Weekly Links #114

Hello, everyone. I don't have much patience to watch video anymore, so when something on YouTube catches my eyes these days, there's a good reason. Via Konstantinos Dimopoulos, here's a short documentary about the much-maligned CGA graphics the IBM PC originally launched with, and its many hidden qualities.

Speaking of retro graphics, Jay Barnson alerts his readers of the just-started Low Rez Game Jam, that challenges entrants to make a game running in just 64x64 pixels! That may seem too restrictive — less than the Game Boy — but as I pointed out in the past, creative people have been able to make do with only 16x16! What can you do with 16 times as much?

In unrelated news, the authors of 80 Days recently wrote about the decision to open source their development tool. Among various details, one thing that grabbed my eye was the idea that the story always moves forward if you don't specify anything else. Which is not unlike how Ren'Py works, and answers one of the thorniest questions in interactive storytelling. But more of this in a future article. For now, while we're on the topic of interactive fiction, Emily Short just posted a brief bibliography about IF history, which just so happens to include material of particular interest to regular readers of No Time To Play.

I had one more link for today, but it warrants much ampler commentary, so I'm leaving it for another write-up. Stay tuned.