Chapter 308: The Advantages of Chaos
Chaos.
Ever since that haphazard incident and the start of his re-life, it is something that Alexander has been inextricably linked to.
The chaos monster that latched him up, the traces of chaos in his head, and the Chaos Butterfly achievement that he's been given.
The link to chaos is as clear as crystal.
Of course, Alexander generally has an ambivalent attitude when it came to this status quo.
Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's bad.
Then again, that's how it is with everything. There's balance... even in a concept of chaos.
Sure, it did kill him but it was also something that gave him a new and radical life.
It did traumatize him to the point of staying away from computers that he's most versed at. However, it did empower him with a whole Mind Mansion that enhanced many things... memory for ease of I.P. plunder and Ishaan-esque hyper-visualization included.
This balance did have a tipping point and Alexander finally gave his full-on acceptance and praise to the whole Chaos thing.
In Alexander's opinion, the advantages just outweighed the disadvantages.
With all the possibilities that Chaos was offering, screw trauma and the grudge of death!
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On that note, Alexander held onto a floppy disk and approached a computer that had Pixar in its name.
The Pixar brand is a topic for another time... but the computer before him is the custom design that he requested Lucasfilm's Graphics Group to build for him.
In all of its technicality, the thing in front of him may look like a computer but it is hardware in its purest form. With parts such as the monitor, bits and bobs, processor, keyboard, a trackball mouse, and all that.
Its configuration was quite good and the reported specs that it achieved are somewhat advanced... for the latter half of the 80s, that is.
The trackball mouse by itself is a sign of its ancientness.
Alexander could only lament the slow development of hardware. In his pro-software opinion, something like Moore's law came into effect because of the draggy physical aspect of the computer duality.
Normally, Alexander would have some techy qualms about this... but he didn't have one now.
After all, inside his floppy disk was something that isn't restricted by the projected technological trends and make stuff like Moore's law obsolete.
It's software... but software unlike any other. It's software that transcends a lot of hardware limitations.
In due course, average hardware and transcendent software do need to come together and that's what Alexander did.
He plugged the cord in and turned the machine on but only a dark-blank screen is displayed.
To fix that issue, Alexander just inserted the disk in its drive, and voila...
The dark-blank screen turned noticeably darker... eerier...
An assortment of glowing red and green characters was what followed...
Randomly switching and dancing about to the chaotic system that it is... mesmerizing... distorting... and dangerous...
If their first encounter is taken as precedence, then the chaos monster would have oozed out of the monitor already and Alexander would have freaked.
However, they had plenty of meet-and-greets by now, so things played out differently.
The chaotic red-green character on the screen actually convened itself and animatedly spelled C H A O S.
Then it retained the C and shiftingly shaped the other letters into R E E D.
C H A O S
C R E E D
C H A O S
C R E E D
The display alternated until it morphed... split... and finalized to spell...
CHAOS CREED
However, it shifted the final sequence again...
CREED CHAOS
Of course, given its chaotic nature, it shifted back and forth again for the chaos of it.
Was it contemplating on who's the dominant between the both of them? Chaos first or Creed first. Chaos or Alexander Creed first.
Or maybe it couldn't decide on which was the better-sounding sequence in the name combination.
Or maybe it is just showcasing and symbolizing the synergy that both contributors had in this partnership.
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In any case, this dynamic boot animation display is to Alexander's liking.
It could just be the proud bias of a creator but it surely beats the boot-up animations that Windows and Mac have.
Then again, the Chaos software has so much potential to offer that Microsoft and Apple could only dream to have.
Alexander still isn't able to unearth or develop them as of yet though.
His current need and focus from this Chaos-centered software was a game engine and this is one of its prime capabilities for now.
In fact, this whole spectacle is to see if the requested hardware was matching up with the game development system intended.
The successful boot-up was already a good sign and Alexander just had to check up on the rest of the existing functionalities.
After the boot-up, the interface functions were what he looked at and they were working as designed. Even options such as account log-ins and passwords are there.
If anything these were pretty basic stuff but if you think about the other GUIs of 1986... Alexander's "basic stuff" could actually outperform them in almost every aspect.
That's just how it is when a programmer from the future and a freeing and somewhat sentient Chaos program could work hand in hand.
