Best of 2017

The blog posts Hacker News loved most in 2017. 160 posts.

Games & Graphics
31

Lost Laughs in Leisure Suit Larry

Heads up: This post is going to have some rougher language than what I normally post. We’re going to be talking about the kinds of things teenagers type into videogame text parsers, which means we’re going to get into some naughty words and otherwise unusual subject matter for this blog. I don’t know why I’m warning…

35

The Poor Man's 3D Camera

Each of us have our own giants to face. This is a story about one of my giants. Something I never imagined could make a grown man cry, until it did. A 3D camera. No one can face your giants for you. This is a story, not a walkthrough. Expect no useful information. For that I recommend 50 Game Camera Mistakes by…

40

How to Get into VR

This is the second edition of Paths [https://ycombinator.wpengine.com/category/paths/], a series outlining emerging technologies with clear steps on how to get started in each field. This series was designed with makers and aspiring entrepreneurs in mind. We talked to college students interested in engineering…

51

Ultima VI

After Richard Garriott and his colleagues at Origin Systems finished each Ultima game — after the manic final crunch of polishing and testing, after the release party, after the triumphant show appearances and interviews in full Lord British regalia — there must always arise the daunting question of what to do next…

60

IOCCC Flight Simulator

The IOCCC Flight Simulator was the winning entry in the 1998 International Obfuscated C Code Contest. It is a flight simulator in under 2 kilobytes of code, complete with relatively accurate 6-degree-of-freedom dynamics, loadable wireframe scenery, and a small instrument panel.