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Puns are truly the lowest form of humor...which is probably why I enjoy the thoroughly.

I don't really have any favourites, I just use em when I can, and even sometimes, when I can't.

Speaking of Lepers...another joke
What did the leper say to the prostitute?

Keep the tip!

Here's some classsics:
Two men walked into a bar...OUCH!
       
A horse walks into a bar, and the bartender asks, "Why the long face."
                           
Chilli today Hot Tamali

A Longer one: A short midget knight is riding a St. Bernard. It's late at night, and before he knows it, rain begins to poor down. Looking for shelter, he comes up to the first house he sees, and knocks on the door. An old man steps out, and the knight asks if he wouldn't mind housing him until the rain stopped. The old man replied, "I wouldn't refuse a Knight on a dog like this!"

Two Peanuts were crossing the street, one was assaulted

Ahhh...puns are great.

-MillsJROSS

Here's the problem, we CS majors have. At least in my school, a lot of majors like Physics...where the graduating physicists are in the single digits, start out with many more.  Where do the many more go? Well, it would make sense for them to go into areas where the class requirements are similar, but the workload is, perhaps, not as hard.

CS and Physics, at least initially, share a lot of classes together...so when people realise that maybe Physics isn't for them they either don't get a degree at all, or they switch majors. And there's jolly good old CS to go to. And when  you think about it, most people who were persuing Physics have a problem solving mind, which lends itself to CS in the first place. So it's not as hard a switch as one might think.

There are other majors where the same thing applies.

As far as finding a job...well almost any job market is cyclical. And you have location to worry about. And ironically, you have to have experience to get a job somehow. But eventually, I'm sure those who try hard enough will eventually get a job and the experience they want or need. Other people will just do something else.

-MillsJROSS

I couldn't enjoy these. Some of the clues were just too obscure for me. When I got it, I could see the correlation, but to me it didn't really seem like I solved anything important. More just a trick than a puzzle. Because a puzzle seems to have a set of rules, where as in this, anything goes...or so it would seem. I guess I just don't like to think outside the box...but being provided a picture, my assumptions would all be that anything done in this game should be done within said picture. Of course, this is not the case.

I also tried this game when I was sleep deprived, so I might try it again when I'm better rested, and keen on solving puzzles. Who knows!

-MillsJROSS

Thanks to nermonkey for hosting this, I made a slide show for us mitteneers. It's 26 megs, sorry guys, but it needed good music, otherwise it's just pictures. I hope you all enjoy. It's all from your picture sites.

http://monkeygames.mixnmojo.com/hosted/mittens.zip

-MillsJROSS

Besides, those really old games can be bought for only a matter of a few dollars these days.

For the most part, unless you're buying these old games from the company itself, then those few dollars don't really support the company who produced them. That is, if it's really abandware.

You could argue that you're supporting the electronic boutique's and whatnot, but those guys make enough money as it is.

I'm all for abandware, illegal or otherwise!

-MillsJROSS

You have to remember, scotch...we United Statesians, don't actually get games till a couple years after their first release date. Runaway came here about a year or more ago. I never played it, though, because I heard of a few pixel hunting puzzles.

-MillsJROSS

Syberia...most of the backgrounds were eye candy with no flesh to them. And by flesh, I mean you couldn't interact with most anything that wasn't puzzle related.

Side Note: SQ3's ending was superb in my oppinion. I wouldn't change anything in that game at all. The ending matched with the story-line, and it gave you that feeling of danger. And actually, it's ending was an action/puzzle. You had to figure out what to do with your shields and weopons. There was some actualy thought involved other than aim and fire.

-MillsJROSS

I remember you saying something about this trip at Mittens. Give us all the gory details!

And then tell us about this trip to Egypt.

-MillsJROSS

I believe the legal argument Kazaa and other similar peer-2-peer programs have, is that believe it or not, some people actually do trade legal information.  Kazaa is not responsible for people who decide to take the law in their own hands, and trade pirated software/music/and other illegalities.  I'm sure it says as much before you install the program. This makes it tricky for them to be shut down, because it truly isn't their fault. You the user accept full responsibilty for anything traded once you click the "I agree" button.

I wish I could help Mats...I played the game without sounds, too. I still have yet to hear the voices, but the game was very enjoyable, never-the-less. I'd try ebay, if you want to go the purely legal route.

-MillsJROSS

I get shaky hands. My hands shake when I'm tired, too. It gets fairly bad. When I'm playing poker my hands will shake if I'm nervous about a hand, but luckily it isn't a tell, because I'm either nervous cause I'm bluffing like hell, or I have a really great hand and am nervous that someone has one better. I can't use notes when making a speech, though, because my hands shake too much for me to hold something and read it. My voice remains strong, though. So as long as I have a podium to hide my hands, no one could tell how nervous I am.

I also get that feeling in my stomach before an exam, and it quickly goes away once I get it. During an exam or a cramming section, I will run my hands through my hair.

-MillsJROSS

If the game isn't going to appear in stores, then for the most part the resolution doesn't matter too much. They're not trying to attract people who don't usually buy into the genre. A great majority of their sales will be from the "unusual" gamers, anyway.

