82 lines
4.3 KiB
HTML
82 lines
4.3 KiB
HTML
---
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tabtitle: Bye Bye Windows
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title: Farewell to Windows Tour 2015
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topics: gaming
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pub: "2015-04-28"
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short_desc: "It has come time to bid Windows farewell. Once upon a time Windows was
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the only digital world I knew. It began when I was young, during the
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venerable 3.1 era. I remember booting up our family computer into DOS, and
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before starting Windows I could start Doom 2 or Keen's Dream, or any
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number of other games. That was my first interaction with a command line.
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My, my, how times have changed."
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---
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<h1>Farewell to Windows Tour 2015</h1>
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<p>It has come time to bid Windows farewell. Once upon a time Windows was
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the only digital world I knew. It began when I was young, during the
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venerable 3.1 era. I remember booting up our family computer into DOS, and
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before starting Windows I could start Doom 2 or Keen's Dream, or any
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number of other games. That was my first interaction with a command line.
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My, my, how times have changed.</p>
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<p>From Doom 2 and Keen I went on to Baldur's Gate and Battlezone. I
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dabbled here and there in NES/Sega/SNES/Genesis stuff, but PC gaming
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always held my attention. The only exception to this was my Gameboy with
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Pokemon, because that game is literal crack to a 12 year old. Baldur's
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Gate held my attention like only a classic RPG can, and I remember
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pouring over the manual and this guidebook I had to learn as much as I
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could about the world the game created. Around this time I was also
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getting into Dungeons and Dragons (Satan's game!), so there was a
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definite mixture of digital and tabletop gaming. Battlezone, on the
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other hand, was introduced to me by my good friend Rob, and became a
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classic among my group of friends. Then, of course, Smash Bros became
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a thing and that was our game of choice. That and Soul Calibur; ah
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memories.</p>
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<p>It wasn't until relatively recently that I ever even tried gaming on
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Linux. My senior year of high school I was introduced to Linux by my
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friend Ben. That spawned the interest, but it was always secondary to
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my true love of computers, gaming. Throughout college I had an Asus
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netbook, which was always my Linux machine, but I still had my Windows
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desktop, which was my gaming machine. Windows was essential for gaming:
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Steam; Final Fantasy 11 (yes, I know.); triple-A titles. These
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were "Windows Exclusives," unless I wanted to venture into console
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territory. Thus it remained, throughout college and my early-mid 20's.
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Then something magical happened: Steam came to Linux. That was the
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deathblow to Windows in my book, at least for my needs. I had long ago
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dropped my interest in many games, leaving a small but well-loved list of
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games that I do still care about. The majority of these are now supported
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on Linux, but there are a few which remain Windows only. That is what this
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"tour" is for; the last few games I want to play on Windows, before I go
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Linux only.</p>
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<h3>Featuring</h3>
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<p>The list isn't huge, but there are some definite strong players:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2</li>
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<li>Dishonored</li>
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<li>Duke Nuken Forever</li>
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<li>Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon</li>
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<li>Spec Ops: The Line</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Mostly "newer" games, mostly graphics-intensive games. I know these
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run fine on Windows, and they may work in Wine but I don't feel like
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either figuring out if they do, or trying to make them play nice.</p>
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<h3>Special Guest Appearances By</h3>
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<p>There are a few games that I will fiddle with to get working in Wine
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though, and these are games I don't quite want to let go, but still are
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Windows only: Skyrim and Guild Wars 2. I love Guild Wars 2, I think it's
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the best MMO on the market, with the most supportive and friendly
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community and one of the best developers. Skyrim is, well, Skyrim; I like
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hitting things. Chivalry would be a close third on this list, but Chivalry
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is on Linux now, so I can scream my lungs out and stab people whenever I
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want. Regardless, I imagine I'll be playing plenty of each of these while
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finishing up the main list.</p>
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<h3>Tickets on Sale Now!</h3>
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<p>Well, not exactly. But this would be a fantastic way to get into
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streaming, and maybe I'll transition from Windows to Linux with that as
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well. Streaming has always been something I've wanted to do, but never had
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the time nor effort to pursue. So, either tradition will hold strong, or a
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new challenger will appear. Until then.</p>
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