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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Public school is great man!

No need to teach the kids the metric system. No need to teach them how to budget, save for the future, or do their own taxes. No need to teach them to take care of their bodies for the long haul. Hell... no need to instill one iota of competitive spirit within them whatsoever.

What's not to like?

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Originally posted by rue:
The original virtual reality: Every now and again I dream I can fly. Nothing to it! Sometimes I dream I can play the piano. My fingers just magically make all the right sounds come out when I touch the keys! And sometimes in my dreams I reprise doing tumbling and equipment gymnastics, but flawlessly and without effort.

But I would never in a million years mistake my dreams for reality.

Sigh. What have we done to our children?

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I grew up addicted to video games. That was with an Atari 5200 at home, with its bleep, bloop sound effects, until I was around 10 and we got a Nintendo. It's a great babysitter... especially when your parents are divorced and both are working full time.

I still play, but not nearly as much as I used to. Funny thing is that I don't play anything new. When I do play, it's all retro stuff that I grew up with.

I see the stuff the kids have today and can't even imagine how easy it would be to get lost in those worlds.



RPGs (Role Playing Games) were when it got bad for me though. Instead of the arcade style games that would test your reflexes and reward you for improving them, RPGs were based off of a system of completing repetitive tasks to "level up" your character, which made the game easier. I've never been diagnosed OCD, but I suspect that I am. I can't play an RPG without "100%ing" them. This eats up a ton of real world time, scratching that OCD itch. It takes all the fun and difficulty out of a game.

It should feel like homework, but with systems in place to constantly reward you for your "work" it keeps certain types of minds coming back for more.

But at least they ended...

When online MMO's like World of Warcraft came out that claimed they were never-ending games, I knew I could never try them. I didn't want to get lost in those worlds.


Ben Stein once said that his son was addicted to "Evercrack", a term he coined for an earlier MMO called Everquest.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
MMO = Massive Multi-player Online, or Massively Multi-player Online.

Everquest and World of Warcraft were the first big ones, but they'd been around a while before that. It's not all fantasy type settings anymore either. Lot's of combat simulators and other things too. I never saw Ready Player One, but you could probably think of them as the Great Grand-daddy to that world if it ever does come to pass.

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I was Galaga Champ in High School.
Worked for a coin-operated video game company for 10 years, paid to play.
Had a roommate who had Battleship, which he had been trying to complete for several months. I started to play it, took 2 weeks to finish.

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
MMO. Not completely sure I understand the meaning.

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I did visit a Virtual Arcade. Played the Fighter Jet one, simple engine thrust, joystick, guns and missiles for controls. Had to empty pockets of loose items such as change, it was like a simplified flight simulator. At the end of your session, even if you were flying straight and level, the cockpit would need to return to home position to let you out - so half the time it would flip and twist you to do that. Lots of people came out looking green. Took lots of friends there.
You could play against the computer, or other human players. Other humans could be opponents or on your team against computer. There were 2 units there, so you could play a session with one of your buddies. Or you could connect with players from other States, up to 8 together in a session. IIRC, a place in NJ had 4 units.
There was a monitor screen outside for audience to see the same screen that you saw, while you were spinning and twisting in your cockpit.
The Arcade Operators said I was the best they had seen, they wanted to play with or against me.

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
MMO. Not completely sure I understand the meaning.

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It's a massive online game, featuring the ability to host many players. I've never played one before, so I could only explain it to you the way it has been explained to me over the years. Unlike single person Role Playing Games you'd play at home, you usually aren't strong enough to do anything by yourself and it actually requires you to team up with others, usually in "guilds" in fantasy settings like World of Warcraft. People get together to form "raids" on target factions. From what I understand, even Firefly once had an MMO. It doesn't have to be about Orcs and Dragons.

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I did visit a Virtual Arcade. Played the Fighter Jet one, simple engine thrust, joystick, guns and missiles for controls. Had to empty pockets of loose items such as change, it was like a simplified flight simulator. At the end of your session, even if you were flying straight and level, the cockpit would need to return to home position to let you out - so half the time it would flip and twist you to do that. Lots of people came out looking green. Took lots of friends there.
You could play against the computer, or other human players. Other humans could be opponents or on your team against computer. There were 2 units there, so you could play a session with one of your buddies. Or you could connect with players from other States, up to 8 together in a session. IIRC, a place in NJ had 4 units.
There was a monitor screen outside for audience to see the same screen that you saw, while you were spinning and twisting in your cockpit.
The Arcade Operators said I was the best they had seen, they wanted to play with or against me.

