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#1725769 - 03/29/05 08:03 AM Spoke to Andy Hollis before I left EA.  

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I mention this nearly 3 years too late. But back when I worked at the now defunct Westwood Studios in Las Vegas (then recently purchased by EA), I had access to the entire EA corporate email database. Sure enough I saw Andy's name in there. Fired off an email and actually got a respone.

I finally got to tell him how great his legacy was and how it affected me and others. Ever since the first Gunship game I was hooked. He, of course, was thankful and glad to hear.

Chopper sims just have not been the same since he left. As we all know the entire aircraft sim market seems to be dead. Shame too, with all the tech we have now in video cards and CPUs.

It is why we are all scambling to make LB2 work some 6 years after it came out!

Anyway, just wanted to share. Again since everyone here obviously realizes how special LB2 is for folks like us. And the other games Origin, Janes and EA put out.

Inline advert (2nd and 3rd post)

#1725770 - 03/29/05 09:32 AM Re: Spoke to Andy Hollis before I left EA.  
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he posted on SimHQ about a year ago
selling a signed copy of f18 i think
times must be hard \:\(


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#1725771 - 03/29/05 10:21 AM Re: Spoke to Andy Hollis before I left EA.  
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Nice story there, mate.
I believe LB2 is the only game I've actually touched more than 5 years after its release (and its allmost 8 now). Only two games I've been "loyal" to for more than 2 years: OFP and LB2.
I've had my nickname for 9 years now (Yes, I got it from LB1 where you had to choose callsign from a list) \:D

#1725772 - 03/29/05 01:11 PM Re: Spoke to Andy Hollis before I left EA.  
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Quote:
Originally posted by Shadow=ASP=:Nice story there, mate.
I believe LB2 is the only game I've actually touched more than 5 years after its release (and its allmost 8 now).
Concurr: that and Falcon 4.


Mulch it.
#1725773 - 03/29/05 03:10 PM Re: Spoke to Andy Hollis before I left EA.  
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Cool, wonder where some of their programers went to? It would be nice to pick their brains for any tid bits on how LB2 was setup and if it could be modded further.

#1725774 - 04/05/05 12:22 PM Re: Spoke to Andy Hollis before I left EA.  
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Was'nt TK of Third Wire on the LB2 team? I think I've read that somewhere sometime ago.
/Johan


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#1725775 - 04/05/05 02:04 PM Re: Spoke to Andy Hollis before I left EA.  
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Quote:
Was'nt TK of Third Wire on the LB2 team? I think I've read that somewhere sometime ago.
Of course. TK was a major designer/programmer/author of LB2. Which in fact makes it very interesting if he would be able to give some hint or help, if and when approached.

Also some time ago there was a poll on ThirdWire asking the preference of the gamers as to next ThirdWire Project. The 1st WW simulation unfortunately won, but Helicopter sim was somewhere too, but distant. It is a real pity and perhaps real invigorated interest in LB2 could change their mind.

#1725776 - 04/05/05 02:26 PM Re: Spoke to Andy Hollis before I left EA.  
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I would say that flight sims aren't dead, their just made by Russians now. Which is good.

It is always good to hear about the old developers.
May EA burn itself to the ground someday!


"Never has so much been patched by so few for so many in so short a time." - W1ndy

Some odd mods

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#1725777 - 04/06/05 06:53 AM Re: Spoke to Andy Hollis before I left EA.  
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Quote:
Originally posted by Polak:
Also some time ago there was a poll on ThirdWire asking the preference of the gamers as to next ThirdWire Project. The 1st WW simulation unfortunately won, but Helicopter sim was somewhere too, but distant. It is a real pity and perhaps real invigorated interest in LB2 could change their mind.
I doubt it. The poll was taken predominantly among the SFP1 crowd (i.e. on the thirdwire forums), so I'm frankly already surprised that a WW1 sim won (as opposed to another take on the SFP1 era like WOV).

Also, on the level of detail of SFP1/WOV we already have two very good helo sims (GS & EECH), and that TK would have abandoned his current 'light, semi-open survey sim' business-model in favor of a hardcore helo sim is IMO wishful thinking if not pure fantasy.

Besides, cross SFP1 and LB2 and you'd pretty much get Gunship. \:D

...although bigger maps would be nice.


Don Quixote's misfortune is not his imagination, but Sancho Panza.
#1725778 - 04/14/05 08:06 PM Re: Spoke to Andy Hollis before I left EA.  
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Modding is little like investigating. Putting piece by piece together and checking if it fits.

So I feel that looking through entire line of Jane's Combat Simulations Development Studio may bring some interesting results.

Putting together small spreadsheet of names and timeline of people participating in development can shed some light and point to the continuity nodes of some trends and techniques.

Since the group was developing some over the 10 simulations, I do strongly believe that it would not be prudent no to reuse certain elements of graphic, logic or else.

Perhaps just like in Microsoft line of flight simulators, they are all backward compatible, here too something SAME could be just disguised under different name, format or compression.

Also important are sometimes demos. They are often released in rush and do not have entire cloak of protection and disguise the final product may have. They are more fragmented , because they are simplified version of the final program.

It is worth to look into it, I think.

#1725779 - 04/14/05 08:46 PM Re: Spoke to Andy Hollis before I left EA.  
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The Longbow 2 demo still seems to be available here:

Link

28Mb
It would have the campaign and multiplayer stuff ripped out of it, I would assume, and just have the game engine and objects intact. Good idea, Polak.


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#1725780 - 04/14/05 09:50 PM Re: Spoke to Andy Hollis before I left EA.  
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That link had a damaged file, try this one instead. Sorry about that.
Link


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#1725781 - 04/14/05 10:04 PM Re: Spoke to Andy Hollis before I left EA.  
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What's interesting about the demo is that there is no OBJVIEW.INI file included, which makes me believe that this file is likely related to either the movie clips or the Janes reference "book", instead of the actual game. Possibly the tutorial? I'm thinking it's really not needed to run the rendering engine. That would simplify things a bit.


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#1725782 - 04/14/05 10:21 PM Re: Spoke to Andy Hollis before I left EA.  
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This is exactly I was typing in reply to you after demo download \:\) See, demos are important.

I also thnk it is that 3D window setup in "Read Jane's" where you can preview and rotate 3D models of equipment featured in the game.

#1725783 - 04/15/05 12:33 AM Re: Spoke to Andy Hollis before I left EA.  
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It is also stil here:

ftp://ftp.ea.com/pub/archive/janes/demos/longbow_2/lb2demo.exe

and so are most of the original patches.



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