Civilization IV

"Mark Edwards" wrote in message
...

After many years of not really playing computer games (I own a few,
but no longer play them), I went and bought a copy of Civilization IV.
Of course, it requires a better video card than I had, but I wanted to
see if it would run on my computer.

Same here, I just found them too time consuming. But I wanted to try the new
Quake IV.

Well, it loaded and ran, and the graphics displayed lacked a LOT of
detail. The tutorial movie was so badly rendered that the image of the
narrator showed only an outline of his head, and his teeth and gums
(YIKES! Zombie narrator!). So I went to Best Buy and picked up a cheap
video card - it meets the requirements, but isn't one of those $300
mega wonders they sell now (that probably won't work on my slightly
older machine).

I just upgraded my box with a new MB, CPU and $300 wonder.

I had to disable the video driver of the current video card, resulting
in REALLY large icons, and in my carefully arranged icon locations
being disrupted.

I was hoping to get away with doing an XP repair when installing the new MB,
but it did not quite work. I should have all my software installed again in
a few months.

I installed the new card (while Little Feet and Dulce guarded my tools
and the side cover from the 'puter), installed the driver, rebooted
the computer and spent some time putting my desktop back in order. Oh
yeah, and closing the computer back up. Then I restarted the game.

I had to lock the parts away during surgery to keep the inquiring minds out.

Cool! It worked! The narrator is fully fleshed, but he still looks
like a zombie (grin), since his mouth doesn't move, and his eyes stare
straight ahead the whole time. Game detail is now awesome.

Sadly, I discovered that Quake IV came free (by mail) with my new $300
wonder after I bought the card. So much for my holiday play time.

I check out the official game web site, and find that they JUST
released a major patch, with lots of improvements, and a few fixes.
They must have known that I had JUST bought the game. I download and
install the patch, find a couple of improvements that will make more
efficient use of the video card, by making a change or two in the game
configuration file.

Now I'm thinking, "I wonder if there are any new drivers for the video
card?"

LOL, I've upgraded the BIOS, video drivers, MB drivers twice (MB
manufacturer vs. chipset maker) and the sound drivers three times (MB
manufacturer, chipset maker and codec writer).

So I check the current version of the driver, go to the graphics card
web site, and voila, they JUST put out a new driver for my card. They
must have known that I had JUST bought this card. So I download it.

Again, I have to remove the old driver, which disrupts my carefully
rearranged desktop again, and install the new driver.

Reset desktop resolution, rearrange icons, restart computer so desktop
settings are saved.

I Restart the game, and the graphics appear to be slightly more
detailed. Zombie narrator looks neither better nor worse.

I discover there is no alt.games.civ4 newsgroup (yet - Civ4 has only
been out for a couple of months), although there are groups for civ2
and civ3. I'll probably check out the civ3 group once or twice...

Anyway, I now have the game and graphics card all hotted up. It looks
like a fun game of global domination (BWAHAHAHAHAAA!). The thing I
like is that it is turn based, instead of real-time, so I can take as
long as I need on a turn without the game-played characters beating
the snot out of me because I take too long (grin).

Written by a cat no doubt.

PLUS, in addition to the expected single-player and online modes,
there is a "play by email" mode that I'll have to try out!

Fun, fun fun!


Hugs and Purrs,
Mark

It is a awesome game I love having a gunship and some little country
sends cavalry against you laugh as the apache destroys the horses
If you went to best buy you should have grabbed the ati 9550 256 mb for
79 bucks.That card would have done you wonders for any game out there.
FOR future reference if anyone needs discount prices on almost anything
except food products contact me I will send you in the right direction
hence the name NO MORE RETAIL

Matthew

"Bill Stock" wrote in message
...

"Mark Edwards" wrote in message
...

After many years of not really playing computer games (I own a few,
but no longer play them), I went and bought a copy of Civilization IV.
Of course, it requires a better video card than I had, but I wanted to
see if it would run on my computer.

Same here, I just found them too time consuming. But I wanted to try the
new Quake IV.

Well, it loaded and ran, and the graphics displayed lacked a LOT of
detail. The tutorial movie was so badly rendered that the image of the
narrator showed only an outline of his head, and his teeth and gums
(YIKES! Zombie narrator!). So I went to Best Buy and picked up a cheap
video card - it meets the requirements, but isn't one of those $300
mega wonders they sell now (that probably won't work on my slightly
older machine).

I just upgraded my box with a new MB, CPU and $300 wonder.

I had to disable the video driver of the current video card, resulting
in REALLY large icons, and in my carefully arranged icon locations
being disrupted.

I was hoping to get away with doing an XP repair when installing the new
MB, but it did not quite work. I should have all my software installed
again in a few months.

