<HTML>

  <title>loonygames' From the Mouth of Madness</title>
<body bgcolor="#FEFFEC" link="#0000CC" vlink="#000000">
<div align="CENTER">
  <div align="CENTER">
    <center>
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "ca-pub-2373963192914918";
/* 468x60 */
google_ad_slot = "3417104156";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
</center>
  </div>
  <div align="CENTER">
    <table border="0" width="100%">
      <tr> 
        <td width="261" height="105"><img src="../../images/next_logo_sml.jpg" width="251" height="94" usemap="#map" border="0"> 
        </td>
        <td width="92" height="105" align="LEFT" valign="MIDDLE"> 
          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">- <a href="../index.html">Contents</a><br>
- <a href="../../../about.1">About</a><br>
            - <a href="../../../submissions/index.html">Submissions</a><br>
            - <a href="../../../feedback.1">Feedback</a><br>
            - <a href="../../archives/index.html">Archives</a></font></p>
        </td>
      </tr>
    </table>
  </div>
  <table border="0" width="100%" align="CENTER">
    <tr> 
      <td width="32%" align="left" valign="top" height="947"> 
        <table border="0" width="190">
          <tr> 
            <td height="880" align="LEFT" valign="TOP"> 
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 40</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>
              
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../2.15/feat/index.html" target="">Livin' 
  With The Sims</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">: 
  theAntiELVIS explores the wild and wacky world that is Will Wright's <b>The Sims</b>, 
  asking the inevitable quesiton, &quot;is <b>The Sims</b> the first step toward a virtual 
  life where everyone is Swedish?&quot;</font></p>
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../2.15/pixel/index.html" target="">Pixel 
  Obscura</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">: Josh 
  Vasquez on <b>Omikron: The Nomad Soul</b>.</font></p>
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../rl/index.html" target="">Real 
  Life</a></font>: <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <font size="-1">Check 
  out our newest comic strip, Real Life! Updated daily!</font></font></p>
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../uf.1" target="">User 
  Friendly</a></font>: <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <font size="-1">Updated 
  daily!</font></font></p>


</p>
              
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b><font color="#339900">Related 
                Links :</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com">Penny-Arcade.com</a>: 
                From now on, this is where you'll find the latest <b>Penny Arcade</b> 
                strips. </font></p>
              
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b><a href="http://www.berda.com/loonygam.htm">T-Shirts</a>: 
                </b>Stylin' loonygames t-shirts from Berda Compugrafix!</font></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b><a href="../../../artwork.1">Artwork</a>: 
                </b>Hey, dig the artwork on <b>loonygames</b>? We're selling some 
                of the original art.Now featuring original art from <b>Penny Arcade</b>!</font></p>
              <p><!--#include virtual="/includes/shooters.htm" --></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b><font color="#339900">Feedback:</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">You've got 
                an opinion...voice it! Drop a line to our <a href="../../../feedback.1">Feedback</a> 
                column...you could end up with a free T-Shirt!</font></p>
              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b><font color="#339900">Random 
                Feature :</font></b></font></p>
                 
<p align="CENTER"><img src="../../images/sexist_thumb.jpg" width="102" height="128" align="MIDDLE"></p><p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../1.3/feat2/index.html">Is Duke Sexist?</a>: An exclusive look at this question that has dogged <B>Duke Nukem's</b> entire career (from our third issue).</font></p>

   
              <form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom" name="">
                <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b><font color="#339900">Search 
                the Archives!</font></b></font> 
               
                 <INPUT TYPE=text name=q size=12 maxlength=255 value="">
 <INPUT type=submit name=sa VALUE="Google Search">
 <INPUT type=hidden name=cof 
VALUE="LW:216;L:http:/home/loonygames/loony.timedoctor.org/content/images/logo1.jpg;LH:55;AH:center;S:http://www.loonygames.com;AWFID:13a298c7abe84fd0;">
<input type=hidden name=domains value="loonygames.com"> 
<input type=hidden name=sitesearch value="loonygames.com">               
</div>
              </form>

