Nov 27, 2020
Week of Nov 23
… a letter hosted on Substack warns the son of the coming of Dark Troopers.
Here are a few interesting news/topics I came across this week:
- A World War II veteran’s timeless words for his son — and his country (Washington Post) — it’s a great letter I wish I can just copy-n-paste and send to my sons. Also reminded me of another famous father’s prayer
- The Substackerati (Columbia Journalism Review) and The Tenuous Promise of the Substack Dream (Wired) — I happend to run into these two articles painting an insightful view of the past and presence of Substack, and the potential future for it and also of journalism as a whole. (also makes me think again about how to use Substack)
- The Mandalorian: Moff Gideon’s Vader Armor & Dark Troopers Explained (ScreenRant) — am I the only one who sees this scene and scream out like a baby “cloned darth vader army!!!”? Turns out it’s the Dark Troopers and it has a long history in the Star Wars universe. 😀
The game for this week’s Nostalgic Game Review goes to…
DragonStrike
This is yet another game released in 1990 that I enjoyed on my first PC, a 286 with a monochrome monitor.
What it is?
A 3D flight sim (dogfight with AD&D dragons!) with RPG elements!
What’s in it?
Other than the game itself, I remembered there were at least one (if not many) nicely printed manual with extensive references on each dragon type, power, myths and a sketch of it. I was particularly facinated by the skeleton dragon (I am sure it wasn’t called that… but it’s basically, a dragon that’s purely skeleton).
Back then when CGI special effect are still just a thing that cost a ton and only visible in movies, this type of graphical references with detailed, textual, description helped one’s mind and imagination soar.
My impression
You are a knight with a dragonlance, riding a flying dragon which can spit magic power orbs. What’s not to love? I was all over it!
Granted, the 3D graphic was rudamentary, but it was fairy realistic, as the terrain, the enemies are all rendered in polygonal shapes in real 3D (unlike the 2.5D in Duke Nukem or first Doom). Ok, the player’s dragon is in 2D but that’s just a fair compromise.
Here is a youtube video to see it in its full glory:
And… yes, it is also playable on Internet Archive!
Originally published at https://heta.link on November 27, 2020.
