Forbidden Island

Pic. 1. Initial Setup

Once upon a time, Explorer, Engineer, Messenger and Pilot discovered Forbidden Island. Unknowingly to them, the four slightly adjusted the laws of nature on the island making their hunt for treasures a bit easier than it would normally be. The island started to sink at a "normal" speed. Explorer was the most active one among the four in terms of distance covered by foot. He kept searching for treasures at a fast pace while keeping himself dry. Engineer was working hard day and night shoring up parts of the island. He was stubborn and unwilling to let even a single piece of land to sink on his watch. As a true friend and the most generous person among the four, Messenger continued to give away his pieces of treasure maps to his comrades throughout their journey. Pilot slowly proceeded through the wilderness recovering treasures the surface and assisting others in the process. When all the treasures were recovered, all four flew to the landing pad and were successfully evacuated from Forbidden Island.

Pic. 2. Farewell Forbidden Island

Starring: Michael Nguyen as Explorer, Kevin Bui as Engineer, Eldon Lee as Messenger, Andrei Voinov as Pilot.

Results: 5 tiles sunk, 12 tiles flooded, water level: 5(2 levels before the apocalyptical flood), 4/4 treasures recovered, 4/4 players survived. Victory!

Game Rules: http://gamewright.com/gamewright/pdfs/Rules/ForbiddenIslandTM-RULES.pdf
Boardgamegeek link: https://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/646456/forbidden-island

Prince Of Persia [DOS]

Pic. 1. Prince of Persia ... examining a spike trap

First, you have to experience ... death! Well, that's how you learn the ways to play most of the video games, which allow one to die, anyway. The game I would like to talk about is Prince Of Persia. Do not confuse it with the game of the same name developed by Ubisoft in 2008. This one is special because, first of all, it was developed in 1989, and, second of all, it was initially developed for Apple II and later ported to other operating systems. I've played it before on MS-DOS.

So you play ... as a guy who is trying to save princess from a terribly evil person whom you have to defeat at the end of endless dungeons full of traps and guards. To do so, you have to ... die ... infinite number of times until you remember where all the traps are, learn how to fight the guards with a sword, which you don't have initially. I mean, I can get to the point where I grab a sword, but when I encounter the first guard he kills me ... so sad. Overall, the game is good - simple movement controls such as arrow keys to climb up and down, jump, run; not so simple swordplay; simple scenario - save princess X, and beat boss Y; a numbers of not so unexpected deaths.

As for how experience of playing this game in an emulator compares to that of playing it on the actual DOS-running computer, I would say that I haven't noticed any differences between them. Because MS-DOS is technically a predecessor to MS-Windows operating system, there haven't been any issues with mismatching controls, run-time errors or any kind of performance problems since, apparently, compatibility between the two is high, though the emulator plays the biggest role of all by simulating a functioning DOS operating system.

References: http://playdosgamesonline.com/prince-of-persia.html

How much do software developers get paid?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the United States of America the median annual wage for applications software developers was $90,060 in May 2012. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $55,190, and the top 10 percent earned more than $138,880. The median annual wage for systems software developers was $99,000 in May 2012. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $62,800, and the top 10 percent earned more than $148,850 (BLS, 2014).

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm#tab-5

For prospective software developers it is very important to know how much they should expect to be paid once they get a job. It is not a rare occasion for a person trying to get a job to agree for the first offered to him/her salary right away without even considering the actual pay at other companies or their true worth. Employers may take advantage of you not possessing the information about how much, on average, or at minimum, you should be paid for the job you are or will be doing. Once hired, it is also a good idea to keep track of your career growth along with your pay, and compare it to the changes in pay for your profession in your state/country. Depending on how much experience you have in the field and how good your skills are, your salary may vary.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2014-15 Edition, Software Developers. Retrieved May 12, 2015, from
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm