[billybob_jcv]

I was a Fortran GOD! I could make Fortran sing, dance and do the dishes. I wrote many tens of thousands of lines of Fortran in the 80s.

 

[Coq de Combat]

Never tried FORTRAN but I have heard of it.

Megadrive was called Genesis over there. A Sega console.

 

[DigitalFreak]

Ah ok, I've heard and played on a Sega Genesis console.

 

[Coq de Combat]

The Genesis/Megadrive was an awesome console, with awesome games. For me, personally, that was the golden era of video games. Good enough graphics, good enough music, good enough stories but simple enough controls to make it an awesome experience. 

 

[Makiah S]

  The Genesis/Megadrive was an awesome console, with awesome games. For me, personally, that was the golden era of video games. Good enough graphics, good enough music, good enough stories but simple enough controls to make it an awesome experience. 

agree'd the MegaDrive and the SNES where my favorites. The Mega Drive was the 16bit one right?

 

[Coq de Combat]

  agree'd the MegaDrive and the SNES where my favorites. The Mega Drive was the 16bit one right?

Yeah it was the 16-bit one. It had the Sonic games when they were actually good (great), and a lot of other great games. The SNES had the Mario games that I actually liked (I haven't tried the new ones, but the 3D ones were atrocious IMO). Platformers are meant to be 2D or 2.5D. Not 3D.

 

[Makiah S]

  Yeah it was the 16-bit one. It had the Sonic games when they were actually good (great), and a lot of other great games. The SNES had the Mario games that I actually liked (I haven't tried the new ones, but the 3D ones were atrocious IMO). Platformers are meant to be 2D or 2.5D. Not 3D.

agree'd
 
I remember playing one sonic game on my PC for the longest time, 2 an 3 where by far my favorites... I felt sonic games always looked better than mario, but mario was usually longer

 

[gelocks]

  Personally I'm waiting for my backlog to empty up a little before going for a new, non-backwards-capable machine. Also, waiting will give me a more mature machine and less childhood diseases (think X360 RLOD).
 
I'm probably leaning more towards the PS4 than the XBox One, though. It's fun how my progression has gone when it comes to gaming consoles:
 
C64 -> Megadrive -> PlayStation -> PlayStation 2 -> Xbox 360 -> ...?
 
I know the C64 isn't a gaming console per definition, however, it was too stupid for being a real computer and too smart for being a gaming console. The way I used it though, which was mainly for gaming, I'm going to call it a gaming console. With cassette tapes, of course, none of those snobby, fancy 5.25" disk drives. Last, but not least, it used basic which was .. awesome in it's own awful way.
 
10 print "Coq de Combat";
20 GOTO 10
Run
 

 
Loved my C64.
My dad got us that "computer" when we were young to do school work, etc. Little did he know that it was one of the best gaming machines at the time! LOL!
Learned BASIC as well just by reading the manuals and began "programming" on it. aaahhh Memories...
 

  The Genesis/Megadrive was an awesome console, with awesome games. For me, personally, that was the golden era of video games. Good enough graphics, good enough music, good enough stories but simple enough controls to make it an awesome experience. 

 
I was a Sega fanboy and had the Master System and the Genesis. So many great games! I still listen to the SOUNDTRACK from the Streets of Rage series from time to time! Such awesomeness!

 

[DigitalFreak]

Here's a silly question, is fortran even used nowadays or is it a dead computer language like basic ?

 

[billybob_jcv]

Fortran programs are still running and being maintained - but I doubt much new code is being written. Believe it or not, the Fortran language is still evolving: Fortran66->Fortran77->Fortran90->Fortran95->Fortran2003->Fortran2008 - and there is a proposal for Fortran2015!
http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2013/08/08/doctor-fortran-goes-dutch-fortran-2015

I suspect that in most cases, any running Fortran apps are probably actually hybrids of Fortran & C, or Fortran & something else. Even back in the late 80s, that was pretty common.

I haven't touched Fortran since ~1997.

I happen to know of a $2 Billion company that STILL has it's primary billing software written in Cobol and running on Vax/VMS. They've been working on replacing that system for 25 years... :rolleyes:

 

[MrEleventy]

Fortran programs are still running and being maintained - but I doubt much new code is being written. Believe it or not, the Fortran language is still evolving: Fortran66->Fortran77->Fortran90->Fortran95->Fortran2003->Fortran2008 - and there is a proposal for Fortran2015!
http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2013/08/08/doctor-fortran-goes-dutch-fortran-2015

I suspect that in most cases, any running Fortran apps are probably actually hybrids of Fortran & C, or Fortran & something else. Even back in the late 80s, that was pretty common.