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I played one of those many, many years ago. It wasn't as sophisticated as what you're talking about though. I believe it was called Battletech, where you sat in a cockpit of a virtual mech robot on a battle field with your friends.

The next closest thing I ever did that comes close to what you're talking about is the old Star Wars arcade from the early to mid 80's.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:

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Originally posted by rue:
The original virtual reality: Every now and again I dream I can fly. Nothing to it! Sometimes I dream I can play the piano. My fingers just magically make all the right sounds come out when I touch the keys! And sometimes in my dreams I reprise doing tumbling and equipment gymnastics, but flawlessly and without effort.

But I would never in a million years mistake my dreams for reality.

Sigh. What have we done to our children?

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I just realized: we have enslaved them to The Matrix.

There must have been polls about how many would choose the Blue Pill or the Red Pill - I wonder if that response percentage would have changed by now. The Matrix would not have allowed offensive language, or SJWs to be offended, right?

Come to think of it, SJWs and gender studies have displaced real issues in many minds, with apparent equal validity.

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
That's cool. I haven't been to any place that would have anything like that since I was in grade school or maybe Jr. High. I remember along with the Battletech they had some expensive VR game where you stood in a gated circle and wore the huge VR goggles. Big screens around it showed everybody else what the player was doing. (I want to say it was North Pier, in Chicago).

The funny thing is, back then that setup probably cost a million bucks, and today you can buy a VR helmet at home for around $300 that is 10 times as good.

I can't even imagine what awesome stuff they have in 2019 if you're willing to go downtown and pay big bucks for the experience. It's probably over $100 now just to park your car for the day.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
That's cool. I haven't been to any place that would have anything like that since I was in grade school or maybe Jr. High. I remember along with the Battletech they had some expensive VR game where you stood in a gated circle and wore the huge VR goggles. Big screens around it showed everybody else what the player was doing. (I want to say it was North Pier, in Chicago).

The funny thing is, back then that setup probably cost a million bucks, and today you can buy a VR helmet at home for around $300 that is 10 times as good.

I can't even imagine what awesome stuff they have in 2019 if you're willing to go downtown and pay big bucks for the experience. It's probably over $100 now just to park your car for the day.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Yeah, the Doom thing was a gated circle. This was all in Oklahoma City, no paid parking at the Crossroads Mall.
No way you're having a 3 Dimensional capsule simulator in your living room.

One of the biggest problems with Video Games was the cash.
When Space Invaders came out, the very first night they were placed in bars, every single one stopped working. They all overflowed their cashboxes with Quarters, at one Quarter per game. Shorting out the circuit boards, that's over $1,000 in Quarters. Next day owners sent trucks out in every direction to buy more of the games. That night every single new game also had the same fate.
In the mid-late 90s, the most popular games had HUGE screens in S-VGA, like a ski course, and I think a golf one, with a golf club. Those cashboxes overflowed with Dollars and Twenties, to the point the Dollar Bill Accepters could not take any more money.


I tried looking for flight simulators.
Maybe like flightsimcentre.com or flightdeck1.com

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
That probably is the right conclusion.

Even though I don't pack on much pounds at all when I'm not drinking and I'm being active, there are certain foods (or barely food) that I would continue to eat more of if it's around after I would stop eating real food.

It's why I don't keep things like Doritos in my house anymore. I could be "full" after a dinner with no more need to eat until the next night, but if there were a big ole' bag of Doritios sitting in my kitchen I could make a good attempt at finishing it off.


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" 'You're like the Nazis' is the new 'I don't like you'. That disqualifies her from marching around planet Who-Gives-a-Shit in a helmet? ~Bill Maher

PSA: Don't click on any links in Second's posts. He's trying to fish your private information out of you.

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Yes, virtual exercise is barely exercise! (... though running through actions in your mind like throwing a bowling ball or hitting a tennis ball with your racquet are well-known 'virtual' exercises that improve your skill-set.)

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