Weekly Links #309

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Hello, everyone! It's another week with little in the way of noteworthy headlines, but still some good news on my part. For one thing, Glittering Light 2 now has a Python port!

Screenshot from a 3D game rendered with colorful ASCII characters, and using a desktop-style GUI.

Moreover, the original edition now has improved frustum culling (backported from Python), and both support strafing. It's less useful than expected, but still good to have. Also, comparing the two editions has given me useful insights into camera angles, zoom levels, drawing distances and so on. As I expect this engine to be used for many more games, that's worth a lot.

In the way of news, this week we have the book publishing industry hilariously thinking videogames (and fantasy) are a niche, along with a few headlines with little to no commentary. Details under the cut.


The week starts with hilarious news not from gameing, but the US book publishing industry. Via The Digital Reader we learn that the Big 5 in New York think videogames are a niche (and fantasy, too). I couldn't believe my eyes either. After laughing my ass off, it got me thinking: how far behind the times are those old farts, exactly? My first instinct was to say about four decades, to be generous, but then a memory surfaced: it was 1977 when Star Wars included a bit of early CGI reminiscent of a videogame in the form of a Tie fighter's targeting computer. In the same year, a trio of little toys kickstarted the home computer revolution. Maybe you've heard of them: the Apple II, TRS-80, and (if memory serves) VIC-20. Five years later, Tron took the idea of being sucked into a videogame-like world and ran with it. That was the same year when the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum hit the shelves.

Videogames weren't born four decades ago; they were already well-planted into the public consciousness by then. If anyone still asks you to explain them, or justify them, laugh in their face.


Sadly, nothing else happened this week to warrant extended commentary, but there are still some highlights:

Until then, enjoy this Sunday, and stay tuned!

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Tags: business, publishing, roguelike, rpg, news