‘I saw the possibility of what could be done – so I did it’: revolutionary video game The Hobbit turns 40

.. Realising that statistics wasn’t for her, Megler answered a newspaper advert for a part-time programming job at a local software company called Melbourne House. It was 1980, and she was halfway through a course that focused on designing operating systems and developing programming languages. “The day I was hired, the first thing my boss…

Bilbo’s party sociological infographic.

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Fascination (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 10) Comic crush after crush; that’s about it.

Rewatching ST:DS9 A character-driven farce, in which most of the major cast and several recurring characters get massive crushes and/or are comically crushed upon. Jake is sullen because his now-former girlfriend Mardah has left for school, but reluctantly agrees to attend the Bajoran Gratitude Festival with his Space Dad. O’Brien is jittery because Keiko and…

Defiant (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 9) Riker visits DS9, and it’s he who’s titularly “defiant”

Rewatching ST:DS9 After an overworked Kira snaps at Bashir, the good doctor’s prescription is an evening at Quark’s, which includes a chance meeting with Commander Riker, on leave from the Enterprise-D. The next morning when Dax pries her for details, Kira insists they just talked.  That evening, Riker bumps into her on the promenade and…

Overview of the Forward Ops station, one deck below the main bridge of the fantasy #steampunk cruiser from the bedtime stories I used to tell my kids. #blender3D #design #aesthetics #blender3dart

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Meridian (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 8) Dax falls for a man from a Bridgadoon planet

Rewatching ST:DS9 Kira tells Odo about the pleasure of drinking too-hot coffee and, in order to escape the attentions of the smarmy merchant Tiron, role-plays that she and Odo are lovers. (She doesn’t notice how Odo reacts when she takes his hand.) On the Defiant, a “commander’s log” lampshades the fact that this episode features…

Tweaking yesterday’s #steampunk workstations. Now with darker wood (better contrast with controls) and more pre-rendered texture detail. Brightened a bit in post. #blender3D #blender3dart #design #aesthetics

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Above the Forward Ops conference platform we see the chief engineer’s station and a glimpse of the pilot’s perch. Nice reflections on those beautiful control panels. #blender3d #design #aesthetics #steampunk

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A gangway, flanked by still more #steampunk control panels, leads forward from the chief engineer’s station to the pilot’s perch. #blender3d #design #aesthetics

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I pulled out a shelf on my teaching station and was greeted by this lovingly arrayed arsenal of remotes.

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The chief engineer of a fantasy #steampunk flagship needs a small booth for shift change reporting, and a workstation for the busy engineer’s mate. The control panels I worked on all summer are just background eye candy, but boy do they look nice. #blender3d #blender3dart #design #aesthetics

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The Enduring Allure of Choose Your Own Adventure Books

I didn’t realize how involved the children of divorced dads Packard and Montgomery were in the creation of the “Choose Your Own Adventure” gamebooks. (The children of divorced dad Will Crowther were one motivation for, and were early playtesters for, Crowther’s original Colossal Cave Adventure; the history of parser text adventure games and branching path…

The chief engineer has a forward-facing station, on a platform above the technical staff conference table. #steampunk #blender3d #design #aesthetics

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Civil Defense (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 7) O’Brien accidentally triggers dormant Cardassian security protocols

Rewatching ST:DS9 Although some time ago Jake told his father he didn’t want to join Starfleet, the plot of this episode requires O’Brien to still be mentoring Jake as they putter about an unused ore processing room, so that when O’Brien enters the wrong passcode they can get locked in together with Sisko. A recorded…