I installed the new card (while Little Feet and Dulce guarded my tools
and the side cover from the 'puter), installed the driver, rebooted
the computer and spent some time putting my desktop back in order. Oh
yeah, and closing the computer back up. Then I restarted the game.

I had to lock the parts away during surgery to keep the inquiring minds
out.

Cool! It worked! The narrator is fully fleshed, but he still looks
like a zombie (grin), since his mouth doesn't move, and his eyes stare
straight ahead the whole time. Game detail is now awesome.

Sadly, I discovered that Quake IV came free (by mail) with my new $300
wonder after I bought the card. So much for my holiday play time.

I check out the official game web site, and find that they JUST
released a major patch, with lots of improvements, and a few fixes.
They must have known that I had JUST bought the game. I download and
install the patch, find a couple of improvements that will make more
efficient use of the video card, by making a change or two in the game
configuration file.

Now I'm thinking, "I wonder if there are any new drivers for the video
card?"

LOL, I've upgraded the BIOS, video drivers, MB drivers twice (MB
manufacturer vs. chipset maker) and the sound drivers three times (MB
manufacturer, chipset maker and codec writer).

So I check the current version of the driver, go to the graphics card
web site, and voila, they JUST put out a new driver for my card. They
must have known that I had JUST bought this card. So I download it.

Again, I have to remove the old driver, which disrupts my carefully
rearranged desktop again, and install the new driver.

Reset desktop resolution, rearrange icons, restart computer so desktop
settings are saved.

I Restart the game, and the graphics appear to be slightly more
detailed. Zombie narrator looks neither better nor worse.

I discover there is no alt.games.civ4 newsgroup (yet - Civ4 has only
been out for a couple of months), although there are groups for civ2
and civ3. I'll probably check out the civ3 group once or twice...

Anyway, I now have the game and graphics card all hotted up. It looks
like a fun game of global domination (BWAHAHAHAHAAA!). The thing I
like is that it is turn based, instead of real-time, so I can take as
long as I need on a turn without the game-played characters beating
the snot out of me because I take too long (grin).

Written by a cat no doubt.

PLUS, in addition to the expected single-player and online modes,
there is a "play by email" mode that I'll have to try out!

Fun, fun fun!


Hugs and Purrs,
Mark

On Sat, 31 Dec 2005 13:07:03 -0500, Bill Stock wrote:


"Mark Edwards" wrote in message
...

After many years of not really playing computer games (I own a few,
but no longer play them), I went and bought a copy of Civilization IV.
Of course, it requires a better video card than I had, but I wanted to
see if it would run on my computer.

Same here, I just found them too time consuming. But I wanted to try the new
Quake IV.

Well, it loaded and ran, and the graphics displayed lacked a LOT of
detail. The tutorial movie was so badly rendered that the image of the
narrator showed only an outline of his head, and his teeth and gums
(YIKES! Zombie narrator!). So I went to Best Buy and picked up a cheap
video card - it meets the requirements, but isn't one of those $300
mega wonders they sell now (that probably won't work on my slightly
older machine).

I just upgraded my box with a new MB, CPU and $300 wonder.

I had to disable the video driver of the current video card, resulting
in REALLY large icons, and in my carefully arranged icon locations
being disrupted.

I was hoping to get away with doing an XP repair when installing the new MB,
but it did not quite work. I should have all my software installed again in
a few months.

I installed the new card (while Little Feet and Dulce guarded my tools
and the side cover from the 'puter), installed the driver, rebooted
the computer and spent some time putting my desktop back in order. Oh
yeah, and closing the computer back up. Then I restarted the game.

I had to lock the parts away during surgery to keep the inquiring minds out.

Cool! It worked! The narrator is fully fleshed, but he still looks
like a zombie (grin), since his mouth doesn't move, and his eyes stare
straight ahead the whole time. Game detail is now awesome.

Sadly, I discovered that Quake IV came free (by mail) with my new $300
wonder after I bought the card. So much for my holiday play time.

I check out the official game web site, and find that they JUST
released a major patch, with lots of improvements, and a few fixes.
They must have known that I had JUST bought the game. I download and
install the patch, find a couple of improvements that will make more
efficient use of the video card, by making a change or two in the game
configuration file.

Now I'm thinking, "I wonder if there are any new drivers for the video
card?"

LOL, I've upgraded the BIOS, video drivers, MB drivers twice (MB
manufacturer vs. chipset maker) and the sound drivers three times (MB
manufacturer, chipset maker and codec writer).

So I check the current version of the driver, go to the graphics card
web site, and voila, they JUST put out a new driver for my card. They
must have known that I had JUST bought this card. So I download it.

Again, I have to remove the old driver, which disrupts my carefully
rearranged desktop again, and install the new driver.

Reset desktop resolution, rearrange icons, restart computer so desktop
settings are saved.

I Restart the game, and the graphics appear to be slightly more
detailed. Zombie narrator looks neither better nor worse.