Of course, if the basic face value stuff is already impressive, then the core functionalities are sure to be impressive.
And it is!
Historically, games were typically written as singular entities. A game for the Atari 2600, for example, had to be designed from the bottom up.
That's just how it was when the whole of the programming community is still collectively wading through the mist.
Of course, this pioneering process does lead somewhere. In a way, process equates to progress.
Eventually, the idea to streamline game production popped up and it was only a matter of time before it became common for video game companies to develop in-house game engines for convenience.
The most notable example would be Nintendo's side-scrolling assets which were primarily used to build up the side-scrolling Excitebike racing game of 1983.
This was notable in the sense that the side-scrolling functionalities would be what would serve as the foundation for the production of the iconic Super Mario Bros. of 1985.
From racing to platforming and it worked.
It was clear that they found a side-scrolling system that would serve as a template for other side-scrolling Nintendo games to follow suit.
Of course, Nintendo aside, there were several 2D game creation systems produced in the 1980s for independent video game development.
These include Pinball Construction Set (1983), ASCII's War Game Construction Kit (1983), Thunder Force Construction (1984), Adventure Construction Set (1984), Garry Kitchen's GameMaker (1985), Wargame Construction Set (1986), Shoot-'Em-Up Construction Kit (1987), and Arcade Game Construction Kit (1988).
If anything, they weren't called game engines as of yet and just relegated as game development "systems", "sets", and "kits".
In any case, these rudimentary things were predecessors to modern game engines and these modern engines became the necessary tools for game designers to code and plan out a video game quickly and easily.
Now... take that historical knowledge and use it as a comparison to the full-blown game engine that Alexander is currently tinkering and testing with.
It is hard to put into words but it is a crazy advanced game engine with core functionality that included a lot of things like a rendering engine or a "renderer" for graphics...
A physics engine or collision detection and collision response...
There's sound, animation, and sprite formation for the full audio-visual monty...
And last but not least are the capacities such as artificial intelligence, networking, streaming, memory management, scripting, threading, localization support, scene graph, and video support for cinematics.
The game production layman wouldn't be able to relate... but these functionalities and tools that Alexander was testing out now in 1986 might as well be something from the 2010s.
And that's because it somewhat technically is. The Creed Game Engine/Chaos Game Engine he is tinkering with is strangely reminiscent of the GODOT Game Engine and the like.
Simplified in a sense but should work out as intended.
Alexander set out to make a game engine and that's what he did. He had freelanced a lot and it wasn't just Jessica Barry's frequently corrupted animation software that he knew the full ins and outs of.
A game development software like the GODOT Engine is something that he has a lot of knowledge of.
With proper reverse engineering and superior recollection... reconstruction via Chaos's transcendental software made Alexander akin to the skillful fish in water.
He wasn't plundering some manga this time around. He was plundering something from a profession that he was incredibly great at and it was quite thrilling.
If anything, he held himself back since he only needed to settle for the 2D prospects of game engines.
After all, 80s gaming and processor chips are still predominantly at the rudimentary 8-bit and somewhat transitioning to 16-bit graphics.
Had he really gone full Unreal Engine-esque with true 3D capabilities... the "unreality" of it would truly be exemplified.
What's scary is that the Chaos program can up-end restrictions like 8-bit and 16-bit graphics and truly make something like Minecraft happen in the 80s.
As long as Alexander knew the proper codes and programs... a transcendent software like Chaos can really support that craziness.
He wouldn't overdo it though. Slow and steady and following the flow was the way to go.
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In any case, everything coding and software-related was in Alexander's skillful grasp since he had something as fantastical as Chaos backing him.
As covered, screw trauma and the grudge of death when the advantages of Chaos were as impressive as these.
Chaos' has so much potential and absurdness that is yet to be unearthed.
Making it feasible to reverse-engineer a game engine from the future and making it work in the 80s isn't even the start of it.
Alexander's re-life was the true start... and that re-life is still ongoing.
With the stress test between average hardware and transcendent software settled... the bulk production of this custom Pixar computer could commence and the quantification of Chaos units would be right on schedule.
In a way, with a premier engine secured to the machines, the great game plan will be ongoing on a fast track as well.