Earlier this evening I was saying that I’m not much of a geek. Shortly after I wrote that post, I had 5 computers running in the house, and I was using all of them. Timeshare to be sure, but I was popping from one machine to the next just relaxing…

Yes, I did say relaxing. I was into my 4th or 5th setup of Puppy Linux, trying to get it to recognize and use one of my wireless adapters. No go so far, even when two of the adapters are readily recognized by my other versions of Linux. It looks like it recognizes it, but for some reason it will not log on to the network. I guess I have more studying to do.

I had my other Linux box working updating some software to try out for video editing. If it works out on the current box, Linux may replace Windows on my main box. I like the software so far, but I want to make sure it does everything my current programs do.

I was doing some picture and video filing on my main box and that was just computer time intensive. I was just there to press the OK button.

The 4th computer was my main laptop. It was busy moving files to and from the 5th and final computer. I was also busy touring the internet while all this was going on. I switched back and forth between my laptop and my Working wireless Linux box. Depending on which one had the most/least processing going on.

I think I was able to turn off the text messaging on my cell phone. I’m fairly certain it got my daughters’ phones too. Oh well, it was pay by the message, so I won’t miss it, I hope they don’t. If they do, they can get their own phones. They aren’t the ones paying for it, so I get to choose. [evil grin]

Wow, three posts in one day!

I’ve been working on a very old laptop (Compaq Armada), and installing Ubuntu Linux on it. This little machine has just been collecting dust for the past few months, patiently waiting for me to install a working operating system.

With an old wireless card, I am now able to use this computer to access the internet anywhere in my house.

Why in the world would I want to do that? Well, I’m looking forward to download updates to this machine. Of course, I’m enough of a geeky nerd to like playing with a different OS. And finally, I really like giving this old machine new life for at least a while.

The machine is much too slow for any serious work, but it will give me a chance to work with something different. I may start converting some of my other old boxes to linux of one flavor or another. If I can find good video and picture software, this may replace windows on one of my everyday computers. Still too early to tell on that.

So far so good. I was able to post on my blog, and read email. Maybe with additional memory, this things wouldn’t be that slow either…. Nope, the processor is very slow.

Okay, I’m shifting gears for a post.  I really have nothing exciting to report for the last couple of days.  The second 6th-grade day went much like the first, though my perception of it was better because I really enjoyed working with the kids.  5th and 6th are probably my favorite age group to work with, though sometimes with a class that is a real problem I might let that get in the way and no longer enjoy it.  Friday was an ELL primary day.  It was a resource class so I worked with groups an hour at a time.  All we did was play board games.  Educational board games, but still.

So, why not talk about probably my favorite game series of all time?  I believe 1986 or 1987 was the year that the first Legend of Zelda was released here in the US.  When I received this game (gift I think) I was impressed with both the gold-colored cartridge and the fact that it actually saved games, no need to enter a long password to continue a game.  Never mind that later I would find out the consequence of this battery-backed save system was the game periodically being erased, something that couldn’t happen with a password system, though incorrectly writing down one could generate the same frustration.  I played and played this game, making my own book of maps which I still have somewhere.  When the quest was finished it really wasn’t because now there was another quest to play and map.

About a year later a new game game out- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.  Though very different than the first, I still played this game a lot though I don’t remember mapping it like I mapped the first.  There is an interesting story to this one.  The US wasn’t the first to get a release of this game.  I was able to get an imported copy of it for a little over $100 at Gamer’s Paradise.  This was apparently a European release, or at least it had a multilanguage manual indicative of European releases.  The funny part of this story is that our admin here may have provided Gamer’s Paradise with the very copy I purchased, according to him!  I hadn’t even met him at this time but now of course we are close friends.

The third and fourth games in the series, for the SNES and Gameboy I had to wait to play as I didn’t own the systems.  I think C lent me his SNES to play that Zelda game, but the Gameboy one would have to wait for emulation on the computer before I would play that one, the color version of course.  Similarly, I would play the two Oracle games this way as well.  I never did try linking the two games with the emulator to get the bonus content that owners of both games would get after completing both.