I discover there is no alt.games.civ4 newsgroup (yet - Civ4 has only
been out for a couple of months), although there are groups for civ2
and civ3. I'll probably check out the civ3 group once or twice...

Anyway, I now have the game and graphics card all hotted up. It looks
like a fun game of global domination (BWAHAHAHAHAAA!). The thing I
like is that it is turn based, instead of real-time, so I can take as
long as I need on a turn without the game-played characters beating
the snot out of me because I take too long (grin).

Written by a cat no doubt.

PLUS, in addition to the expected single-player and online modes,
there is a "play by email" mode that I'll have to try out!

Fun, fun fun!


Hugs and Purrs,
Mark

Foolish question: Why is a laugh written "BWAHAHAHAHAAAA"? I don't
understand the "BWA" part. I always thought a laugh was "HaHa" or "HoHO"
or "HeHE". As I said, a foolish question. MLB

mlbriggs wrote:

"Mark Edwards" wrote in message
. ..

snip
Anyway, I now have the game and graphics card all hotted up. It looks
like a fun game of global domination (BWAHAHAHAHAAA!). The thing I
like is that it is turn based, instead of real-time, so I can take as
long as I need on a turn without the game-played characters beating
the snot out of me because I take too long (grin).

snip

Foolish question: Why is a laugh written "BWAHAHAHAHAAAA"? I don't
understand the "BWA" part. I always thought a laugh was "HaHa" or "HoHO"
or "HeHE". As I said, a foolish question. MLB


Mark is probably intending to mimic one of those "ominous" laughs, often
heard by the "baddies" in a movie, especially in more comical versions,
like the Austin Powers movies or the old Batman-show and such.

--
Christine in Vantaa, Finland
christal63 (at) gmail (dot) com
photos: http://photos.yahoo.com/christal63
photos: http://community.webshots.com/user/chkr63

[snips]

No cluons were harmed when mlbriggs wrote:
Foolish question: Why is a laugh written "BWAHAHAHAHAAAA"? I don't
understand the "BWA" part. I always thought a laugh was "HaHa" or
"HoHO"
or "HeHE". As I said, a foolish question. MLB

It's an evil, maniacal laugh. In other words, beats me (evil grin).


Hugs and Purrs,
Mark
--
Proof of Sanity Forged Upon Request

mlbriggs wrote:

It looks like a fun game of global domination (BWAHAHAHAHAAA!).

Foolish question: Why is a laugh written "BWAHAHAHAHAAAA"? I don't
understand the "BWA" part. I always thought a laugh was "HaHa" or "HoHO"
or "HeHE". As I said, a foolish question. MLB

"BWAHAHAHAHA" is an *evil* laugh. See the above usage: you'll note that
it is preceded by a mention of global domination. It's a Snidely Whiplash
sort of laugh, chortling while rubbing one's hands together and plotting
some sort of dastardly deed.

Now, I know that We Don't Do This Here, but may I request that when
you want to post one or two lines as a reply, that you don't quote the
entire post you're responding to? Or if it's too much of a hassle to
snip a post, maybe you could top-post your reply? It was just a *lot*
to scroll through!

Back to our regular programming.

Joyce

You took your time responding to this one ML the thread was back from dec
2005
"mlbriggs"

"mlbriggs" wrote in message
news
snip

Foolish question: Why is a laugh written "BWAHAHAHAHAAAA"? I don't
understand the "BWA" part. I always thought a laugh was "HaHa" or "HoHO"
or "HeHE". As I said, a foolish question. MLB

A regular laugh is Haha or Hehe as you mentioned, but the laugh of the evil
madman as he plots the demise of his nemesis is *always* "Bwahahahaha" (with
much rubbing of hands in glee at the same time). Go watch some shonky horror
movie made inthe 70's, you'll get the idea :-). Mr Burns, from The Simpsons,
uses "excellent" instead, but its the same sort of thing.

Yowie

On Thu, 11 May 2006 06:44:49 +0000, Matthew aka NMR wrote:

You took your time responding to this one ML the thread was back from dec
2005
"mlbriggs"


As I have said befo my computer hates me. It has been having these
hiccups for quite some time now. I am not an expert but I believe my
replies go into storage and then later (sometimes months later) it spits
them out. II really don't know how to fix this problem but I keep hoping
I'll find a way. Any ideas? MLB

A stiff drink, a hammer and shotgun
"mlbriggs" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 11 May 2006 06:44:49 +0000, Matthew aka NMR wrote:

You took your time responding to this one ML the thread was back from
dec
2005
"mlbriggs"


As I have said befo my computer hates me. It has been having these
hiccups for quite some time now. I am not an expert but I believe my
replies go into storage and then later (sometimes months later) it spits
them out. II really don't know how to fix this problem but I keep hoping
I'll find a way. Any ideas? MLB