However, it does retain the same engine and interface as the first game, which is a plus because we can probably look forward to a solid RPG instead of the tripe that's been foisted on PC RPGers for the past 4-5 years. It's a minus because God knows they could have done something to improve the game.

Ok, now about Fallout. This looks like the salvation of PC RPG's; a clean drink of pure water in an RPG drought that has lasted for years. Skills, attributes and turn-based combat with an atmosphere and storyline to boot.

About turn-based combat: this is probably one of the most important elements in RPG's and it's been totally abandoned by companies in favor of thrashing the mouse about and clicking wildly. I swear that these companies must be brain-dead. Nothing, and I mean nothing beats a good turn-based combat system. Do those stupid developers really think they can achieve the depth that Tekken 3 has in terms of real-time combat? Get real. I wish I could just walk into all those companies and issue an order to all of them saying "Because you people have no idea how to design a good game, I now decree that all the combat in all your RPG's will now be turn-based, so that you can at least get started on the right foot." Hell, I wish I could have done that for the past 5 years.

Anyhow, Fallout has great graphics, brutal looking combat and, it seems, a plot! The demo actually has something for you to do, unlike BAA...you have to go into a town and figure out how to free it from the grip of two rival gangs. The only shortcoming I see right now is that it doesn't appear as if you get to have a party; you'll just be one lonely dude. Still, I have VERY high hopes for this one. I don't know the exact link, but surf around Interplay and you'll find the Fallout demo eventually.

Anyhow, it's a 25MB download from ftp://ftp.sierra.com/pub/demo/biademo.exe. The FTP server seems to be down right now, hopefully it'll be up soon. I'm eager to see what this one is like.

Update: Looks like the Adrenaline Vault has it also at ftp://ftp.avault.com/pc/biademo.exe

3:40 PM

It's too big to just carry around with you anywhere. And believe me, I tried to delude myself into doing that, but it didn't fly. You actually CAN carry the Pilot anywhere. I carry it in my jeans pocket, which is a very good test of portability.

For as big as the Newton is, I don't think it does enough either. If you can't carry it around everywhere you go, then basically you have something that you have to think about every time you want to go somewhere. That's a laptop. Why not just get a laptop?

Well, actually I believe the Newton and a laptop are not quite comparable. The Newton is much smaller and has instant on. But the Pilot fulfills those needs, and for anything else I'd get a Toshiba Libretto. Now that's a REAL computer. Hope it succeeds in the US when it gets released.

12:30 AM

I bought them the K5 with a no-name PC Chips motherboard, the M530 I believe. Man, it was hell trying to figure out who the heck made the thing; they don't put their brand name or anything at all on there. The title of the user manual is "PCI Bus and ISA Bus Pentium Mainboard". That's generic with a capital G, ha!

When I got back I decided to try switching motherboards with my parents to try and get the 75 MHz bus speed that the PC Chips mainboard was supposedly capable of. My Pentium hadn't been stable at 120 in my old motherboard, but I figured it might be stable at 112.5 and I'd get the 75 MHz boost to boot. Actually, it was difficult to even find out that the motherboard did 75 MHz, because in the manual it's printed as 55 MHz (apparently a setting used on older revisions of that motherboard for Cyrix P120+ chips). BUT, if you look closely on their website, they list either 55 MHz or 75 MHz depending on what clock generator you have on your motherboard. I looked and found I had the 75 MHz model. Yippee! Another thing I found out was that my ASUS motherboard was Rev 2.1, which meant it could accept the AMD K5 chip. So that gave me the go-ahead.

I switched the motherboards, which took an hour or two because that basically means you have to rip apart two computers and put them back together. Got my computer back up and working at 66x1.5=100 MHz. Went to 75x1.5=112.5 MHz and got some serious crashing and other junk. That was a bummer. Played with the VRE voltage setting, not much help. 60x2=120 MHz worked just dandy, though. So eventually I figured out that disabling the external cache made the system stable (and butt-slow!). The fact that it was a memory problem made sense, too, because I knew it probably wasn't the chip.

I tried a friend's COAST cache module and it didn't help, though. So basically I just gave up on the 75 MHz thing. I guess either I tried two cache modules that can't run at 75 MHz or the motherboard isn't capable of handling that clock speed. Funny thing is, the computer is running fine at 120 MHz when, before, the Pentium couldn't take it in my old motherboard. That's good, because it would have been hell switching motherboards again! So at least I got something out of it.

Download it from http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/4156/mdk_exe.zip. The file also includes new Direct 3D and Rendition executables. I'm pretty sure this only works with the full version.

For those who haven't read the recent issue of WIRED magazine... The United States Marine Corps are now training their soldiers for ground combat with a modified version of DOOM. They managed to get funding to develop a specially altered DOOM II program, which is tweaked to turn it into a battlefield simulator.

What a riot! Anyhow, download it from http://mcmsmo.usmc.mil. Apparently it requires the full version of Doom II to play.

12:30 AM

Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this? They stuck the guns in with a bunch of toys, people. The natural assumption for a kid to make is that IT'S A TOY GUN. I'm not saying that those kids shouldn't have known better than to know those were real guns and not to risk playing with them, but come on, they are kids. Sheer stupidity or just another example of journalists making up their own news, I don't know what that was. It's just stupid, that's all.

I don't know why Cardinal Technologies doesn't just release a properly updated .INF file for NT. It's not that that would be hard.

4:13 PM

Anyhow, the point. USR has a number you can call to check out your line and see if it's compatible with technology used to implement 56K speeds. That's a good thing, because a lot of people aren't compatible and don't understand when they get no improvement after upgrading. Follow these directions from US Robotics website:

First, open a "terminal window" in your communications software. For detailed instructions, consult your software's documentation.

Dial this number:

1-888-877-9248

Most communications programs offer the ability to dial from a "phone book." Alternately, you may send the following command to your modem:

ATDT1-888-877-9248

You'll be connected to the LineTest system, and asked if your system supports graphics. Press the 'Enter' key to proceed.

You'll then be prompted for your name. Type in:

Line Test

The LineTest system will perform a series of diagnostics on your connection, and will inform you of its conclusion.

1:10 AM

If you don't know what Layer III is, try downloading some of the files on this page near the bottom. It essentially allows you to squeeze CD-like quality music into a minute per megabyte.

Get it at http://winamp.lh.net or http://nullsoft.home.ml.org.