šŸ‘¾ Defining retro, Whiz Kids, developing in the cloud - This Geek in Review for 2022-06-03

By goz

What is retro?

I used to think that retrogaming was anything older than 10-15 years, but now I’m not so sure. When you look at a game like Metroid Prime for the game cube, it’s not a whole lot different than the AAA titles that are coming out now for the three main consoles. Once games went 3D the gameplay kind of stagnated. When you look at the GameCube versus the Super Nintendo the game style is a lot different. No one would argue that the Super Nintendo is not retrogaming. But I will portend that the definition of retro is going to change as the first 3D systems become older and older.

In my opinion, GameCube and newer are basically their own thing. Yes, the graphics are better between the Gamecube and a PS5, but the gameplay is a lot the same. One thing that might differentiate between retro and current is the artificial intelligence of the game. How much does it enhance the gameplay when you have intelligent enemies or other characters in the game that you interact with.

Whiz Kids is now available at the internet archive!

I have no idea why I didn’t watch Whiz Kids in ‘83 because it looks amazing. The Retroist did a Whiz Kids podcast about the show. That podcast didn’t surface any memories of the Whiz Kids show, so I don’t know what I was doing back then. Probably watching The Fall Guy since The Six Million Dollar Man was no longer on TV.

Well, now I, and you, loyal reader, can watch all of the episodes up on the Internet Archive in the Whiz Kids Preservation Project.

Technology has come full circle

We had mainframes and mini computers, and all was good. Except when you wanted to use them all the time, and then it was a hassle because you had to share them with others. In the late 70s and early 80s, the personal computer came out and there was much rejoicing. Finally we had a chance to play on the computer without having to share it with anyone else. The personal computers got more and more powerful, and the mainframe computers were still used for the big jobs but we could do a lot more than personal computers. In the past few years, with the rise of the Internet and Internet web apps, we’re kind of going back to the mainframe model where we don’t really use the processing power of the machine we are on, but we connect to something more powerful and use it.

Well, now Microsoft is offering development machines in the cloud so you can do all of your developing in the cloud. The personal computer is again a terminal to a big computer somewhere else being shared with other people.

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