#Minestorm

[v3rsi]

✧ 2008

[davidtodcn]

Card Designing #3

Got 2 attack cards designed, simple but effective.

2 different iterations for different attack types, ranged and melee. i also managed to get a stamina/ap system to work well, shown by batteries, it indicates the amount that is used after a turn for the chosen attack. The base card has 5 AP, and each mod also costs AP which is used when its placed on the matching base card.

I've also worked on the second 'set' using a similar approach with inspiration from vectrex games on one part of the design, then my own unique one on the other.

Slightly less AP and armor, the idea for this is to be focused on aggressive play, more attacks rather than upgrades, though they are available. This is the design based on something from the vectrex, this case is the lvl 1 MineStorm mines.

The upgrades were a little challenging to thing of, since it was a relatively straight and basic design. I settled with a sort of 'inner padding' and 'outer armor' idea. the inner padding helps with health, though not by much considering its ideal playstyle to get as much attacks in as possible, though the armor is quite effective but costs more ap than the base card's armor upgrade, and doesn't allow it to use its powerful ranged attack.

The ranged attack is mainly used for when the opponent(s) have little to no armor, ideal for finishing the job fast and effectively, while the melee is more focused on the armor but still does a solid amount of damage if the user locked themselves out of using the ranged attack with the armor upgrade. This is the unique design i made myself.

A side note that is semi-related, I've realized that it was a smart mode to have the cards all separate, since with multiple players, you could choose who you'd attack by facing the attack card towards the player of choice.

[davetheinverted]

In 1982, the two newest and most-advanced home video game consoles were the Atari 5200 and the ColecoVision. Here are some screenshots from a YouTube video comparing games released on both consoles.

It's important to note here that both of these were signficant upgrades from the two previous market leaders, the Atari 2600 and the Intellivision. Thus, the idea of producing a home console using vector graphics was not as…facially stupid as it would have been a decade later. The Vectrex (which of course had to have its own display built in because your home TV is a raster-driven device) gave unparalleled sharpness at the expense of its graphics being outline-only and purely monochrome.

Vectrex games came with tinted plastic overlays to put on the screen to give the illusion of color. "Made up of one to three colors for the play field area, these overlays simulate simple color graphics (on an otherwise black and white screen), helped reduced glare, flicker and gave the appearance of a flat screen. They also allowed changes in brightness intensity of vector graphics to be more visually distinctive. In some cases game designers created pseudo color cycling effects, for a sense of movement, by using alternating colored patterns" (Wikipedia).

While it got a lot of attention and early sales were strong, it was caught up in the video game crash of 1983 and was discontinued in early 1984. Unsurprisingly, there is an active homebrew community online.

Sources: 5200/ColecoVision screenshots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3pezFvQWp8

Pinball and Web Wars screenshots: https://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg80-vectrex.htm#page=games

MineStorm screenshots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKl1ZuiVqMc

Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vectrex

[huomenhaamu]

Visiting another cottage / farm house

stuffed capercaillie bird

additional tail fan from another

three different traditional birch bark horns

approximately 25 of those number chest and back flags from sports competitions and approximately 75 trophies from said sports competitions

derelict grain silo

hot water but only in half the taps

always an ant in the kitchen sink

shotgun

1982 Vectrex vector graphics gaming console with inbuilt CRT screen, MineStorm game as the main feature and two other games on ROM cassette cartridges

genuine chance of bears wandering across the yard

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Friday Night Stabby best quotes part 26 (09/07/21)

Etho: I went down and to the left to reactor, but I didn’t stop thinking about you, Brody. Even though we were apart. *pause* Brody: Hold on. That’s way too nice to me for the start, so I’m gonna say that’s a little weird.

...

Endless: If you’re telling me to vote for Impulse, I’ll do it. Impulse: Oh quit it.

...

Skizz: I don’t think it’s Evil. I just don’t think he’d do that! Brody: Do you think it’s you? Skizz: It- It’s definitely not me, but- Evil: *bursts out laughing* Skizz: Hold on, hold on, lemme check, lemme check, lemme check. Lemme see if there’s any blood on my hands. No, it’s just ketchup. It’s not me.

...