I haven't touched Fortran since ~1997.

I happen to know of a $2 Billion company that STILL has it's primary billing software written in Cobol and running on Vax/VMS. They've been working on replacing that system for 25 years... :rolleyes:

If it's not broken, leave it be....... then panic when it's broken because it can't be fixed due to being out of date. That seems to be the normal case scenario for most corps that I've dealt with.

 

[gelocks]

  Here's a silly question, is fortran even used nowadays or is it a dead computer language like basic ?

 
Still used.
Especially on old servers (Universities) and even ... banks!. But most of those systems were being slowly phased-out. I suspect that by now, no one is using it here.
 

Fortran programs are still running and being maintained - but I doubt much new code is being written. Believe it or not, the Fortran language is still evolving: Fortran66->Fortran77->Fortran90->Fortran95->Fortran2003->Fortran2008 - and there is a proposal for Fortran2015!
http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2013/08/08/doctor-fortran-goes-dutch-fortran-2015

I suspect that in most cases, any running Fortran apps are probably actually hybrids of Fortran & C, or Fortran & something else. Even back in the late 80s, that was pretty common.

I haven't touched Fortran since ~1997.

I happen to know of a $2 Billion company that STILL has it's primary billing software written in Cobol and running on Vax/VMS. They've been working on replacing that system for 25 years...

 
Yeap... they love their Vax/VMS systems! LOL
Logged in one of them right now... 
 
The thing is that they have that old school reasoning of "let it be, it's not hurting anyone"... that is until one of them craps out and then everyone is in panic mode looking for spare hardware, etc. Oh well...

 

[barleyguy]

Fortran is also used quite a bit in satellites and other space operations. It's mainly used for solving equations, such as maneuver calculations. The reason it's never been replaced by something else is because there is a high risk related to incorrect results of calculations.

 

[Coq de Combat]

  agree'd
 
I remember playing one sonic game on my PC for the longest time, 2 an 3 where by far my favorites... I felt sonic games always looked better than mario, but mario was usually longer

Those two are my favorite Sonic games as well. I liked the controls on Sonic better than Mario as well, since there was only one button to use. I hate that games nowadays are so overly complex when it comes to controls. I can be without Sonic for a decade and still remember how to play. If I stay away from todays games for more than a couple of weeks, there's a re-learning curve there. I'm not saying that I don't like the games of today, I just wish they would be more easily controlled. Sometimes they make me feel like a sloth because I can't do their finger waltz combos fast enough. It's probably no problem for those accustomed to it, but I never really grew fond of it, nor do I have a great coordination skill. It's distracting, and it takes away the fun of it.
 

   
Loved my C64.
My dad got us that "computer" when we were young to do school work, etc. Little did he know that it was one of the best gaming machines at the time! LOL!
Learned BASIC as well just by reading the manuals and began "programming" on it. aaahhh Memories...
 
 
I was a Sega fanboy and had the Master System and the Genesis. So many great games! I still listen to the SOUNDTRACK from the Streets of Rage series from time to time! Such awesomeness!

I hope you had a Tac-2 my friend. The only joystick worthy of the C64.
 
LOL, yeah, and reading C64 Magazines that had code for creating some simple program. Unfortunately that code used to be about 5-10 pages long, and you knew immidiately that you would misspell something and you'd sit there for hours before you find what went wrong.
 
I also loved the mini games some of them had while loading the main game. That's just ... the loading times were so long that they had to have a mini game to entertain the player. A mini game. While loading.
 

   
Still used.
Especially on old servers (Universities) and even ... banks!. But most of those systems were being slowly phased-out. I suspect that by now, no one is using it here.
 
 
Yeap... they love their Vax/VMS systems! LOL
Logged in one of them right now... 
 
The thing is that they have that old school reasoning of "let it be, it's not hurting anyone"... that is until one of them craps out and then everyone is in panic mode looking for spare hardware, etc. Oh well...

In Sweden I only know of banks using COBOL nowadays. Unfortunately the only COBOL programmers left, are old and pretty... "expensive", so to say. 

 
Perhaps there's a future in that. 

 

[Magick Man]

Just a gamer? Buy a PS4. It's the no bones, minimalistic choice. Want a more immersive entertainment experience, with Google TV-like integration, DVR, apps, and tons of extra peripheral support? Get the One.