Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

When it became clear that full motion video on cd-rom was a selling feature for games in the early 90’s, hardware manufacturers wanted to be a part of it as well. Sigma Designs’ RealMagic card, also sometimes known as ReelMagic, was a MPEG accelerator card that allowed users to play video up to 30 frames per second by plugging into a video card’s feature connector. While developers were initially excited to support it in 1993 and companies like Access Software, Interplay, Psygnosis, Readysoft, and Sierra On-Line announced they would create games for it, but the card only got a handful of games that support it. The card only being for a very specific niche and price tag of $450 meant the card had a short lifespan. Some of the known games that had special editions released for it include:

Dragon’s Lair
Space Ace
Return to Zork
The Horde
Entity
Flash Traffic
Crime Patrol
Crime Patrol 2: Drug Wars
Lord of the Rings
Man Enough
Conspiracy
Space Pirates
Return to Cyber City
Prince Interactive
The Psychotron
Silent Steel

There’s other games that reportedly exist for it as well that have never been confirmed, such as Gabriel Knight 1 and King’s Quest 6, although these might have just been mentioned on the demo disc. The demo disc that shipped with the card has videos on it for games that never shipped for it, such as The 11th Hour, which was an early video of the game that uses an old version of the game’s logo. If you’re interested in checking out some of these games, there is a fork of DosBox that has ReelMagic support. I wouldn’t say the changes it makes to the games will make you re-evaluate them, they are noticeable. Return to Zork features FMV of people talking instead of digitized sprites, Crime Patrol features better quality video, and Lord of the Rings uses footage from Ralph Bashki’s animated film. The Return to Zork one is fascinating because while it adds more FMV, it uses the floppy disk version’s soundtrack, which is less impressive. It also leaves in takes where actors flub their lines and ruin some of the game’s jokes, where the more mainstream release of the game would edit around those. The strangest part is that it has video of dialogue not in the other release that gives more context to some puzzles, which are one of the more frustrating parts of the game. While I can’t say I’m surprised it never took off, it’s kinda fun checking out games from childhood that are actually slightly better than how I remember them.

https://virtualmoose.org/2023/11/30/realmagic/

#dos #retroGames

when did earth have to fight for the right to party

- Anthony Bourdain

These states could see the northern lights on Thursday
https://www.wfla.com/news/national/northern-lights-more-than-20-states-have-a-chance-at-seeing-the-auroras-thursday/

NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center
https://www.spaceweather.gov/

> With 3 CMEs already inbound, the addition of a 4th, full halo CME has prompted SWPC forecasters to upgrade the G2 Watch on 01 Dec to a G3 Watch. This faster-moving halo CME is progged to merge with 2 of the 3 upstream CMEs, all arriving at Earth on 01 Dec. G3 (Strong) conditions are now likely on 01 Dec. Continue to monitor spaceweather.gov for the latest updates.

#spacewx

Liz Cheney was never going to go quietly. Now her new book rips the GOP several new ones as she excoriates them for their lack of principles and backbone. My summary of key revelations in “Oath and Honor” in today’s piece. https://open.substack.com/pub/statuskuo/p/liz-cheney-has-warned-us-will-we?r=1zr8b&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=we

Picard sanity tip: If there are four lights, say there are four lights.

Where everyone knows your hailing frequency.

North America needs to open hundreds of these. This is one of many tiny little “LP bars” in #Seoul. You sit and drink beer and play albums.
#music #seoul

spotted recently

#COVID Coronary Plaque Infection Confirms #CV Risk

> New evidence shows for the first time that the virus that causes COVID directly infects atherosclerotic plaques in the coronary arteries, producing a persistent inflammatory response.

> Giannarelli says COVID is more than a respiratory virus and that it can affect the whole body. "Our study shows a remarkable ability of the virus to hijack the immune system," she points out. "Our findings may explain how that happens."

> #sarscov2 directly infects coronary artery plaques, producing inflammatory substances, really joins the dots and helps our understanding on why we're seeing so much heart disease in COVID patients," Peter Hotez, MD, professor of molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told Medscape.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/997638

#SARSCoV2 infection triggers pro-atherogenic inflammatory responses in human coronary vessels

> Our data establish that SARS-CoV-2 infects coronary vessels, inducing plaque inflammation that could trigger acute cardiovascular complications and increase the long-term cardiovascular risk.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44161-023-00336-5

#SARS2 #COVID19

It is official now: Russia's Supreme Court declared "extremist" and banned the "LGBT movement".

A single display of LGBT flag, offline or online, is punishable by a fine.
In case of multiple offenses, the punishment is up to 4 years in prison.
Activism, online or offline, and potentially donations to LGBT charities, are punished by up to 6 years in prison.
Allies of LGBT activism are now legally banned from elections.

And there is a new law coming up, "justification" of "extremism" online (as in, not denouncing), punishing it by a prison sentence of up to five years.

I think of this poem by J Jennifer Espinoza often #trans

“Sin, young man, is when you treat people like things.” - Terry Pratchett

Cyberpunk 2077 may be a dystopia but I would not mind a burrito vending machine built into my apartment