Astro: I was up cleaning pizza out of the vent. I don’t know which one of you jerks left pizza in the vent but it was disgusting. Then I went down and found Endless by the task where you have to flip the ship back and forth, whatever that is. Joker: Hey Etho, I think your food was in that vent. *pause* Etho: Oh really? Joker: Yeah, if [Astro’s] clearing it out. Etho: Oh. *pause* Evil: Why, was Etho in the vent? Joker: No, he just said he lost his food. Etho: Somebody stole my lunch box.

...

Astro: See, Skizz? You should’ve voted with me and voted Brody out. Skizz: No, you- you were the imposter! Astro: That doesn’t matter.

...

*after Brody and Tango fail to get a lover win* Brody: Hey, can I get a new lover? Can I never have that lover again in my life? Tango: Just shut up.

...

Etho: *reports a body* Etho: The vending machine is out of Mountain Dew. Who took the last Mountain Dew? Impulse: Obviously it was Tango. And somebody was so mad that they murdered him. Skizz: Etho, I have to know. If you’re a Mountain Dew fan- That’s like the one soda I can chug. Can you chug Mountain Dew? Etho: I can’t actually drink pop, it gives me nosebleeds. Brody: I’m sorry, what did you just say? Impulse: OHH he’s Canadian! He says ‘pop’! That’s cool! I’m from the midwest; we say ‘pop’! Mrs Tango: Midwest says ‘pop’. Brody: You’re all wrong. Can somebody please- Imposters, you can kill me but just kill Etho first.

...

Impulse, at a task: How does this work? Oh, I gotta come back, it’s doing a countdown thing. Endless: Yeah, remember? We had this conversation once before, months ago. Impulse: Oh I’m not gonna remember anything months ago. Endless: I said that you were the imposter because you didn’t- Impulse: Ohh, I remember THAT. Why you bringing up old stuff? Now I hate you again.

...

*a body is reported* Etho: Whatcha got, Brody? Endless: You’re the one who called it, Etho. *long pause* Tango: Hello? Etho: Brody? Skizz: What is happening here? Tango: This is awkward... Brody: Oh, hi. I’m on mute. Uh, found a body. Skizz: No you didn’t, Etho did. *everyone laughs*

...

Impulse: I think we’re down to Etho and Joker on this one. Tango: That’s two of my suspects, yeah. Impulse: Oh, I guess Endless as well. Endless as well could’ve been part of that mix. Brody: I just try not to think about Endless at all. Impulse: I kind of forgot he was here, yeah.

...

Endless: Dude, I can’t kill anybody tonight. I’ve been imposter quite a few times and I can’t- I just can’t get the kills off. My most successful kill was sheriffing Tango and that was an accident.

...

Endless: I killed you just to make you feel better. Joker: That didn’t help!

...

*during the break* Endless: I had the latest minestorms robot (lego) but we sold it so that my daughter could get an Apple Watch. Joker: Well that, uh, sounds pretty nice. Endless: I’m not sure- I’m not sure how I benefited from that. Joker: YOU didn’t benefit from that, but that’s nice. Endless: No, it didn’t work out for me.

...

Tango: Every week is me begging to play games and everyone goes “yeaaaahhh that sounds… good?” Brody: Do you ever think it’s cuz they’d be playing games with YOU? Tango: Probably! Probably. Impulse: Oof. Etho: It’s tough when the person cries every time you lose.

[g4zdtechtv]

Guru Larry's Fact Hunt - 5 Games Made Unbeatable Due to Developer Dumbassery

As in, “boss fight without a boss” dumbassery.

[adamroberthaug]

“How To Beat Home Video Games”. Released by Vestron 1982! I’m told this very rare and valued at $50-100. Its wild finds like these that keep me thirsting for vhs essence. Happy hunting! If you have vol.1 or 2 post up! #vestron #vestronvideo #rarevhs #vhs #vhstapes #vhscollector #vhshunter #tapehunter #howtobeathomevideogames #raremovies #rarefilms #videogames #atari5200 #colecovision #vectrex #vintagemovies #gamer #gamers #atari #MineStorm #Hyperchase #CleanSweep #Rip-Off #Berzerk #CosmicChasm #Scramble #Venture #CosmicAvenger #Donkey Kong #Zaxxon #LadyBug #Smurf #Pac-Man, #Centipede #Defender #Galaxian #SuperBreakout #StarRaiders #SpaceInvaders #hauntedgauntlet #yee (at Gifford Park, Omaha) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnF0A5JAj2s/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=jsht9udw65ng

[classic-retro-games]

Free Windows Remake of Minestorm. Download free!

