This was the second episode of STAR TREK that I ever saw, but the first where I knew I was watching a show called STAR TREK (The first, at about age 4, was "The Apple", with the jungle planet and the big Godzilla head-temple-computer. In some hazy way I thought I was watching a World War II movie set in the South Pacific. A really weird World War II movie).
But by age 6, I was a little more with the program, and I saw "Patterns of Force" at my cousins' house.
Afterwords, I was asking my cousin who was my age how this Mr. Spock character came to be on the crew, since he was obviously extra-terrestrial.
She theorized that the Enterprise was flying through space, encountered Spock in a small one-man scout ship, "Blew it up", then rescued him (Presumably beaming him out of the wreckage before he died in the vacuum of space), and then invited him to join their crew.
It was about 4 more years before I realized there was no such episode. I still think it's a great First Contact story. Encounter an alien in his little ship. Blow it up. Ask him if he wants to join the crew and become First Officer and Science Officer!
Then again, maybe it's because there's something 9 months before, January 31st, which is exceptionally conducive to not getting pregnant. Guys are too excited about the upcoming Superbowl to have sex, or something.
I think there's a basic rule that many people's hobbies are going to be incomprehensible to those who aren't into them.
Train buffs like watching trains, for example. You might think that's boring. But even some really gonzo train buffs would scratch their heads at the British hobby of "trainspotting", where you're actually writing down the serial numbers on railroad cars and keeping a log, like someone birdwatching.
So similarly, model railroading might seem incomprehensible to someone who's not into it. But for someone who is, these train simulator programs are probably quite interesting.
Or, say, truck driving simulators. A lot of guys think trucks are cool. They may not ever get a chance to drive an 18-wheeler. But with one of these programs, you can.
These players might be equally mystified why anyone would want to play some 3-D shooter game that involves your character going into a hell dimension and pumping bullets into monsters that burst into gore patterns when shot.
And these players would want a real truck simulator, not something that devolves into GRAND THEFT AUTO mayhem.
And similarly, most of us are never going to drive a bulldozer or operate a giant crane or whatever in real life, so simulators like that could have some appeal.
And even if that doesn't appeal, some of their things like DEMOLITION SIMULATOR, you can probably see the appeal: Get a big old wrecking ball and go to town on some buildings.
Since I've made some simple games myself, I find myself curious about their digging simulator, just from a programming point of view: Making a 3-D environment that you could really go in and start scooping up dirt, sounds pretty complicated.
I note that a lot of these games seem to be European, and specifically German. I think there may be a tendency for these simulations that might seem to be boring things but might appeal to a certain orderly mindset. It might even be meditative to do these sort of ordinary tasks in them.
Even by those standards though, it seems like titles like GARBAGE TRUCK SIMULATOR or STREET CLEANER are pushing it. You might think they're self-parody, but they don't appear to be.
If I were a programmer on them though, I'd think the urge to put in rare Easter Eggs in the game would be overpowering.
You know, the kind of 1 in 10,000 times thing that would cause players to post on messagebases, "I swear, I was playing GARBAGE TRUCK SIMULATOR last night and suddenly this car pulled up in front of the bank and these guys got out and ROBBED THE BANK!"
Only to be roundly derided on these forums, like someone claiming to have seen Bigfoot in the real world.
I can only assume you have to remove their Will To Exterminate...
Or it reminds me of the structure in the winter level of INCEPTION.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B16rhVK5Av0#t=2m15s
But by age 6, I was a little more with the program, and I saw "Patterns of Force" at my cousins' house.
Afterwords, I was asking my cousin who was my age how this Mr. Spock character came to be on the crew, since he was obviously extra-terrestrial.
She theorized that the Enterprise was flying through space, encountered Spock in a small one-man scout ship, "Blew it up", then rescued him (Presumably beaming him out of the wreckage before he died in the vacuum of space), and then invited him to join their crew.
It was about 4 more years before I realized there was no such episode. I still think it's a great First Contact story. Encounter an alien in his little ship. Blow it up. Ask him if he wants to join the crew and become First Officer and Science Officer!
As you can see, this company makes a lot of these kind of simulation games:
http://www.excalibur-publishing.com/games_sims.htm
I think there's a basic rule that many people's hobbies are going to be incomprehensible to those who aren't into them.
Train buffs like watching trains, for example. You might think that's boring. But even some really gonzo train buffs would scratch their heads at the British hobby of "trainspotting", where you're actually writing down the serial numbers on railroad cars and keeping a log, like someone birdwatching.
So similarly, model railroading might seem incomprehensible to someone who's not into it. But for someone who is, these train simulator programs are probably quite interesting.
Or, say, truck driving simulators. A lot of guys think trucks are cool. They may not ever get a chance to drive an 18-wheeler. But with one of these programs, you can.
These players might be equally mystified why anyone would want to play some 3-D shooter game that involves your character going into a hell dimension and pumping bullets into monsters that burst into gore patterns when shot.
And these players would want a real truck simulator, not something that devolves into GRAND THEFT AUTO mayhem.
And similarly, most of us are never going to drive a bulldozer or operate a giant crane or whatever in real life, so simulators like that could have some appeal.
And even if that doesn't appeal, some of their things like DEMOLITION SIMULATOR, you can probably see the appeal: Get a big old wrecking ball and go to town on some buildings.
Since I've made some simple games myself, I find myself curious about their digging simulator, just from a programming point of view: Making a 3-D environment that you could really go in and start scooping up dirt, sounds pretty complicated.
I note that a lot of these games seem to be European, and specifically German. I think there may be a tendency for these simulations that might seem to be boring things but might appeal to a certain orderly mindset. It might even be meditative to do these sort of ordinary tasks in them.
Even by those standards though, it seems like titles like GARBAGE TRUCK SIMULATOR or STREET CLEANER are pushing it. You might think they're self-parody, but they don't appear to be.
If I were a programmer on them though, I'd think the urge to put in rare Easter Eggs in the game would be overpowering.
You know, the kind of 1 in 10,000 times thing that would cause players to post on messagebases, "I swear, I was playing GARBAGE TRUCK SIMULATOR last night and suddenly this car pulled up in front of the bank and these guys got out and ROBBED THE BANK!"
Only to be roundly derided on these forums, like someone claiming to have seen Bigfoot in the real world.
I mean, Robespiere was eventually executed. Even the French aren't going to rah-rah for him too much?
Genghis Khan or Attila The Hun? I suppose you'll find fans.