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  • < 1 min read

    Hello World

    #General
    06 July 2025

    New beginnings!

  • 1-2 min read

    Roadrash

    11 November 2002

    RoadRash is my favourite game right now.

    The game is simple. Motorcycle racing. But you can punch and kick other riders. You can use weapons - chains, clubs, crowbars. The police chase you if you’re too violent. Sometimes they catch you and the game ends. Most times you outrun them.

    My favorite bike is the Diablo. Fastest in the game. But my friend Sushant always picks the Shuriken. He says handling matters more than top speed. We argue about this every evening.

    The tracks are brilliant. Napa Valley with all the farms. Pacific Highway along the coast. Sierra Nevada through the mountains. Each track has shortcuts if you know where to look. Some shortcuts save you 10-15 seconds. That’s the difference between winning and losing.

    But the real fun is the kicking another rider into oncoming traffic. Hitting them with a stick until they fall off their bike

    Sometimes the game crashes. “Exception error” or “This program has performed an illegal operation.” Very frustrating when you’re about to win. I save the game after every race now. Takes extra time but better than losing progress.

    I’ll stick with the classic RoadRash. The 1996 version still runs perfectly on Windows XP. No compatibility issues, boots up fast, runs smooth.

    My mother thinks I’m wasting time playing this game. She wants me to study more. But hand-eye coordination is a skill too. Reaction time matters. This is training, in a way.

    Napa Valley on repeat. Diablo bike. Chain weapon. That’s the best.

  • 1-2 min read

    Windows XP Plus!

    #General
    14 October 2002

    It is October 2002, and I just installed Windows XP Plus! Pack on my computer.

    I had got the CD with the desktop’s purchase from HCL. “It’s just themes and screensavers,” they say. But they don’t understand. Windows XP Plus! is not just themes and screensavers.

    The Aquarium screensaver alone is worth it. Real fish swimming across the screen. My sister stops by my room just to watch the angelfish and clownfish. The bubbles rise so smoothly. I leave it running even when I’m not using the computer.

    Then there’s the Space theme. The blue default Luna theme is nice, but Space makes everything look like you’re working inside a shiny box. Dark blues and silvers everywhere. Very scifi. I keep switching between Space and the default theme. Can’t decide which one I like more.

    The Desktop Themes include sounds too. Every click, every window opening, has its own sound effect. My father complains about the noise when he’s trying to read the newspaper. I turn down the volume but keep the themes active.

    Plus! also came with some games. 3D Pinball was already in Windows XP, but now there’s HyperBowl and a few other games I haven’t tried yet. The graphics are much better than the old Windows 98 games.

    But here’s the thing nobody talks about - the CD has utilities too. A Personal DJ feature that creates playlists based on your mood. I tried it once with my Winamp collection. Didn’t work as well as I hoped, but it’s a nice idea. Maybe because I dont have so much music.

    The screensavers use so much RAM though. 128 MB DDR RAM is not enough when the Aquarium is running and you want to quickly alt-tab back to do something.