Though Al Emmo is the reason this topic started, we can't just discount browsing in stores. The question is merely whether 640x400 is a sellable game, whether it's associated with Al Emmo or not, is of no consequence. There are many gamers who do browse, and while admittedly, The Adventure Company doesn't put out the best games, they're usually lower priced, and have good enough graphics to appeal to those who do browse.

Would 640x400 sell in an atmosphere like EB (or wherever you go for your games)? It's really all dependant on price. If you're charging what all the big game corporations are charging for their new games (about 40-50+ dollars US)...then your profit, if it can be called that, won't amount to much...it probably will have an outcome of debt. If you charge a reasonsble price like maybe 10-20 dollars, than you might be able to make a profit.

A lot of the big corporations will spend a lot of money on advertising...a lot! One good thing about adventure games, is that news spreads quickly when a game is comming out (This is true for FPS and other genres, too, but since they have many more games comming out, it's more an advertising competition than the adventure game market). So a game already doesn't have to spend as much money on advertising. Using 640x400 graphics, they probably won't have to pay out their asses for the graphics...the fee will still be modest, but not nearly as much. So they've minimized their costs.

If they are smart with how much money goes into the game, and selling the game, then I do believe that 640x400 resolution will make a profit. Of course, this is all under the assumption that the game is actually good, and the graphics aren't too shabby.

-MillsJROSS

Just remember, there are some guidlines in making RON games...I think not killing of characters is one of them. Might be the only one...I've never made a RON game, so I can't say for sure, but I think the above is a set rule, so keep it in mind.

-MillsJROSS

One thing I'd like to say, is that Fatman was an alright game for the amount of money he charged. If you didn't like the game, I'm sorry...I agree it wasn't the best game ever, but it was better to me than some games I've bought for 30-40 dollars. And while he doesn't frequent the forums a lot, it's not nice to trash fellow AGSers game's.

And I have to agree with Gil...640x400 is just fine resolution for me.

There are several reasons why adventure games are no longer bringing out new and better graphical improvements...for one, they aren't really needed. We can achieve fairly realistic backgrounds and characters. The major reason is the fact that to produce the graphics of the FPS games, you have to pay out lots of cash...which you'll make back. Adventure games don't appeal to as many people, so for them to go above and beyond it would cost them an assload, that they may or may not make back. I remember reading that The Longest Journey sold some 400,000 copies...where as these new FPS's can sell a million on the first day. It's a simple matter of economics...it's better if these games spend less time on graphics and more time on the story.

Which is what I'm hoping is the case. I don't need great graphics to enjoy a game...I like them, but graphics aren't everything, and for the most part, they're highly over-rated.

-MillsJROSS

If you do it correctly, it could be very good. The problem you might have with taking pictures, is the camera angle. A lot of people who use real photographs in their games, are never consistent with the camera angle, and some rooms are hard to decipher, and aren't in a good perspective. So I'd suggest taking lots of photos of one area and seeing which picture works best in the setting of your game to help relieve the ackwardness.

Another thing to consider, if you haven't done so already, is the character him/herself. Will the character change according to which "realm" he/she is in? I think that would be the wisest thing to do. Because drawn characters clash over real life pictures...it's just not appealing to the eye's, unless they're drawn very well.

In any event, good luck with your adventure pursuits!

-MillsJROSS

You heard the joke where a chicken and an egg are "sitting" in a nest. The chicken pulls out a cigarette and starts smoking and the egg says "Well, I guess we know the answer to that question!"

-MillsJROSS

It's a cool idea. The only thing I'd ever be concerned with, as already mentioned, it eye fatigue. I don't know if I'd be able to play the game without getting a headache. That doesn't mean I'd like to see it tried. Could just be me who gets headaches when looking through those things.

-MillsJROSS

I bet CJ beats you all! And since I am really CJ's alter ego, as any older member knows, that means I beat you all, too! Yay me!

-MillsJROSS

That's a lot to ask of a moderator. Their already busy enough as it is without adding more to their workload.

If you didn't come to the forums for a week, then see what you missed. Our lives shouldn't be ruled by these forums anyway. The Gen. Chit Chat is, believe it or not, is not the sole purpose of AGS. Eons ago, it seem, AGS chat seemed to be predominant in where our conversations lay. And not that it is bad that we post here, it strengthens the community a bit, the problem lays in the fact that too many of us putz around in these forums and don't spend enough time making games (me included).

I'd also like to say, that a person should make their own oppinions. Read the first post in a thread, if it catches you, read on. Otherwise go somewhere else. I also find that if there has been a thread with tons of reply's already, as interesting as it might be, I'd rather not spend time catching up.

Also, you'll find that the forums tend to go in cycles of repetativeness, and you're likely to find a similar thread eventually anyway.

-MillsJROSS

I've been able to run all the LV games on my XP system, or could at one time (I'm not on it now so I won't check). Try playing with the settings if you get to that point. You may have to adjust a few things. If someone is in cahoots with Phil, perhaps they can get permission to revamp it to windows. It's a classic AGS game...it would be a shame if people couldn't play it.

-MillsJROSS

I believe there was a mini-series of the show, but it only pertains to the first two books. I found it was enjoyable, considering the difficulty of getting Douglas Adams satire into a movie succesfully. Even if the new movie turns out to be horrible, I'm sure it'll get a good showing. At least I'll show up to it, no matter the reviews. As I'm sure many other fans of his work will do the same.

-MillsJROSS