Sandy Petersen 🪔

Game Designer and Father of Lovecraftian gaming. CEO of Petersen Games. Also Doom, Age of Empires, etc. Subscribe for exclusive game insights & history!

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@Korea_GreatHero Yes

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

Man this makes me wish Don Mattrick hadn't murdered Ensemble and also that EA hadn't murdered Westwood.

Because by now our two companies would be bitter rivals, making competing modern-war or future Real Time Strategy games and all you guys would be arguing viciously online and belittling each other for being Ensemble simps or Westwood losers.

And those would make for good times times indeed.

[Clint Warren-Davey @Clint_Davey1]

One of the coolest things in Command and Conquer Generals is how the USA can build F-22 Raptors.

Unlike many other RTS games, aircraft operate in a semi-realistic way.

So you can assign the Raptors an area to patrol - including targeting enemy air or just targeting anything.

It's basically a Combat Air Patrol over a certain area.

Or you can order them to strike a specific target.

Once they've fired their missiles they return to their airfield to refuel and resupply.

It looks awesome.

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@TheKingOfWrong Three franchises if you count Blizzard’s. And four if you add Total Annihilation

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@Ranche_Tr I like your thumbnail. It’s classy.

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@TSileve Wind in your hair pal.

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

Several burst tires in a day. A 25-horsepower engine. And it was considered a powerful car.

The other day I was reading The Dust-Cloud (1912) by E. F. Benson, and it's all about cars of the time. I was struck by some of the author's assumptions and statements and decided to research them.

First, during one day's touring on country roads, they got flat tires FOUR TIMES, and just shrugged it off. They carried several "sleeves" (wrapped around the tire at the puncture) and "socks" (inside the tire at the puncture). They'd repair then inflate with a hand pump(!). If the tire "burst" then they had to replace the whole thing (though even then it could sometimes be repaired at a garage). But a car commonly carried 2-4 spare tires. Think of an old-time car with a tire on each side, and one in the back. That's three, and it's not for show. So yeah they just got used to driving an hour or two, getting a flat, hopping out and repairing it, and going on with their day. This was partly I assume because their tires sucked, but also because English country roads in 1912 were full of sharp flint, gravel, and worse things.

Heck, the name of the story - The Dust Cloud - shows this, because the assumption is that any car moving at speed will raise a huge cloud of dust! That road is for sure not metaled! And Lord knows how terrible a road in Scotland or Wyoming would have been.

That seems so bizarre to me, and I absolutely think Call of Cthulhu players in the 1920s should be tormented with this during chase scenes. It also makes me super glad for my own modern tires AND modern roads. Heck, I've been driving since 1971 and I think I've probably changed tires less than a dozen times. Praise the Lord.

Second, in the tale they boasted of their "25 horsepower engine" which amazed me. I mean, my crappy Acura TLX has 10x that. Well in England then, "25 hp" didn't mean 25 hp. It was "25 hp for Tax purposes", which quite different. Cars typically exceeded the tax rating, which meant it would be more like 40hp. (In the US, with different laws, 25hp meant 25hp.) Even so, it sounds pretty feeble.

But it was still able to move your car 50-70mph or more, and could cruise easily at 40-50mph. Imagine you're in an OPEN car, racing along with goggles and a flailing scarf, at 60mph on a gravely, bumpy road with sheep and hares and ox-carts all liable to appear in front of you at any moment, and yeah that would be terrifying and exhilarating.

"But Sandy," you ask, "Why do I have a 300hp engine but don't go much faster than these old rust-buckets?"

Well - we do get benefits from our extra horsepower. For one thing, our acceleration is amazing. A 1920s car might take 15-30 seconds or more to reach 50 mph. We can do it in like 4 seconds.

Another benefit is that we can sustain high speeds for a long time safely and stably. A vintage car going 70mph felt sketchy, vibrated heavily, had marginal brakes, and skinny tires with rudimentary suspension. We have better brakes, tires, more rigid chassis, aerodynamics, and controls. We can actually USE the high power without the car becoming dangerous or literally bits falling off. Our extra horsepower shows up as easy overtaking, rapid merging, and the ability to accelerate hard at need - not high cruising speeds.

An old-time car that felt "fast" at 60 mph was driving at the limit of what vintage technology and vintage roads permitted. Our cars have huge reserves ready for application.

That said, the old cars sound WAY more fun to drive.

Have you ridden or driven one?

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@zekedup_ And in fact that’s why the car was haunted in the story driver possibly intentionally killed a little girl

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@angrytypers Not gigantically. Mostly I was interested in the differences then & now.

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@rmb3209 Nice. I bet he hated that.

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@Mr_Thomps_0 Yes.

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@TheKingOfWrong I guess. But horses don’t lose 4 shoes in a day.

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@NoiseesoiN Well Tom Swift lived in the future

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@zenboggess Neat. I’ll look for it.

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

Together we’ve created one of the fastest growing communities on https://t.co/UynEe6zHVY and Solana.

Our doom army is growing stronger and we’re not gonna stop building.

Excited for another day with you all. Look for more announcements tomorrow! 🥳

$Doom

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@dioscuri I agree insofar as there will be parallels to Earth life. Not to humans. Nothing looks like us so we’re not something that would generate parallels.

Lots of things are lizard shaped (tuatara, gator, newt) so that’s plausible z

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@uncle_deluge I learned so much backstory of these things while working on the Halo MMO.

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

To clear up some points I’m seeing in the community: this is something I want to work on and grow over the long-term.

I’ve been engaging and building this with you guys as much as I can.

The team’s been making updates to the game. We’re working to incorporate new features and other modes.

I see the community and I hear you guys and I look forward to the long haul with you!

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@HorrorPaperback

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@Clint_Davey1 Had a big argument about this at Ensemble. The progressive said it was unamerican for a file clerk to lose her job just because she was a commie. The conservative said, she was a file clerk IIN THE WAR ROOM.

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

@DaddyWarpig He alternated with Lee Van Cleef in the Sabata movies.

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

Thanks to all of you for supporting! It's been an astounding ride so far, and I'm happy to be here with you all. Playing Doom, chatting about games, and watching the token's progress.

Let's keep this community powerful!

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