            </td>
          </tr>
        </table>
      </td>
      <td width="68%" align="left" valign="top" height="947"> 
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"><b><a target="" href="../../columns.1"><font size="-1">From 
          the Mouth of Madness</font></a><font size="-1">:</font></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"><br>
          Pirates of History</font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Jason &quot;<a target="" href="mailto:jason@loonygames.com">loonyboi</a>&quot; 
          Bergman</font></b></font></p>
        <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Why do I mention 
          all of this? Because I've just spent two hours watching <i>Pirates of 
          Silicon Alley</i>, a new made for television movie that attempts to 
          give the behind the scenes story of Apple, and the creation of the Macintosh 
          (and the creation of Microsoft as well). Unfortunately, while it manages 
          to be fairly entertaining, it simply didn't manage to capture the sheer 
          <i>magic</i> behind what was going on at Apple in those days. Nor, for 
          that matter, does it do a very good job at showing the darker reality 
          of it either. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Steven Levy's <i>wonderful</i> 
          book <i>Insanely Great </i>manages to do both of these things, and I 
          was really hoping to see some of that present in <i>Pirates</i>, but 
          instead the people behind it were more interested in playing up the 
          conflict between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Which, while present, isn't 

          exactly the most interesting part of this story. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I've said it before in various 
          places, but Steve Jobs is a personal hero of mine. Aside from the fact 
          that he's directly responsible for my adoption of computers, he's the 
          kind of person who manages to inspire people. And I respect that in 
          more ways than one. But, at the same time, Jobs' relentless pursuit 
          of his dream paid a major toll on his employees. He could be downright 
          cruel to work for…he split Apple right down the middle, and practically 
          destroyed the company in the process. This should have been the basis 
          for <i>Pirates of Silicon Alley</i>. It's a fascinating story of how 
          one man's vision broke friendships, created and almost destroyed a major 

          company, and changed the face of computers forever. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">But that's not what <i>Pirates</i> 
          is all about. What <i>Pirates</i> tries to do is encapsulate in less 
          than two hours over twenty years of industry lore. So we see Paul Allen 
          and Bill Gates, the Woz and Steve Jobs, all trying to make it. Wozniak 
          is probably the most accurately portrayed, with Jobs coming off more 
          like Jim Morrison than anything else. Some performances were good, most 
          notably Joey Slotnick's emphatic portrayal of Steve Wozniak, and Noah 
          Wyle's occasionally empowering Jobs, but Anthony Michael Hall's attempt 
          at Bill Gates was more slapstick than acting. He looked the part, but 
          there's more to acting than appearance. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ultimately, the film suffered 
          from its decision to focus on the conflict between Jobs and Gates. When 
          you're dealing with a period that produced what are now the most powerful 
          companies in the world, you've got a lot of great stuff to deal with. 
          So why did TNT decide to focus on the creation of <i>Windows</i>? Sure 
          in the end Windows became the world's leading operating system, but 
          that's mostly due to an aggressive R&amp;D department and Gates' decision 
          to make software, not hardware. To play up the fact that Gates swiped 
          from Jobs is pretty pointless, and simply not that interesting. What 
          <i>Pirates</i> should have done, is depict what was <i>really</i> going 
          on. Jobs really believed that he was on a crusade against Big Brother 
          with Apple. He solemnly believed from day one that he was going to change 
          the world, and ultimately he did. The 1997 Macworld Expo speech with 
          the enormous Bill Gates hovering over Steve Jobs is one of those images 
          that many of us will never forget…but in <i>Pirates</i>, it simply doesn't 
          mean anything. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you're looking for a far 
          better depiction of this era, I highly recommend Steven Levy's book, 
          but also PBS' <i>fantastic</i> series, <i>Nerds</i> (and its follow-up, 
          <i>Nerds 2.0.1</i>, which chronicles the creation of the Internet). 
          Hopefully this won't be the last time someone attempts to visualize 
          one of the most significant eras in the brief history of the computer 
          industry…it's a great story that deserves immortality.</font></p>
        <div align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><i>- 
          Jason &quot;loonyboi&quot; Bergman is the editor-in-chief of <b>loonygames</b>. 
          </i> </font></div>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
        </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
  </div>
<map name="map">
  <area shape="rect" coords="32,38,226,76" href="../../../index.html" target="_self">
  <area shape="rect" coords="12,79,125,94" href="http://www.bluesnews.com" target="_self">
 
</map>
<table border="0" width="100%" align="CENTER">
  <tr> 
    <td>
      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"> </font></i><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
        From the Mouth of Madness logo illustrated by and is &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. 
        From the Mouth of Madness is &copy; 1999 Jason Bergman. All other content 
        is &copy; 1999 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
        productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so 
        don't do it...or we'll just forget about you. Let's see how <b>you</b> 
        like it.</font></i></p>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
</HTML>
