Weekly Links #192

Life is ironic sometimes. Just as I'm migrating this site off WordPress (work is continuing, by the way, just more slowly now to avoid burnout), another major gaming website just went in the opposite direction. Hopefully it will work out for them. Already they've been running into the problem, pointed out by Martin Fowler years ago, that blogs tend to bury still-relevant content under an avalanche of new posts. And as I learned from bitter experience, a CMS can make it harder to maintain content, unintuitive as it may seem.

In other news, we learn that source code for the classic platformer Aladdin has been recovered, and actually compiles, yielding all kinds of fascinating insights. Not so lucky are fans of the 1997 Blade Runner game, whose source is lost forever. On a related note, we have the story of how RPG Maker got to be looked down upon. I rant enough about copyright and engine snobbery alike, so I won't insist. Just remember how much we used to learn by taking old things apart... and consider how little we're able to do it now. No wonder progress has slowed down to a crawl in many fields, while people have to keep reinventing the wheel.

Last but not least, while I'm busy recycling old content, figured I might as well do the same with a handful of 3D models, remade in a form usable in games in the hope someone might find them useful.

This is it for the week. Enjoy!