Slashdot

simoniker writes "Following up on their profiles of the Commodore 64, Vectrex, Apple II, and Atari 2600, game historians Loguidice and Barton examine the lifespan of Mattel's cult '80s console the Intellivision, from Astrosmash to AD&D and beyond. From the article: "When Mattel released its Intellivision video game system in 1980, Atari knew it finally had a serious contender for the console crown. The Intellivision was more advanced than Atari's VCS (later known as the 2600) and featured distinctive software, clever marketing campaigns and sophisticated (though quirky) controllers. Mattel cultivated a unique and long-lasting brand identity, and it's not hard to find loyal fans of the system even today.""
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3653/a_history_of_gaming_platforms_.php

simoniker writes "How do you work out who's a real star in the programming interview process? Over at Dr. Dobbs Journal, Chris Diggins has been discussing how to find high quality programmers, noting: "The really outstanding candidates are very hard to recognize on paper and in interviews. They can sometimes be shy, or nervous, or not particularly good at promoting themselves", and also suggesting: "Don't test people's knowledge of language specifications. In our jobs we have access to books, people, and the Internet. Good programmers know how to look up references, and use their tools effectively to write code." What's the key questions you can ask to separate wheat from chaff?"
http://www.ddj.com/architect/207001122

Over at Dr. Dobb's, C++ creator Bjarne Stroustrup has given an in-depth interview dealing with, among other things, the upcoming C++0x programming standard, as well as his views on the past and future of C++. He particularly comments on some of the difficulties of educating people on C++: "In the early days of C++, I worried a lot about 'not being able to teach teachers fast enough.' I had reason to worry because much of the obvious poor use of C++ can be traced to fundamental misunderstandings among educators. I obviously failed to articulate my ideals and principles sufficiently." Though he notes: "Given that the problems are not restricted to C++, I'm not alone in that. As far as I can see, every large programming community suffers, so the problem is one of scale", is there anything specific to C++ that makes it trickier to learn/teach?
http://www.ddj.com/cpp/207000124?pgno=1

In a new weblog post on Dobbs Code Talk, Intel's James Reinders has been discussing the growth of concurrency in programming, suggesting that "...programming for multi-core is catching the imagination of programmers more in Japan, China, Russia and India than in Europe and the United States." He also commented: "We see a significantly HIGHER interest in jumping on a parallelism from programmers with under 15 years experience, verses programmers with more than 15 years." Any anecdotal evidence on this from Slashdotters?
http://dobbscodetalk.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&task=view&id=183&Itemid=29

simoniker writes "Agile development is meant to be a 'silver bullet' for improving programming productivity and output — but as Scott Ambler explains in a possibly apocryphal article extracted from the (ahem!) April 2008 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal, that's not always the case. He claims: "Last year, I was brought in to UK-based Gorwell Financial Group to assess a failed software process improvement effort", and explains: "A gentleman whom I'll refer to as Winston Smith (not his real name) had attempted a grass roots, stealth agile adoption effort within his project team.... In the end, Winston's agile adoption effort was squashed. By putting an agile façade on top of traditional strategies, Gorwell managed to derail the productivity improvement potential of actual agile techniques.""
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/

Over at Dobbs Code Talk, Chris Diggins has been discussing programming languages beyond C++ or Java, suggesting options such as Ruby ("does a great job of showing how powerful a dynamic language can be, and leverages powerful ideas from Smalltalk, Perl, and Lisp") but suggesting Scala as a first choice ("Very accessible to programmers from different backgrounds.") What would your choice be for programmers extending beyond their normal boundaries?
http://dobbscodetalk.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Learn-as-Many-Languages-as-You-Can-or-just-learn-Scala-.html&Itemid=29

simoniker writes "In a reprint from the August 1988 issue of the classic Byte magazine, new Dr Dobb's Journal-related website Dobbs Code Talk has published Bjarne Stroustrup's thoughts on 'a better C', describing what would come to be known as C++, the superset of C he created. As he explains in the conclusion: "What distinguishes C++ from other programming languages? C++ was designed under severe constraints of compatibility, internal consistency, and efficiency.""
http://www.dobbscodetalk.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=A-Better-C.html&Itemid=29

Obviously whimsical but slightly mindblowing — an Eastern European coder has published video and the Excel tables to get full 3D wireframe and even solid polygonal graphics running in Microsoft Excel. This isn't an Easter Egg by the Excel creators — rather, he's using formulas to output the graphics, using two different methods, and showing all the variables on screen in real time as the 3D is created.

