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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 4</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">New!!</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> The Archives have been cleaned up, fead links fixed, and printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments <a href="../../../index.html">on the front page</a>!</font></p>
              
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        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"> 
          Play Where You Like!</font></p>
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          <font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Jeff &quot;<a target="" href="mailto:jeff@solomania.com">nonick</a>&quot; 
          Solomon</font></b></font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
          </font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Network play 
          has become a cornerstone of many of the most popular games. <b>Quake 
          3: Arena</b>, <a href="http://www.idsoftware.com">id Software's</a> 
          upcoming sequel to <b>Quake</b> and <b>Quake 2</b>, embodies this concept 
          wholly by positioning itself as a purely deathmatch game that is optimized 
          for Internet play. The ubiquitous nature of the Internet allows companies 
          to embrace a single, standard communication architecture that eliminates 
          the proprietary nature of previous networking attempts and limits the 
          market share anxiety that companies often had to face when developing 
          games for systems with dubious promise for the future.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In addition, 
          the PC-based gaming platform invites a far greater degree of user interaction 
          with the system than would be the case with a console. With a PC, users 
          have complete control over the operating system and its drivers. Most 
          of this is automated, but there is far more player involvement in the 

          technical underpinnings of a PC-based system than with a console, where 
          players simply plug in a cartridge or CD and play away. This level of 
          involvement has sometimes proved troublesome for players who long for 
          the effortless days of the NES where the system always <i>worked</i>, 
          but the tradeoff is that designers are no longer limited by functionality 
          dictated in ROM and destined to remain in place for years at a time. 
          PC-based systems are constantly in flux and can be updated on a whim.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">An outgrowth 
          of this involvement has been player interaction with the game design 
          process. People can now dig into the code that comprises the game, and 
          in many cases make changes and additions to suit their preferences. 
          Game editors and recorders have spawned entire markets of add-ons and 
          utilities that are entirely player designed and supported. Recorded 
          movies, pioneered by the camera functionality in <b>Quake</b>, are a 
          fascinating example of what can happen when the customizable, open architecture 
          of PCs is backing a common gaming platform. This kind of thing didn't- 
          couldn't- happen with a closed system like the Nintendo 64.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Looking at the 
          PC platform, however, is not just a study of Windows 95/98. There are 
          currently several popular operating systems that fall under the PC umbrella, 
          and each offers varying degrees of gaming support. Each OS/processor 
          combination is its own sub-platform under the PC umbrella. I'm going 
          to go over each of the major PC operating systems and briefly describe 
          how they relate to gaming.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">First up: Windows 
          NT. NT's relationship to Windows 95/98 is very much like that of a younger 
          brother who seems to follow in his sibling's footsteps but has the benefit 
          of being second, and therefore the product of more experience and hindsight. 
          NT 4.0, Microsoft's current offering, is a robust platform that has 
          been around for over two years and has, over that time, evolved into 
          a stable, mature system that addresses many of the Windows 95/98 platform's 
          weaknesses.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">NT is built 
          around a "modern" OS kernel, with support for all of the latest OS buzzwords, 
          including preemptive multitasking (Windows 95/98 uses a compromised 
          blend of preemptive and the older cooperative method of multitasking 
          to allow for compatibility with older programs), multithreading, and 
          protected memory. Basically, this means that NT is more reliable than 
          Windows 95/98, but since the system's underpinnings are a dramatic departure 
          from the DOS-based routes of Windows 95/98, compatibility with certain 
          software- games in particular- is not very strong.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">NT is currently 
          positioned as Microsoft's high-end business OS, and the company does 
          little to promote it as a gaming system. And for good reason. NT can 
          run DOS programs and games, but only those that do not directly access 
          hardware. This stipulation is designed to prevent programs from monopolizing 
          system resources and causing trouble for other running programs, which 
          works to create a smoother OS in many cases but hinders compatibility 
          with older programs.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As a result, 
          NT can't support DOS games that use homegrown drivers that are designed 
          to work with hardware accelerators. As an added disadvantage, NT's robust 
          overhead- advanced networking and security systems- provides an inadequate 
          environment for games that <i>do</i> run. There's a lot of stuff going 
          on in the background at all times.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Basically, NT 
          offers limited support for DOS-based games, and lackluster performance 
          for the games that it can run. NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3 does support 
          DirectX 3.0, but only in software mode. Some Windows 95/98-based games 
          run on NT, but not as a rule.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">NT 5.0, which, 
          after years of delay, is currently scheduled for release in the second 
          half of 1999, will offer full support for the latest available version 
          of DirectX (at least version 6.0), and as such will offer the same level 
          of gaming support to Windows programs that is found in Windows 95/98. 
          Because of its fundamental design, however, NT 5 will still suffer from 
          limited support for DOS games.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This inadequacy 
          is by design. Asking NT to measure up to Windows 95/98 in terms of compatibility 
          and gaming performance is akin to trying to get a Hummer to outmaneuver 
          a Ferrari. The former is designed to be as rugged and predictable as 
          possible, the other a nimble speedster that is very easy to wrap around 
          a tree.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">For those situations 
          where extreme compatibility is needed, Microsoft offers Windows 95/98. 
          However, Windows 98 was the last version of Windows to be designed around 
          the aging pre-NT architecture. NT 5 will be the first version of Windows 
          that attempts to bring as many users forward as possible. Much like 
          the situation with moving from DOS to Windows, Microsoft is now trying 
          to move people from Windows 95/98 to NT, and they will doubtlessly do 
          whatever they can to address the weaknesses in NT that are preventing 
          people from adopting it wholly without compromising the system's fundamental 
          integrity.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In terms of 
          gaming support, NT 5 will hopefully be to NT what Win95 was to Windows- 
          a bold step forward that is enticing enough to bring gamers along. Until 
          that happens, though, Windows 95/98 will be a superior platform to NT 
          for gaming.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">All of this 
          Windows-speak must be grating on the nerves of those who use the Mac. 
          Long before Microsoft got around to "multimedifying" Windows, the Macintosh 
          was serving up high quality audio and video support. Gaming under the 
          Mac OS was far superior to Windows until recently, when DirectX became 
          common. Now they're roughly on par, depending on who you talk to.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The Mac OS's 
          limited market share, however, has relegated it to the status of a secondary 
          market. Many games were developed on the Mac, due to its strengths as 
          a publishing and design platform. <b>Myst</b> is an excellent example. 
          Designed on a Mac, released first for the Mac, embodying the purity 
          of design and interface that the Mac is known for.</font></p>
        <p>&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1">(<a href="index5.php" target="">continued 
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    <td><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
      Illustration &copy; 1998 Mike Sanzone. Play Where You Like! is &copy; 1998 
      Jeff Solomon. All other content is &copy; 1998 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
      productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so don't 
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