Those were the Days…

How many times have you installed the latest-bestest-coolest version of your favourite application, only to wonder at the developers’ sanity and wish you could go back to the previous one, which worked just fine? (Or like me, did you have your PC dual-boot to Windows 98 only to be able to run Need for Speed 2 to watch the game videos?)

OldVersion.com and OldApps.com offer archives of old applications that are no longer supported/hosted by their developers. They’ve helped me rediscover a lot of stuff that I had before my hard disk crashed (the first time).

All your base are belong to us

This phrase from the Japanese video game Zero Wing turned into an Internet phnomenon somewhere around 2001-02. Read all about it here.

I’m in ur base, killing ur d00dz

This phrase roughly translates to “LOL you got pwned and don’t even know it yet” and originated from surprise attacks in on-line RTS games such StarCraft and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. Here’s a list of top 10 “I’m in ur base, killing ur d00dz” pictures.

Agni

Hyderabad-based FXLabs tried their hands at the big league with Agni. Undoubtedly a brave attempt, but apparently not a very successful one. I hope we get to hear more of them in the future.

7 Days of Modern Warfare

Each day for the seven days leading up to the November 6, 2007 release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, developers Infinity Ward released new media for the world to see. It’s definitely worth a look.

Google Earth’s Hidden Surprise: A Flight Simulator

Someone on Google’s dev team obviously had a lot of free time… and probably worked for a flight simulation company earlier. Easter eggs don’t get any better than this.

Aircraft Cockpits

Like instruments, switches, guages and controls? This one’s for you.

Day 130 - Call of Duty at Duty

_Captain’s Log, StarDate 2007.11.14-05.55_

The A380 was back today, and I missed it again. I knew it was supposed to come back today, but I didn’t get time to check when. Ah, well. We also had a farewell lunch at work today for someone who’s going back to Germany. The both of us had an interesting Moto GP vs WRC conversation over lunch I also learnt that UbiSoft and Matrox do development work out of Montreal. I knew EA does most of its NFS and NHL development out of Canada. A lot of conversation at lunch revolved around the new Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Call of Duty is a local favourite at work, with a good part of the team (including a manager or two) doing a 20-minute round during lunchtime everyday.

Interesting side note: Companies based in Montreal at wikipedia

Another interesting side note: CanDevs - Canadian Video Game Companies

Open Domain Flight Simulators

FlightGear is a completely open-source and multi-platform flight simulator.

X-Plane by Laminar Research is an open, customizable and multi-platform flight simulator. Also check out the X-Plane community.

Virtual Air Traffic Simulation Network

VATSIM - Virtual Air Traffic Simulation Network - is a unique website aimed at pilot and air traffic controller training.