party like it's 1996

[jazzfish]

I'm looking for a young girl. She is being escorted by two groboclones.

It's all uilos's fault. She reminded me that the happy-wiggle originated with the happy-Twinsen-dance. (You know, the one where you find a cool item, and you stand in place while waving your arms and wobbling from side to side? "You've recovered your Holomap!" "You got back all your items!" Et cetera.)

So I dug in my Box O'CD-ROMs, and pounded on DOSBox and poked around on the Internet, and found this, which appears to do the trick.

Stop squirming, prisoner Twinsen!

Man. This is taking me back.

. . . dammit, I'd forgotten you take damage from running into the walls.

. . . and how bloody difficult it is to aim the magic ball.

. . . and how Twinsen is too drunk to walk in a straight line.

You just jump into the garbage and be VERY DISCREET about it.

Too late. I'm hooked.

Comments

[rbandrews]

I'm weak; I'm typing this on qwerty.

It was always Lode Runner for me. The premise is so simple: you want to get all the gold, then escape.

Who are those guys? Oh, they're just the monks, they'll eat you if they catch you, but you have a laser gun.

What, your laser gun is almost out of battery? Oh, well, you can still blast holes in the floors. The monks will fall into the holes.

Oh, you fell into the holes too and the Monks ate you? Well, better be more clever next time...

[dasphios.livejournal.com]

I'm weak; I'm typing this on qwerty.
Cheer up. That that's even notable means you're at least aware of an alternative, which puts you far ahead of most people.

[rbandrews]

I'm trying to learn Dvorak, is why it's notable. As I get more tired, my willingness to type with all the letters moved decreases...

[dasphios.livejournal.com]

Ah, Dvorak. That puts you far ahead of just about everybody. I met the guy who's probably the one remaining Colemak user the other day; I figured there might be more. But as a longtime Dvorak user myself, I can tell you that it's not a bad idea to hold on to the skills you've got now. It's pretty damn likely there'll be times when you can't change the layout you're using (libraries are a bitch sometimes) and it pays to not have to revert to touch-typing, and it takes FOREVER to reteach yourself a layout designed to slow you down.

If letters being moved around bothers you, why don't you just pop the keys off and move them into proper place?

Also, in situations where it gets difficult, all you need to do is clear your head and repeat the following mantra to yourself: "Damn you, Sholes!" It should help.

[rbandrews]

I did move the keys around, I'm just not used to it yet. Though I'm gettng better.

[jazzfish]

Lode Runner was pretty kick-ass too. The holes-sealing-up was very very weird, though.

[rbandrews]

But oh, the sweet sweet sound of them closing up with a monk inside... ShmooopCRUNCH.