For a while now I've fantasised about having the ability to relive my life in any place and time. Basically having the ability to experience almost anything from world history. There are some grandiose things I'd like to experience, like being part of the team that put a man on the moon, or being part of the D day landings. However the main thing I would like to experience is far more modest. I'd like to have been a game dev in the early 90s.
As a software developer I've always been curious about game development and have made my own little game demos from time to time. But the one thing that has always annoyed me is that by the time I was old enough and proficient enough to be a game developer the tech had moved on to the stage where consoles were in many ways just the same as regular PCs. You basically had a CPU that ran compiled C++ pretty quickly and you had a GPU that shifted triangles.
The era that I would have loved to have been involved in was the era just before that. I'd love to have cut my teeth writing assembler for the Mega Drive or SNES. To have been involved with the making of a major title for one of the those platforms would have been fantastic. It felt like there was a still a real hacker spirit to it. Trying to squeeze the most out of weird hardware that was full of quirks. I don't particularly have any creative talent when it comes to art/music but I think I could have done some really interesting engine work on those platforms.
Then after that you had the work on Playstation, Saturn and N64. I remember reading articles about the teams that built Crash Bandicoot and Tomb Raider. Stories of all night hackathons and the team basically living/working out of a big house together then heading down to the pub after a long week making some of the first 3D engines. God I would love to have been a part of that.
I've dabbled with learning some Z80 and have made a simple demo of a game engine for the Master System. Unfortunately I'm finding making time for working on stuff like that more and more difficult as I get older. By the time I've finished getting through the work I need to do each week for my own business there is very little energy left for working on hobby projects. Particularly hobby projects that will need years of effort and money to turn in to anything that anybody would want to play. Still, I keep open in the back of my mind that if I can ever manage to make myself less employed I'll try to find a team making something interesting and offer my services.
Soylentils, if you could live your life in another time and place where would you go and what would you want to do?
A very special time in a very special place
For a while now I've fantasised about having the ability to relive my life in any place and time. Basically having the ability to experience almost anything from world history. There are some grandiose things I'd like to experience, like being part of the team that put a man on the moon, or being part of the D day landings. However the main thing I would like to experience is far more modest. I'd like to have been a game dev in the early 90s.
As a software developer I've always been curious about game development and have made my own little game demos from time to time. But the one thing that has always annoyed me is that by the time I was old enough and proficient enough to be a game developer the tech had moved on to the stage where consoles were in many ways just the same as regular PCs. You basically had a CPU that ran compiled C++ pretty quickly and you had a GPU that shifted triangles.
The era that I would have loved to have been involved in was the era just before that. I'd love to have cut my teeth writing assembler for the Mega Drive or SNES. To have been involved with the making of a major title for one of the those platforms would have been fantastic. It felt like there was a still a real hacker spirit to it. Trying to squeeze the most out of weird hardware that was full of quirks. I don't particularly have any creative talent when it comes to art/music but I think I could have done some really interesting engine work on those platforms.
Then after that you had the work on Playstation, Saturn and N64. I remember reading articles about the teams that built Crash Bandicoot and Tomb Raider. Stories of all night hackathons and the team basically living/working out of a big house together then heading down to the pub after a long week making some of the first 3D engines. God I would love to have been a part of that.
I've dabbled with learning some Z80 and have made a simple demo of a game engine for the Master System. Unfortunately I'm finding making time for working on stuff like that more and more difficult as I get older. By the time I've finished getting through the work I need to do each week for my own business there is very little energy left for working on hobby projects. Particularly hobby projects that will need years of effort and money to turn in to anything that anybody would want to play. Still, I keep open in the back of my mind that if I can ever manage to make myself less employed I'll try to find a team making something interesting and offer my services.
Soylentils, if you could live your life in another time and place where would you go and what would you want to do?
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