[minestorm]

I recently finished this goofy goat, fully inspired by the mega talented Mohammad KheirAndish illustration. https://www.instagram.com/p/BQxKXfZlN4S/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Making of blog: https://www.artstation.com/minestorm/blog/RR8j/making-of-a-goofy-goat

[hands-in-the-air]

Early VR gaming on display at “Pong to Pokémon: The Evolution of Electronic Gaming” at the @bullockmuseum featuring the Vectrex video game system with 3-D imager goggles & MineStorm overlay and the Nintendo Virtual Boy. #videogames #virtualreality #vr #virtualboy #nintendo #vectrex #bullockmuseum (at Bullock Texas State History Museum)

[vitt74]

Vectrex – Gaming Historian Gaming Historian takes a look at the history of the Vectrex, one of the most unique consoles to ever be released. Featuring vector line graphics and a built-in ... source

[miniliew-blog]

Lego Minestorm - AI Soccer Game

Lego Minestorm – AI Soccer Game

Date:  Apr 29, 2017 This week at Wonder Works @ Liang Court, the kids learned how to build an AI (Artificial Intelligent) soccer game. What is it again? AI Soccer Game. Imagine this.  And you write some simple random AI to control one side, and human player control the other side.  And you build a sensor to count the scores for human.  Once the ball got into the goal, you can play a music, or…

[duiytuviovwo]

Vectrex Video Game System with Minestorm Overlay and Box - Works Great ( 57 Bids ) #Vectrex #Video #Game https://t.co/5VByfDbm7i

Vectrex Video Game System with Minestorm Overlay and Box - Works Great ( 57 Bids ) #Vectrex #Video #Game https://t.co/5VByfDbm7i

— Duiytu.Viovwo (@duiytu) March 11, 2020

from Twitter https://twitter.com/duiytu via http://twitter.com/duiytu/status/1237825438870835200

[gamerestart]

My Personal History with Electronic Games: 0 of N

We didn’t have much money. I understand that now, though I didn’t understand it then. 

This meant toys of an electronic nature—especially in the 1970s—were rare, and although I still recall we had a lot of toys, even limited lots of toys like Lego, Micronauts, and some Star Wars figures and (hand-made) vehicles, electrical devices were rare.

That changed after I turned 10 in 1981 with the Atari Video Computer System (VCS, also known as the 2600). Among the games cartridges we acquired was Basic Programming, which, in spite of its rather primitive nature, commanded a fair bit of my time and attention. But since there was no way to save your work, it quickly faded from view.

When we got a computer in 1983—a Commodore 64, used (later sold), that changed things. Unlike Basic Programming on the Atari, this was a much more sophisticated (and I daresay less ugly) machine. The full-screen editor was a definite novelty at the time. Somewhere along the line we also acquired a used Vectrex with Berserk, missing the overlays for Minestorm and the aforementioned Berserk.

It was fascinating enough, but by 1985 or 86, I had been gifted a new Commodore 128 computer for my birthday. And my mobile computing needs were satisfied by a tiny Casio PB-80 personal computer (which came with BASIC and a rudimentary database). A year or so later, I was able to acquire a tape drive and, with a few issues of Compute! Gazette, I was in business.

So most of the games I played in the 1980s were either on the Atari 2600, the C64 running under the C128, which I entered myself and saved to tape or were purchased on cartridge, or on my father’s 286 computer, which by 1987 I was using mostly to play with PFS: Publish and Wizardry.

Aside: the 286 was made by American Semiconductor, a step up from the frankly terrible Sanyo MBC-555 micro my Dad elected to purchase instead of a vastly superior Atari ST—even used, the Atari was a much more interesting and capable machine than the new Sanyo, which I came to regard as absolute garbage. The lack of wholly functional games on what was ostensibly a business computer didn’t help. (What also didn’t help was how slow the Sanyo was, or how we wound up with a computer without so much as BASIC.)

