Far be it from me to just propagate links (again), but two computer games written by people I know: (I don't play computer games much, but both of these are fun)
- Alistair Turnbull's JRider, which is a car racing game with very plausible gameplay -- which shows you how far it is possible to get by modelling the world as consisting only in spheres and inclined planes. JRider is multiplayer (several people at one keyboard), and it's recently grown a network play mode (with a server written by yours truly...), though I don't think that version is described on the web yet. (This game needs Java, a SUN product which illustrates two modern trends in IT: the trend towards bloat, and the innovative influence of Microsoft. None of this matters for JRider, of course.)
- Fleafall, by various people including Francis Irving, in which Our Hero is a flea, leaping hygenically from place to place collecting what can only be described as Stuff. This one needs Microsoft Windows (it's fine under VMWare but won't run under WINE), and the version you download is an evaluation version. It's very colourful -- reminiscent of the later revisions of `Worms' -- and (after only having played it for a few minutes) very entertaining. This also supports a several-players-at-one-keyboard mode, though I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. It's also notable for having only two keys to learn.
(Thinks: should write another computer game. I don't think I even own a computer which will run this one any more.)
In other news
Lots of things to say about the Political Survey, which seems to have taken off a bit. But that will have to wait for later.