This is a test post... does JU work yet?

This is another piece in my attempt to craft a sci-fi setting for an RPG/Space Sim a friend of mine is working on coding. This has not been edited for punctuation, spelling, grammar or anything. These are merely some of my design and concept notes. As always, I appreciate any and all feedback given! One of the key gameplay mechanics in LG is going to be the Jump Gate/Jump Drive transit system. The story and history behind the whole system will be fleshed out later. For now, this...

Star Destroyer - Day 3 October 22, 2005 Day 3 Today was a marathon session. I sat down around 1pm and pulled out all the little lego bags, and the frame section I built on Day 2. I kept at it until 7:30pm. While my back and knees aren't all that happy with having sat cross-legged on the floor for 6.5hrs, I got a lot done on the set. I started with a non-descript triangle and ended up with something that is definitely starting to resemble an Imperial Star Destroyer! Today's ac...

The Imperial Star Destroyer LEGO Set Purchased: Oct, 2005 I recently broke down and picked up the ISD LEGO Set at a LEGO store in MA. This is the second largest set LEGO has to offer, clocking it at an impressive 3104 pieces and boasts to be over 3 feet long when finished (the recently released Death Star II set beats it by about 400, coming in close to 3500 pieces). This set put me back about $300, which is a hefty chunk of change for what most people think of as a little kid toy. But...

The dry spell of PC game releases has finally come to an end as publishers ramp up for the holiday retail season. Gone are the months where you'd be lucky to see one decent game released, now we're getting slammed by them in waves. The first major wave of the season hit around September 20th, and for about a week we got hit with a lot of high-quality games with a lot of media buzz. Being a game addict with no serious expenses aside from rent and utilities to speak of, of course I blew a LO...

I have a challenge for all of us here on JoeUser. It's not a complex challenge with a lot of rules, and hopefully it shouldn't be too hard to meet (at least I hope not). So here's the challenge: For one full week, Sept 28th - Oct 5th, do not post any mean or nasty or hateful articles. This means anything insulting the left, or the right, or religion, or a political figure. Do not attack other users for their beliefs, do not insult anyone because they disagree with you (in both articles...

Alright, so TGN Phase 2 has gone out, we have our tokens, a list of games and more are being added as time goes on. TGN is taking shape as a viable online distribution channel for independent game developers looking to get greater exposure and maybe make a penny or two off their work. In short, it all works as intended. And it is GOOD. Well, the game purchase and distribution portion is GOOD. The web portal however has a lot of unrealized potential; in fact the whole TGN endeavor has so mu...

Since the hurricane hit the other week, there has been a LOT of talk about what the next The rebuilding of NO is both an economic need, and would be a sort of testament to our own determination and strength as human beings... a sort of "Screw you Universe! You can keep wiping us out, but we'll be back!" Now, there's something to say there about the relative intelligence of that attitude, but look at anyone who has ever lived in a disaster-prone area. Shit falls down; they put it all bac...

Last week, it was announced that developer Cyan Worlds would be closing its doors for good. After more than 10 years, 6 games, three novels and one of the most diverse online communities to surround a game, the final chapter has been written and the Book of Cyan is now closed. I’ve played (but not beaten) every Myst game released. I’m definitely a fan of the series from the early Macintosh days and am sad to see the studio finally go the way of the dodo. Myst games repre...

First off, I’m not a parent. I’m a LONG ways off from having to deal with this situation from that point of view. However, I am a fairly recent college graduate who worked closely with professors and administrators in part time jobs while I attended school so I got to see the system from both student and staff perspectives. This week, many colleges and universities begin classes nation-wide. Freshmen are flooding into dorms and upperclassmen are returning to apartments and houses for ...

Ok, I'm sure a bunch of you read Dr. Guy's posts about the school district in Virginia that was selling off its entire stock of used iBooks to the public at $50.00 a piece. Well, the sale took place finally, and total chaos followed. I'm sure that's not what you expected to hear about a used computer sale. From the CNN.Com article: "People threw themselves forward, screaming and pushing each other. A little girl's stroller was crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man ...

I've been a member of the Stardock Community since November of 2002. I'm nowhere near being one of the early members, and in fact I came to Stardock by a route much different from most. I'm not a windows customization junkie. In fact, at the time my only experiences with WindowBlinds has been under Win98 on a woefully underpowered machine and the themes I was able to find weren't all that great to look at, so I was pretty much turned off by the whole customization deal for quite a while. ...

The other day, the New York Times ran an article ( Link ) in their technology section on the reliance of big video game publishers like Electronic Arts on video game sequels over new properties. They mainly point to the Madden football series which has been running for some 18 years now (wow… hard to believe mainstream gaming like that has been around for this long now) as the prime example of pushing out iterative titles in a franchise instead of putting out truly new titles. There’s eve...

The Space Shuttle Discovery successfully landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California this morning, marking the first successful shuttle mission to space since the Columbia disaster two and a half years earlier. Now that we've gotten one back safely, maybe we can step things back up and get us back into space on a regular basis!

Ok, this is the first part of the history of a sci-fi universe I'm creating for a friend who is trying his hand at game coding/design. When I come up with fictional worlds for RPGs and such, I first invent a history, and as I'm writing that, a lot of the rules and structures of my world sort of end up writing themselves. What I have hear is the very earliest piece of the history written out. From pre-space faring Earth to when they first set foot beyond the boundaries of the solar system. ...