But to be honest, I cared much less about games than I did robots in the 1980s. Toys like Tomy’s Omnibot were fun to use, but I was more interested in building them—electronics, servomotors, microcontrollers, programming, et cetera. I wasn’t able to accomplish much (although my skill with a soldering iron still serves me to this day), but I learned a lot of things nobody was teaching in high school at the time. The hobby faded long before Lego Mindstorms ever became a thing, however.

So when the video game crash happened in 1982, I scarcely noticed—I learned about all of that after the turn of the 21st century. In 1984, we were living in Japan, and I had other priorities.

Among them:

Adventure (VCS)

Air-Sea-Battle (VCS)

Alice in Wonderland (C64)

Asteroids (VCS)

Berserk (Vectrex)

Bowling (VCS)

Breakout (VCS)

Centipede (VCS)

Combat (VCS)

Defender (C64)

Impossible Mission (C64)

Jupiter Lander (C64)

MasterType (C64)

Minestorm (Vectrex)

Missile Command (VCS)

Night Driver (VCS)

Othello (VCS)

Pac-Man (VCS)

Pitfall II (C64)

Space Invaders (VCS)

Space War (VCS)

Spy Hunter (C64)

Super Breakout (VCS)

Superman (VCS)

Sword of Fargoal (C64)

Yars’ Revenge (VCS)

So what’s missing? I’ll come back to that.

Leaving aside the other activities you can do with a computer that have nothing to do with games—I experimented with a 1-bit digital pixel drawing program for the C64, music, among other diversions—the only video games I can credibly claim to have completed in the 1980s are Adventure, Pitfall II, and Superman. Not even Wizardry (for PC, bought in 1987), which claimed a lot of my time, was played to completion, even after making extensive maps of the levels I did get to visit (alas, long gone with my manual and box it came in; at least I still have the original program disk).

I think the case here is that, if you ignore the sole sports title (Bowling, which, even if you win you wind up “completing,” even if you lose or fail to meet a set goal), or the board games, that mostly leaves games like Yars’ Revenge, Breakout, or Space Invaders—games which are essentially unwinnable because they reset—looping back to the same state as the first screen, over and over and over again ad infinitum, with the added consequence that the gameplay is now harder. So your reward for successfully shooting all of the invaders is essentially a punishment—faster invaders. Oh, and points, I guess. (Especially for solo play, points always struck me as an empty metric.)

Superman may not have been the best game for the Atari 2600, but at least it gave you achievable goals and a small (albeit crudely rendered) world to explore, something games like Asteroids don’t bother with. In other words, you can only play Asteroids until you’re bored or frustrated or both. (And hey, Superman’s even an open world.)

For all the charm I found in games like Space Invaders (even in Pac-Man for the VCS), I preferred games that offered some sort of immersion—even if I couldn’t always finish them. Bear in mind most video games of this period didn’t even have musical soundtracks; most only had blips and other noises.

So when in the 1980s I encountered what might actually be regarded as the diametric opposite of video games: role playing games, games which you don’t win, couldn’t necessarily “complete” (except by accomplishing clear goals and objectives), and where the points you earned actually had meaning because they could be used to advance the character you played.

I admit I was slow to grasp the magic of Dungeons & Dragons at first. But when it finally did, I preferred it. I didn’t completely stop playing video games (notably, Wizardry was mechanically similar enough to D&D to maintain my attention), but my interest in them slackened considerably afterwards, right when some people might argue when electronic games started getting really interesting.

[vectorplay-blog]

VectaROX: Classic neo-arcade

Vector-X - coming soon: VectaRox This began life as a side project.I had this simple idea of taking the old 80′s console Vectrex and updating its fabulous games. . Take the original flat screen and wrap the games around a 3D planetary environment. The first game in this style will be VectaRox, a game based loosely around the built-in game on the Vectrex system MineStorm. Add a dash of Asteroids and some subtle little additions from other 80′s arcade games and you have VectaRox.

More info on the way, for now I hope you follow this page and see how the game has developed.

[zyzxxinfinity]

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A post shared by Michael Gillette (@zyzxxinfinity)

Wife has challenged me to #MineStorm. I ACCEPT. #VecTrex #80s #retro