellaris-director-insists-ethical-use-of-ai-is-very-important-to-us-after-generating-voices-in-latest-dlc

Ah, yes. Ethics, the cornerstone of capitalism.

And thank you, for the kind words. 

Along with the two finished games in the database, which used the Panorama module, you can see the Panorama3D module in action in the short teaser game I made for an MAGS competition some years (fourteen!) back, which you can find at the Internet Archive.

As for the unreleased third "Wound Vignette", I was just never happy with it. Like the first two, it was made with the original Panorama module, but this time, while it was still set in a single location, it utilized six panoramic images to give the impression of moving between certain areas of that location. It had little to no puzzle elements, primarily being story and exposition dumps. I found that I had a hard time justifying it as a "game", and so it was quietly filed away.

"The Hallow" never got beyond the prototype phase, although that prototype was shown at a AGS gathering some years back. It was so far from being a completed game, though, that there really wouldn't be much to release, save for a dozen or so backgrounds and an intro sequence.

Right, well, I do actually remember. I suck at coding, and, yes, I couldn't find out why @overhotspot@ didn't seem to work when starting a game from scratch. And since I suck (so hard!) at coding, I took the cowards way out and simply built my games around the demo panorama game, in which @overhotspot@ worked flawlessly.

Now, don't get me wrong, the Panorama modules are amazingly simple to get running; SteveMcRea's modules were always fantastically user-friendly, and the Panorama modules are no exception. And I'm more than positive it was a lack of understanding on my part as to why I couldn't get @overhotspot@ working properly. But, as I said, the demo game works, so...

It's been, what, eighteen years (Christ, I'm old!) since the Panorama module was released? It wasn't used much, maybe once or twice, beyond my own games, and I always assumed it was because not everybody had access to the 3D programs to render out the backgrounds required. But I've always also felt kind of annoyed that SteveMcrea went to the trouble of creating these modules, only for them to be used in so few games. Again, it's understandable that not everybody would be fluent in the various 3D packages required to make proper 360 degree backgrounds, but still...

So, as a hopeless script jockey, I suggest that anybody who is having trouble getting @overhotspot@ to work out of the box, look to the demo game; and if you still can't figure out why @overhotspot@ won't work, well...build you game around the demo game provided? I'm sure Steve won't mind.

As to using several backgrounds in a game (moving from one viewpoint to another) it's relatively simply, and any hotspot with a "cEgo.changeroom" command will work. The final "Wound Vignette" actually exists (completed in...2011?...2012?...though it was never released) and it features half a dozen panoramas linked by simple "cEgo.changeroom" commands. As long as you use the correct "Panorama.Enable" and "Panorama.Disable" commands, you can move between multiple backgrounds with ease.

/reaches for bottle of rum...

Mmmm...

So, yeah, I hope that helps.

Running 11 Pro, and I've never had any interference from Defender when running AGS, AGS games, or compiling and running AGS games.

Installed AGS 3.6.1 just to see, but still no problems.

As usual, Defender did chirp when I ran the AGS installer, flagging it with the "Unknown Publisher" alert, but it generally does that (inconsistently) with installers. Some trigger it, some don't.

I like this a lot, and I was particularly impressed at how it managed to avoid a lot of the tropes of the genre.

As someone who suffers from mental health issues myself, I'm hope that developing the game was beneficial for you, and I hope to see more from you in the future.

I must admit I'm beginning to get really scared now Real musicians or people with a big music interest they'll hear something is off, but that's in the minority these days

And then there will be that discussion about supporting real composers that make music but, at this point, how do I know they didn't use AI to make their music?

I don't even think it's a case of AI becoming so good it's indistinguishable from the real deal. It's more about the vested interests behind AI trying to convince us that what they are producing is good enough as is. That there is no real difference in quality between art and AI art; it just looks a little off because we aren't used to it yet. Look at the video I posted; somebody decided that it was good enough to put out as is, despite it being hilariously inept. They don't care what it looks like, they only care if it will be accepted and consumed. And if it is, why even strive to make it "better"?

AI is a scam, and scammers are lazy. If the manpower, and cost, required in producing AI content outweighs the benefit of the scam, then it makes the scam seem more like work, and the scammers will split.

I predict you'll see a number of previously vocal AI supporters slowly lose interest in it (like NFTs, like crypto) as it becomes clear that it's not going to pay out they way they want it to.

EDIT: And the reason why we catch AI art so quickly is that the people producing it can't tell the difference. It's why they feel confident posting artwork without disclosing that it's AI; because it looks like real art to them, since they lack any form of critical or creative ability.

As always, fuck AI.

Very cool, and that's a heck of a lot of adventuring!

@LimpingFish Did you just say that prostitution is better than masturbation? 

Seems so.

Well, I did say it wasn't the best metaphor, and it was intended as a joke.