In 2000 two programmers would make waves in the emulation world, fielding the wrath of Nintendo with their release of an emulator for a system that was still selling in stores- the Nintendo 64.  It required a 3DFX card and didn’t play many games, but one of the games it was made to play was none other than Ocarina of Time- the first Zelda in 3D.  Nintendo did an excellent job updating this game for 3D which was unlike many older games updated to a first-person 3D perspective and I soon found myself buying a 3D card for my computer to play this game.  Why didn’t I just spend my money on the N64 system and Zelda?  I don’t know- I guess I am more computer-centric and it must have been cheaper.  When the next title came out, Majora’s Mask, and it didn’t play well with emulators, C came to the rescue again and lent me his N64 this time so I could play this.  Different than the first N64 title, but still quite fun.

Over the last several years my need to play games, including Zelda, has been waning.  I did eventually obtain a Gamecube with Windwaker and eventually Twilight Princess (which I stopped about halfway through over a year and a half ago and haven’t picked up since), but I haven’t played games like the Four Swords adventures, the Minish Cap, or the Phantom Hourglass to name a few.  One of these days I may pick up a used DS, but considering how much I actually play games these days my money is probably better spent on other things.

Want to play Zelda-style games for free?  I’m not talking about emulation here, and certainly not about theft :o.  I’m talking about a program that can make and play games in the style of the original Legend of Zelda.  While the games are in the style of the original NES game, the graphics and sound on the adventures many people make are more in the line of later systems.  Some even use custom graphics to make non-Zelda games.  Zelda Classic can be had for Window, Linux, and OSX.  You can get Zelda Classic and quest files (the custom quests) at:

Zelda Classic main site (https://www.zeldaclassic.com/) (You can also get the main program for Windows here)

PureZC (https://www.purezc.com/)

Both sites have forums too, for discussion of Zelda Classic and quests for it.  If you want Zelda Classic for Linux, OSX, or just recent builds for Windows (only recent builds work correctly with Vista) you have to get it at https://www.shardstorm.com/. You will have to scroll down to find the latest Linux or OSX builds as the most recent are for Windows only.

Well, I hope you don’t mind my post on retrogaming.  I’ll get back to subbing news when I have something interesting to post.  Until then.

I’ve been working on Windows machines since the existence of Windows, and I always hated the dreaded blue screen error. It has been quite a long time since I’ve had one of those, but today I had one. This machine has been fairly stable, the only additions were an extra gig of memory and my cell modem. No programs added or new hardware, except a Windows update yesterday.

The problem with this blue screen was that it flashed and went directly to reboot. Not a chance to read the screen at all. Not that it would have helped, but maybe it would have given a clue. I actually had to cancel a reboot to start from my last known good start. Grumble….

Now back to that blue screen. Back in the day when you could actually tell what happened (early dos for you folks that don’t know) it wasn’t the terrible trouble it seems to be now. When Windows 3.1 finally rolled in and you could actually do some multi-tasking, the blue screens ominous tone. Since you were multi-tasking, you weren’t always sure what task caused the error. Most of the time it was running the multiple tasks that caused the error in the first place. Windows became known for its blue screen of death. For a long time this prevented windows from being used for important functions (think payroll). It took Windows 2000 to finally start getting Windows machines that were fairly stable. I sometimes wonder where computer networking would be today if the early windows machines would have failed with more precise error messages. Would the world of Linux and Unix file servers have taken off as they did. Would Apple have any opening in the corporate world? I really think the downfall of the early Windows machines was that blue screen of death. Even the color made the machine seem ‘toy’ like. And the messages, well lets just say it took a lot to be able to get anything out of them. If a stable Windows environment existed from the beginning, would we even have the Virus writers/hackers of today?

I guess we will never know, until the next computer revolution.

By the way, I really think my latest blue screen was caused by the update Microsoft/Windows decided to make yesterday evening.

Over the weekend I was updating the hardware on one of my computers.  While I had the case open, and my hands busily putting in many different parts, my daughter told me that the family computer wasn’t working.   Grumble Grumble.  I seeing it I thought that the video card was a goner.  It looked like the hard drives were still working, the key pad would display the proper lights when hitting the NumLock and ShiftLock keys.  So I took out the card and swapped it with another.  Still nothing.  I think after 2 1/2 days of tinkering with the stupid machine, I found the problem to be a bad install of DirectX.  Grumble, it wasn’t the hardware at all.

Why don’t I just use linux????