Russian war has little to do with it. For example Germany had already decided to scrap nuclear for gas, which actually bit them in the ass when the war started.

Yeah I’d say skip it and check one of the other recommendations in this thread instead.

I only logged about 3-4 hours in that game and only encountered 2 battles. The story up to that point put me off too before it even picked up stream, like a classic “prince ascending to throne and hey here’s your betrothed future queen who you don’t quite get along with, oh hey bandits” Maybe my expectations were too high with the hype the story was getting. The dialog is so drab, it’s a chore to click through.

I just wanted to play a modernized FF Tactics, but I couldn’t even find the game within triangle strat.

I had also got FF7 crisis core reunion shortly before that. I put too many hours into that expecting it to evolve but the gameplay is nothing more than a grind in featureless terrain that you only have the option of fast-traveling to.

Then I realized this was my first time to play squeenix. I was expecting squaresoft.

I won’t get another squeenix game.

That just makes it smell like weed plus laundry.

How about Kraftwerk?

Benzos

This Xerox Alto restoration series is a really interesting reflection on that. Here’s the point in the series where they finally get it running. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OQMhvArI9g

Yeah, Xerox made revolutionary progress. But it appears that their proximity to a viable consumer product is a bit exaggerated. It really did still take another set of eyes and minds to wrangle it in. I think if they did release it sooner, and without the leaks, the next competitor still would have seen that and soon come along and done a better enough job to nullify their first-mover advantage.

Those days were chock full of companies that ended up just contributing to the zeitgeist of computing without themselves reaping in the glory.

I think Steve Jobs’ comments about what Xerox could have been… Is largely him stroking his ego that he and Apple pulled off what they couldn’t.

I don’t think Xerox would be the Mac of today in most timelines.

I can see that. It did take me a while to really appreciate Nethack even back in the day. TBH I haven’t played it in 10ish years so maybe my recommendation was made poorly.

Didn’t know about DCSS thanks.

Binding of Isaac is my favorite.

If you are curious about a classic originator in the genre, and willing for a steep learning curve, I highly recommend to check out Nethack: “NetHack is a single-player roguelike video game originally released in 1987 with ASCII graphics. It is a descendant of an earlier game called Hack, which is a clone of Rogue” It’s still under development today! I prefer the tile-based versions over the ascii versions. And if you can play it on a touch-screen device, that can be an even better experience.