Spoiler

But I do happen to be pro sex worker, as it happens. Not something I've ever availed of myself, but I'm certainly not against the practice, and would happily see laws and safeguards in place to protect those who wish to consensually provide, and those who wish to avail of, such a service.

Not coming down hard on masturbation, either, just juxtaposing the idea of technology creating a facsimile of art, and technology creating a foam-injected facsimile of a mouth (or other orifice), the end result of both being onanism; Generative AI exists to allows otherwise talentless/lazy people the fantasy that they are creative souls, while a Fleshlight offers them the fantasy of their genitals in somebody's mouth (or other orifice).

I also offered the juxtaposition of actual sex with an like-minded partner compared to the act of sticking your penis between a pair of rubber lips (or other orifice), and art as a human endeavor compared to non-art created by a robot. I'll admit that one was a little weak.

And, yes, to make my joke, I knowingly ignored the fact that a Fleshlight is actually more worthwhile than AI, and by doing so I totally did sex toy enthusiasts a disservice. So, for fans of penises being put into fake body parts, or fake penises being put into real body parts, I totally support your right to do so and be proud of it, and I applaud all your forms of exotic sexual release!

[close]

It was crude, clumsy and a bit of a reach, but I thought it overall apt, at least from a silly point of view.

Nevertheless, I'll re-edit the post to appear clearer.

Note to self: re-read posts you intended to publish at 4:30am.

Edit: Also...

Now, I know I'm old...at least by social media standards...but I am prepared to die in the fight against generative AI. I swear, upon a random stack of poorly-xeroxed bibles, that I will never use generative AI.

Some might see this as hyperbole, or fatalistic thinking, but I really do feel that if we give this anti-artistic, anti-creative, anti-human technology, even an inch, it will destroy us, slowly but surely. It will come for everything.

For instance, unless we're previously familiar with the creators, it's becoming increasingly difficult to recognize AI-generated videos on Youtube. You may be five or ten minutes into a video about the history of industrial foam insulation, when suddenly the narrator, who up until now has been speaking perfect English, will pronounce a word in a way that no human would allow to pass in the edit. You realize you're listening to an AI.

Then you realize you're watching images generated by an AI, and before long you come to the realization that not only are the audio and visuals AI, but that the whole video is the result of a single prompt, and contains no unique editorial content, being simply a regurgitation of dredged data, presented in a way that apes a popular video style.
And a little piece of you dies.

The AI has harmed you, in a small but very real way.

I want art made by humans. I don't care how mundane, or downright bad, said art is, but I want human eyes and human thoughts and human fingers to have been involved in every step of it's creation. AI will never produce art. But it will churn out content, or a facsimile of art, and capitalism's wet dream; a never-ending supply of cheap, flavourless sludge, blindly consumed by thoughtless, heartless automatons.

Generative AI will not "democratize art" or "level the playing-field"; it will render the playing-field a featureless grey void, where nothing matters and nobody cares. There is inherent worth in talent, in learning, in a dedication to strive to improve our creative abilities. There is humanity and emotional sustenance in both the creation of and consuming of art.

AI strips us of all of that. It tells us to cut out the middle-person (work/talent/creativity/artistic ability), put aside the desire to present our thoughts, ideas, and feelings in a form that others will experience and love/hate/ignore, and allow the robot to interpret something that approximates an existing piece of art, where the only goal is a sell-able product made with the least effort.

Despite being a metaphorical stretch, AI is like a Fleshlight; cut out the middle-person, and just have technology give you a blowjob! Or rather, a facsimile of a blowjob, but hey, the end result is the same, so it must just as good as the real thing, right? Right?

TLDR; Fuuuuuuuuuuck AI!

[extremely]

Undisclosed AI generated artwork should always be called out, and rightly so, even though it's pretty easy to spot. Not only, as others have pointed out, does it almost always give itself away, but, with a simple reverse image search, I can bring up not only some of the original art that may have been used to teach the AI, I can see other AI images generated using a similar prompt that are extremely close to what's being presented! I get the appeal of AI, but why endeavor to call the resulting artwork your own, when it's so derivative and soulless?

What is it about developers who want to use AI, but never want to admit to using AI?

Having said all that, I agree with @Danvzare; if you're using AI to augment your own artwork, then so be it and good luck with it. We're not here to tell you what to do, or how to do it.

But make it clear that this is indeed what you're doing, so that those of us who may wish to avoid the end product can easily do so.

I saw that apparently there is one that only plays Mario 1 too, but I don't think I will get that.

I have that. It has Super Mario Bros, the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2, and Ball, a Game & Watch title. I agree with your points about it lacking certain features, but the resume game feature is dope.

I remember seeing a YouTube video about someone soldiering a headphone jack into the Zelda one (EDIT: here).