the Andrew Bailey

No, it's not different this time!

It's The End Of Moore's Law, But That's OK

So I may have mentioned Moore's Law in one of my recent articles. I think that because I have built an old computer, I think it would be wise to consider a few things, and about computing in general.

An EarthSiege2 screenshot, showing combat

EarthSiege2

Twentieth Century is starting to show real returns on my investment. I can honestly say that I'm starting to enjoy it, and its being all that I wanted it to be. Unfortuantely, there seems to be a lack of USB ports. They tend to come in handy when I have all the ports used up and want to get a screenshot off it.

A screenshot of New Pandorae in SimCity 2000

SimCity 2000

Turns out that I already had that sound card for Twentieth Century. It was in a tub of stuff my dad had brought over a few months ago. Even better, the card is from the actual 20th century. It even has good MIDI, too! I picked up a bunch of drive cables from home, so I was able to connect a floppy drive and flash the motherboard BIOS to accept bigger hard drives.

Screenshot from Borderlands 2 showing 70 Golden Keys

Borderlands Golden Keys

Lest I be caught in the past, I have played some modern games on my modern PC. So while I was signing up for the Borderlands 2 Loot Hunt, I noticed that by linking that SHiFT account with my Steam account, I suddenly got another Golden Key. Yesterday, I was digging around to find out when (as in, what level) is the best time to use a key.

Screenshot of the Windows 98 Second Edition desktop, showing evidence of a Pentium II 300MHz with 256MB RAM.

Project Twentieth Century: Resurrection

There comes a time in every young man's life to remember his past. Though others may mock him and claim that it wasn't that long ago, he still holds it dear. It may even be desirable to reclaim relics of that past before they become lost, rare, or financially unavailable. And so it is.

Project Twentieth Century: Planning

As I may have leaked on my latest podcast, I am attempting to rebuild an old computer so I can relive the 1990s. I want to install Windows 98 on it, and play some old games on it from time to time. I don't plan on using it any more than that (maybe a perverse desire to run other things from the time). I had some stuff lying around, and I need to buy some more.

Screenshot from Sunken Sea, part of the General Knoxx DLC

Borderlands DLC

Hey, look! I just played Borderlands again! But wait! If I continued to play right now, I would get to the DLC! Which I did. They all had their own pace and personality. These are larger bits, sort of like mini-expansions, more along the lines of Dawnguard or Dragonborn than your usual map pack or me-too type quests. I played through half of these before I got really going in the main quest, so I'll try to recall this as straight as I can. I did that in order to level up ahead of the enemies encountered, so everything should be a little easier. And was it ever! It was really nice to have started a new character, since it is enjoyable to have enemies that aren't always at least a level above you. I will also go over these in order of story, not order played (which differs).