Narny

quote:Originally posted by Wolferz: Rotflmao, but not the bathroom floor She had a thing for going tinkle in the dark without turning the light on, and on more than a few occasions, the sound of vehement cursing could be heard in the middle of the night around my house. I'm a bloke and I've got this lazyitis too. The other night I went for a wee and got the *splish* noise not the *splosh* noise. Ooops! Try a bit to the left. Same. Back to centre and a bit to the right? Same. Finally it dawned on my 3am fogged brain (and confirmed by groping) that the seat AND the cover were down! Confessed my crime in the morning and it got a laugh - luckily.

To my UC I've added: Underwater Sunlight - Tangerine Dream Original tracks from BCMG I'm inspired by CedricB and Shingen to try The Planets and Morrowind, both of which I have and should mood-set perfectly. The little biography on Holst is interesting. If you want to follow a chain of English composers (linked by their personal influence upon each other) go from Holst to Vaughan Williams and thence to Herbert Howells. The latter was, IMHO, the greatest composer of the 20th century, although I don't think his music would work in BC. Having said that though, I'll give it try! I must say (as I said once before in another thread) that the original music in UC is top notch.

I'm a few months away from my 40th birthday and I've been playing computer games since I was 14. The most memorable (and usually my favourites) on any given platform were the ones that captured my imagination and drew me in to their world. 3D Startrek on the Commodore PET Elite and Frontier on the BBC Damocles on the Amiga BCMG & UC are the first games I've played in 15 years of owning PCs that have recaptured the feeling of those earlier games. At first I subscribed to the "kids today don't have any imagination" theory. Then I thought about my 4 year old daughter playing by herself. She role-plays with chess pieces, for example. All the little pawns are the children and they line up to listen to what mummy (the queen) has to say, etc. She's always making her own worlds out of Lego pieces, etc. So, I think, somewhere along the way, people are losing this ability rather than not acquiring it in the first place. Even though I know I'm amongst like-minded enthusiasts - fetishists, even ;-) - I'm still slightly uncomfortable telling you about the time I decided I needed a holiday, jumped into a shuttle and flew down to a pretty-looking beach, just to stand by the water and look back at my cool ship parked up by the trees. It was a combination of truly immersive role-play and the fact that I'd had to aquire some technical savvy to get from the bridge to the beach that was so satisfying. If I find that hard to admit here, how can a reviewer in a magazine ever hope to explain this feeling to his readers, presuming he's rediscovered the lost art of imagination in the first place? SC has created something quite special and hard to quantify here. I know this because when I've finished playing, I put the CD back in its case and carry it with reverence back to the shelf and not chuck the disk onto the mess on my desk which is usually the fate of any other game I happen to be playing.

Thanks SC and namotus for the help. I'm on 56K dialup too. A friend with broadband has downloaded the patch for me and is sending it on a CD. The one thing that puzzles me about this is why a bad download should consistently produce the same hash - i.e. it's bad the same way each time. Still, problem solved for now. Hope I don't have trouble downloading ucHTL when it arrives! Thanks again.

I cannot get a good MD5 hash for either this patch (2.00.12) or the previous (2.00.11). Using IE6, the download appears to go as any other. I end up with a 10.3MB file, but with a hash of CC6A29F5A33B551403F8396C2489D8CD. When I try to run the patch (from UC folder) I get, not surprisingly, 'Invalid Patch File' followed by the path/filename. For the previous patch I tried four d/l's on different days, same wrong MD5 each time. Thought I'd wait for the next RC and try again.

(4) "Name the _only_ sport..." Doesn't cricket fit too?

OK. First impressions. All positive. First thing I noticed was the music. Every track a winner. Really immersive and scene setting. It was days before I could stop thinking about how good it is. Next I noticed the new TLM UI. Really clean & crisp. A great improvement. Then I noticed the graphics. Like so many things in the game, more of the same only a whole notch better. I like the new planetfall transition, not just one moment I'm in space and the next in the planet's atmosphere. Then landing and seeing vegetation, animals. Wading into water and swimming through swaying weeds. Brushing past a huge shark. It's things like this that mean you're there, not just playing a game. I'm still very much a Noob, I don't get a lot of time to play so I wasn't hugely familiar with BCMG. However, everywhere I look I just see improvements. The whole thing just feels "tighter" & richer, if you know what I mean. Finally, dare I say this, I probably wouldn't have any first impressions if it wasn't for the new price. I had decided not to buy UC but when I saw it going for such a low price I couldn't resist trying it. I'm very glad I did.

I'm 39 Self-employed programmer - mostly Windows apps. Love using Delphi & Perl. Been married 7 yrs to a Czech lass from Brno. We have 2 girls, one 4 yrs & the other 9 mnths. Live near Lincoln, UK. Briefly sojourned in Athens, Greece and yearn to return.

My favourite is "Theakstone's Old Peculiar". It comes from the Masham brewery in Yorkshire, UK. I don't know if it's exported anywhere. I'd be very interested to know if anyone's found it outside of the UK. It's not a thirst-quenching drink for a hot day, more something to have a bottle of with your dinner. I _love_ it. My local brewery is Batemans in Wainfleet. Their "Summer Harvest" is nice, made with a mix of grains. My favourite from them is "XXXB". I prefer the heavier ales. Anyone else know these tipples? My wife is from the Czech Republic so I'm quite familiar with their offerings too (I like Velky Popovicky Kozel (sp?)) but I'm more of a real ale fan.

Huwie, I got BCMG in the UK from www.sps-systems.co.uk at the beginning of May. It came in the "proper" box with fold-out front, full-size manual etc. Now it's the long wait for UC!