Further links and resources can be found on the official website:
https://icculus.org/~hamish/retro/part41.html [External Link]

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Quoting: PenglingNice to see a mention of Perixx here - they make nice stuff for very good prices. :smile:

So as a tangent to this, my old Macally iKey 105 Keys Extended USB keyboard that I picked up from a local thrift store in 2007 and which first came out in 2000 developed a fault with its bottom arrow keys after 16 years solid service, probably from my now departed 18 year old cat constantly pushing it off my desk. I think the plastic must have cracked allowing some water to get into the circuitry while cleaning it. I originally just bought the Macally as it did not have a Windows key.

Anyway, I was debating if I should take this as an opportunity to go mechanical and shell out for something like a Das Keyboard, or if I should lean more retro and try the beige Perixx PERIBOARD-106M. The Perixx seemed very well reviewed for a membrane keyboard, even by the keyboard snobs of the world. What settled the issue was when Perixx dropped the Windows logo for the beige variant and now instead has literal "Start" buttons, probably because people kept complaining that the modern Windows logo clashed with their retro systems. So back to having no Windows keys again.

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Quoting: sudoerAlso, it wasn't me using Windows 95 as an invalid argument.

No, your argument was that home users do not and will never need SSH, something which is clearly unsupportable.

The only alternative for my home network would have to be SAMBA I guess, which brings us right back to Network Neighborhood. :whistle:

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Quoting: sudoerAn OS like haiku for example, multi-user sure, multi-threaded sure, memory-protected sure, "network-aware" sure, but not including ssh and other server/corporate functionality.
A FLOSS OS just for the PC.

You are seriously telling us you have never used SSH in a home environment?

I guess Windows 95 was a server/corporate OS for including Network Neighborhood too.

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Quoting: Pengling

with some mandatory platforming only possible through keysmashing.

Ooh, the worst kind! :sick: No wonder Mr. Gutter looks so angry!

This part of the last level in particular:

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Further links and resources can be found on the official website:
https://icculus.org/~hamish/retro/part40.html [External Link]

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Quoting: uglyIn the expansion, I find that they throw a lot of enemies with ranged attacks at you early on. And, unless I missed it, I haven't found the Hammer of Retribution yet, even though I just picked up Quietus. I'm currently in the Sump area, and I'm going to have nightmares about swinging my axe with all these Slaughtars firing at me.

They do make you work for it, I recall having to use the Porkelator as a ranged attack at a few points to disable enemies until I reached them, yeah.

The first Hub of the expansion is the meanest part of the series not counting "E4M1: Catafalque" from Heretic.

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Quoting: uglyI'm playing through with each class. In the expansion they do put you up against difficult enemies early on. Without a ranged attack, the Fighter class is significantly harder than Cleric or Mage so far.

I played both the main game and the expansion as the Fighter just for that sweet instant gratification. I do understand the Cleric and Mage classes will grow in power while the Fighter stays mostly flat, but hack and slash for me was the way to go. Especially since I went through most of the game twice. The alternate fire on the Hammer of Retribution served me well enough for range.

Quoting: gbudnyI have to admit that I liked reading how you sorted out all these issues. It probably wasn't fun for you to frequently encounter them.

It is all part of the experience. If I wanted stable and supported I would just be playing the game through Crispy Hexen on my modern Arch Linux computer after all. Next article should not take nearly as long to publish though.

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Quoting: TheSHEEEPYeah, HeXen is more than anything else a test of patience. How long until the endless backtracking and looking for hard to find levers, doors and keys will drive you insane? :grin:

I actually did manage to get through the entirety of the main game without a walkthrough apart from being told that the secret exits would all be stashed somewhere on the main area of each hub. They pull a nasty trick for this with the secret exit in the final hub area but I will not spoil it here.

I almost managed this feat with Deathkings of the Dark Citadel except I did end up looking up how to find the fifth planet in the first hub, as I already had the fact I was looking for a planet spoiled for me when trying to resolve the issues with the Sump level, and its location is by far the least telegraphed secret in the entire game. I also needed to play every level to know which ones were actually solvable at that point.

I am looking forward to coming back to HeXen with say Crispy Hexen somewhere down the line now that I will have some hazy memories to guide me. The first games I played through on Windows 98 from Dianoga was the Arthur Yahtzee Trilogy which I went through as a teenager with heavy use of the walkthrough, but over a decade on I had my recollections guiding me and managed it entirely on my own. It seemed a good balance between tackling moon logic and a genuine mental challenge.

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Further links and resources can be found on the official website:
https://icculus.org/~hamish/retro/part39.html [External Link]

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