Battle Front – Operation Overlord – TCP/IP – Project

Wow what an abysmal start.

Everyone says on line gaming is Soo easy, and it isn’t a problem. Well we proved the public relations we have been hearing wrong last night.

Now being critical as I am I also understand that my intelect as to regard to IT and communication is very Ham fisted.  Yes I like the terms plug and play because I am becming inherntaly lazy as I age when it comes to communications systems.  Why are our third and fourth generation devices becoming so dificult to use. I am sure we can all look to the past to our basic pixel cell phones that we “talked” to people on and swore we had no problems with them… we probably didn’t.  Si why are we getiing blueberry phones with buttons the size of the end profile of a Tic Tac?  Crickey I know the human race is growing bigger in stature ( and weight, yes me too) but surley this is just plain idiotic.  I tried to press one letter twice so as to get a capital… you known it ther appears one of evey six letters surrounding it!  Ergonics encountered the accountant .. and the accountant won.  I just hope when ther is a good company that produces acceptale equipment and software that they whipe the market with thier briliance.

Anyways….  Michael and I trialled setting up a on line WWII game with an older title of software.  It is Operation overlord and it is about probably 8 years old.

It is a terrific game and the communication options to play againsta human advasary are Email and TCP/IP.  Now I’m such a luddite that I still don’t even know what TCP/IP means nor even if I am typing the accronym correctly. ( Don’t get me started on accronum’s I could pull that apart as well… but LLTFADSW?)

We run the game and followed the instructions which say blah blah very easy…  great! didd that, clicked that,.. the nothing.

Hmmm read the instructions..    hah! says here.. if your connected to a router you will get a 198.162.xxx.xxx or some such IP address… Yeas , Yeas .. that’s me!   Then says.. ” if so it won’t work”    …. what!!!!

Turns out you have to log into your modem and then thell you modem which computer in the house local network is using a port number 7204 or somthing…  what a load of bullshit!

ell that was too hard.. so we went to email…. poor michael had three user accounts running on the PC simultaniously… so this meant when he made a game file for posting as an email.. it saved it in someone elses directories…  so he thought the software was broken until he found it of course.

Anyhow we have it running by email.. After three or more hours Ithink we have had one turn each… WTF?

Technology is Bullshit!   Why can’t routers and modems be more simple?

However my first turn has been returned this morning!  My G Micheal did you do that while wearing PJ’s and eating breakfast?  Now my whole working day is on tenderhooks.

So my SHerman tanks are up against Tigers apparently… this is new for me, fighting the good kitchen appliances with tinfoil tanks… lets hpe my little ants have Swiss army knives with tin openers?

Bye bye for now

Martin

Wargame Nutters

Why are we wargame nutters?

The darnedest thing came whizzing into my mind set this morning like a ricochet dumb dumb bullet bouncing around the corrugated iron confines of the field post.  Unfortunately Baldrick copped it and in the process dropped the turnip soup.  The Soup will be missed.

Had a terrific conversation with dearest friend Mr Potter and he convinced me to brush of the dust of Operation Overlord by Battlefront.  I had then two days of considerable renewed fun playing this game. Of most fun to me was playing God and setting up the terrain and the battle field and pitting units against each other in some mad scientist way of experimenting. (Decadent and propostrouse I know.. but when you feel you can’t get any further in life, this is terrific)

This I realised is what I love about wargaming… I actually think of my units as real flesh and blood.. and over the years I have become much more as Kitchener in my tactics than the “slowly slowly catch a monkey” tactician.   Which is working in the games be they on the table or on the computer.

So obviously games are so much nowhere near a reality simulation (unless you play Japanese Bayonet charges).  And yet we harken to take ourselves to a place from books of fantasy or heroic commando commics….

In essence we are wargame nutters.