This is a pointless, but fun investigation of why some the letters “H” above the entrance of Frank Lloyd Wright‘s Unity Temple church in Chicago are up-side-down. The author tries to track down historical documents and pictures to reconstruct the history of the when those letters were put up and maybe taken down … and to ultimately see how far back the mistake goes.
Tag: History
Tim’s Vermeer
You have an obsession … it intrigues you … there is a mystery … you have a hunch … you consult experts … you try it … you succeed. It’s still not a proof … but you’re convinced … you feel good. 😀
Tim’s Vermeer is an awesome documentary following Tim Jenison trying to figure out what technique 17th century painter Johannes Vermeer may have used to capture lighting, color and minute details of the painted scenes. It’s an awesome way to watch the geek’s mind at work. 😉
Kundige Rolle
Die über 700 Jahre alte und seit dem 2. Weltkrieg verschollene Kundige Rolle ist wieder aufgetaucht. 😀
Street Fighter II: An Oral History
Street Fighter II: An Oral History tells the story of how Street Fighter II came to be, though interviews and anecdotes of those involved creating it. It’s a lot of fun to read. 😀
Landesgrenzen
https://alpha.app.net/riyad/post/22134762
Die kleine Hagia Sophia
Ich wusste gar nicht, dass es eine kleine (Test-) Hagia Sophia gibt … anscheinend als “Generalprobe” für den Bau der Großen.
Old Games’ Source Code
Fabien Sanglard has written an interesting drill down into the recently released source code for Doom3. He tries to reason why certain things are the way they are and also had a few of his questions answered by John Carmack himself.
There was news about the source code for the Prince of Persia game on Apple II computers restored from a set of ancient floppy disks. There is also a great quote on why going through the trouble of restoring/releasing the source code of those games is something worthwhile.
“Because if we didn’t, it might have disappeared forever.”
Video game source code is a bit like the sheet music to a piano sonata that’s already been performed and recorded. One might reasonably ask: If you have the recording, what do you need the sheet music for?
You don’t, if all you want is to listen and enjoy the music. But to a pianist performing the piece, or a composer who wants to study it or arrange it for different instruments, the original score is valuable.
It’s possible, up to a point, to reverse-engineer new source code from a published video game, much as a capable musician can transcribe a musical score from listening to a performance. But in both cases, there’s no substitute for the original document as a direct line to the creator’s intentions and work process. As such, it has both practical and historical value, to the small subset of the game-playing/music-listening community that cares.