simoniker writes "Some commentators are now vociferously claiming that the selection of Wii game titles contains a large number of underwhelming, if not downright lackluster titles, especially those from third-party publishers. Should Nintendo institute more stringent checks on what games can be made for its consoles, as Sony does in the U.S. right now? A new article talking to game biz analysts sees Jesse Divnich of The Simexchange disagreeing: "People have forgotten why Nintendo introduced [its 1980s 'Seal Of Quality', now no longer called that] in the first place: to stop piracy and to inform consumers of any extremely low-quality titles. Once piracy wasn't an issue and game quality began to evolve, more and more titles were receiving the seal, diluting its significance... we now have numerous media outlets (magazines, gaming community web sites) that have taken the place of needing a "Seal of Quality." It is unlikely any poorly developed title will fool consumers — shame on Manhunt 2 for thinking otherwise!""
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/

simoniker writes "The 'ambitious and unusual' vector-based Vectrex console was one of the most intriguing game console failures of all time, and Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton continue their 'History Of Gaming Platforms' series over at Gamasutra by analyzing the rise, fall, and legacy of the cult '80s console. From the intro: "GCE's vector-based Vectrex failed to win massive audiences, like the Atari 2600 Video Computer System (VCS) or the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) did. Nevertheless, the distinctive platform gained a cult following after being pulled from the market in 1984, two years after its debut, and now enjoys one of the finest homebrew development scenes of any vintage system.""

simoniker writes "Ian Bogost's latest 'Persuasive Games' column provides a new definition for casual games and their prospects, citing the Zidane Head-Butt game and suggesting: "If Casual Friday is the metaphor that drives casual games as we know them now, then Casual Sex might offer a metaphor to summarize the field's unexplored territory. If casual games (as in Friday) focus on simplicity and short individual play sessions that contribute to long-term mastery and repetition, then casual games (as in sex) focus on simplicity and short play that might not ever be repeated — or even remembered.""

simoniker writes "The second in Gamasutra's 'Game Design Essentials' series looks at the roots and design lessons of 'open world games' — titles in which the player "is left to his own devices to explore a large world" — from Adventure through Metroid to Grand Theft Auto. From the piece: "When we discuss "open world games" in this article, or sometimes "exploration games," we mean those games where generally the player is left to his own devices to explore a large world. What all of these games share is the seeking of new, interesting regions at whatever time the player deems fit. No force forces the player's motion into new areas. There's no auto-scroll, and there are no artificial level barriers.""

simoniker writes "Continuing Gamasutra's histories of the games voted into the Digital Game Canon, following pieces on Spacewar, on Zork, and on Civilization, the site explores Doug Neubauer's Atari title Star Raiders, a somewhat obscure but vital precursor of the Wing Commander-esque digital space opera. The introduction explains: "Doug Neubauer's Star Raiders was a game that made a vivid first impression. Released in 1979 for the Atari 400 and 800 computers, the game was a surprisingly complex space combat simulation. However, what left players entranced was its smooth, three-dimensional graphics. Star Raiders achieved a level of realism that few people had seen in a video game before.""

Are MMO populations 'tribal', and if so, what's the next tribal shift after World of Warcraft? At Gamasutra, academics including MIT's Henry Jenkins and Ludium's Edward Castronova discuss what's next for the MMO market, based on their research and play patterns. In there, Jenkins says WoW is getting _too_ much analysis from researchers right now: "WoW deserves attention because it has so captured the imagination of gamers over the past few years. That said, I don't think it is healthy for the field of games studies, which is still emerging, to be so fixated on a single game franchise — no matter what the franchise. A few years ago, it might have been The Sims or GTA, now it's WoW."
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1675/the_academics_speak_is_there_life_.php

simoniker writes "Veteran game designer Ernest Adams has posted the 8th yearly edition of his 'Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie' column, running down things game designers absolutely should not do. The first (of many) is 'wildly atypical game levels', described by a submitter as: "Optional mini-games are fun, and can be a refreshing change of pace, but optional is the key word here. Levels where a player must complete a game that uses a completely different skill set in order to continue back to a point that uses the original skill set can be irritating as hell." Adams adds: "Bullfrog was often guilty of this — I remember some wildly atypical levels in Dungeon Keeper, Magic Carpet, and Populous: The Beginning. They padded out the game, but because they made just about everything you had learned useless, they were very annoying." There's also now a No Twinkie Database on Adams' site, collecting all of the submissions so far."