Wow, I can see how many people would find this to be a very boring game but it looks amazing to me. Sad that I missed its golden age.
This took me on a DECTalk rabbithole.
- Here's a web version (with backend): https://webspeak.terminal.ink/
- Steam thread: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=91936...
- "Modern" codebase and builds: https://github.com/dectalk/dectalk/
What do you mean, 'meme video game'? Played this for weeks with friends in Mumble to climb the (time-trial) leader boards. As always lots of fun + lots of being angry on the person who fumbled the third run in a row (me, most of the times).
In case anyone wants to play around with DECtalk without downloading the game, there's https://webspeak.terminal.ink/
There was another Simcity-like game called Moonbase for DOS: https://www.mobygames.com/game/25993/moonbase/
huehuehuehuehuehue john madden john madden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B488z1MmaA
The final song in that one is so subtly sophisticated; check out the underlying text. For example, to get it to sing "it doesn't matter now" the user types "tdah zih ntmae trr nnaw"; they're providing the phonetic sounds of every word rather than the words themselves, presumably because it produces better output and it allows them to change tone in the middle of words.
Another one is the Microsoft Sam (& co) speech synthesis, it can also produce funny results, like someone making copter sounds with it:
Here is my favorite one: https://youtu.be/aFbuSShYKpc
Obligatory John Madden song clip showing off the speech to text engine: https://youtu.be/ovcTKHupdxo?si=Qh_nsYmkGtwcxrMR
Bad TTS is like an inverse uncanny valley where it's so inhuman it's charming.
kick it in the front seat
Ben Bova wrote a book: "Welcome to Moonbase."
I purchased that as a kid, in a souvenir shop, on our way out of Cape Canaveral. We were there specifically to see the Space Shuttle slow-crawl to it's launchpad destination. I never got to see a shuttle take off first hand.
That book, though, began a life-long love of space and all things unexplainable.
I love space, science, and the unknown. That love all comes down to a childhood fascination with the Space Shuttle program, and Ben Bova opening my childish mind to the idea of life on the moon, and how different everything would be.
Thank you Ben Bova. And thank you NASA for daring to dream big. You've both made a lifelong friend.
somewhere, deep in my soul, I heard:
"JohnMaddenJohnMaddenJohnMaddenJohnMaddenJohnMaddenJohnMaddenJohnMaddenJohnMadden"
"uuuuuUuuuuUuuuuuuUuuuuuuUuu"
aeiou
Moonbase Alpha was the location where the TV show “Space: 1999” was set.
First episode saw the moon permanently leave Earth orbit.
Spent years playing this game. It is the closest thing I've seen to real time chess. Also excellent soundtrack that sets the mood.
EDIT: whoops I thought this was moonbase commander, another NASA sponsored game from another time.
here comes another chinese earthquake ebrrrbrbrrbrrbr
Bah, thought this was related to the classic UK TV series Space:1999.
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
> which tasked the company with working on updates for "America's Army," the 2002 first-person shooter
30 seconds
Ahhh so they're the ones who made that game less realistic and more modern shooter-y. Which I have no doubt is exactly what they were asked to do, because the original AA game was slow and a lot of people hated it compared to ut or cs1.6
Shame though, it was the only game that kinda had that level of realism, with "rifle from prone while waiting can hit you at 400+ yards, but if you're running around you struggle making hits under 100 yards" that encouraged very methodical play with teamwork and spotting.