Nuclear Monster

  • The first non-prototype Steam Controller has reached the press and users who pre-ordered it early. PC Gamer has their first impressions. Here’s PC Gamer’s Wes Fenlon describing the touchpads that replace a more traditional set of analog sticks:

    I know that learning to use the Steam Controller is going to take time. I’ve been using controllers shaped and designed like the Xbox 360 pad for more than a decade, and that analog form factor and face button layout really dates back further than that. The trackpads are a very different thing. But my early reaction to playing games with the controller is resigned disappointment: the feeling that Valve may have taken on an impossible task. Years of engineering effort went into making something better than a gamepad, something that could fill in for a mouse… and this was what they came up with? There really wasn’t a better way?

    Perhaps there wasn’t, but I’m not sure this is the solution I want. In Left 4 Dead 2, aiming with the right trackpad felt labored and inaccurate, like using mouse aim at an extremely low sensitivity. I know that could be improved by adjusting sensitivity and familiarizing myself with the control method more. I can absolutely get better at it, but I don’t think I’ll ever like it as a form of input.

    It sounds like the trackpads are just as unusable for most games as on the prototype. I’d really like to try them in something mouse-focused like Cities: Skylines. Meanwhile, Linux users on Ubuntu are stuck having to manually edit text files to get their systems to identify the controller for now.

  • Archive.org has a special on archived muzak in aisle 89:

    In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, I worked for Kmart behind the service desk and the store played specific pre-recorded cassettes issued by corporate. This was background music, or perhaps you could call it elevator music. Anyways, I saved these tapes from the trash during this period and this video shows you my extensive, odd collection. Until around 1992, the cassettes were rotated monthly. Then, they were replaced weekly. Finally sometime around 1993, satellite programming was intoduced which eliminated the need for these tapes altogether.

    The older tapes contain canned elevator music with instrumental renditions of songs. Then, the songs became completely mainstream around 1991. All of them have advertisements every few songs.

    The monthly tapes are very, very, worn and rippled. That’s becuase they ran for 14 hours a day, 7 days a week on auto-reverse. If you do the math assuming that each tape is 30 minutes per side, that’s over 800 passes over a tape head each month.

  • John Carmack is one of those rare people who pretty much everything they write is worth reading. He’s not always right, but it is always entertaining to watch his level of genius on display. In this case, Carmack is writing about overcoming the problems he ran into while developing a custom virtual reality environment where you can watch Netflix films and shows on the Samsung Gear VR device. You should read it.

  • Firewatch Forestry mystery Firewatch from Campo Santo for Linux, Mac, Windows and Playstation 4, finally has a release date, February 9th, 2016. Get psyched.