[IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

[David Johnston2]

Atari is a world where the internet as such and the personal computing revolution never happened. Instead of the internet and PCs there are a fragmented landscape of organizational intranets with remote terminals connecting to proprietary mainframes. It's a mess.

But because it's a mess, console gaming is even bigger than on Homeline. There was no computer game crash in the 80s and Atari is still the biggest dog in gaming. The result is dozens of triple-A games that exist nowhere else.

[PTTG]

Don't forget the consoles themselves. Highly specialized and proprietary, anyone who wants access to their game libraries needs to get an imported Atari console.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Don't forget the consoles themselves. Highly specialized and proprietary, anyone who wants access to their game libraries needs to get an imported Atari console.

Alternatively, Homeline could make emulators for them, since those exist anyway.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Reality Bethesda (named for the biblical healing well) is profoundly advanced in medicine and all techniques of healing. This Q5 world is treated as neutral territory by both Homeline and the Cabal.

Good one, and definitely a missed issue for Infinite Worlds. We get some material about medical assistance in the other direction, but given all the magical worldlines with amazing treatments, there [has] to be huge pressure to open these to an influx of patients so large it couldn't help but blow the secret. And people with sufficiently horrible or terminal conditions (or loved ones that might be ressurrected!) will do quite extreme things in pursuit of even unlikely treatments, never mind stuff that actually works. How [does] Infinity keep a lid on that?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Alternatively, Homeline could make emulators for them, since those exist anyway.

Sure, the really old ones... the new ones would be unique.



I bet they just leverage homeline's wealth advantage.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Sure, the really old ones... the new ones would be unique.

OK, poorly phrased on my part: 'Emulators exist in real life, so the idea of making them could plausibly occur to people on Homeline.'

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

OK, poorly phrased on my part: 'Emulators exist in real life, so the idea of making them could plausibly occur to people on Homeline.'

They're baked into the entire concept of computer science - from the concept of computers as approximately emulating a Turing machine to the idea of compilers for taking code from something that would run on a particular ideal machine to something that will run on your actual bit of hardware.

I suppose some timeline could invent computers without the concept, but the lack of high level languages or the ability to port anything to new hardware would seem to limit development pretty seriously.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Sure, the really old ones... the new ones would be unique.



I bet they just leverage homeline's wealth advantage.

Well, assuming that Atari world consoles can't be brute forced by crazy advanced homeline PCs. Though I suppose that Homeline copyright law would get up in arms about that, or Atari world consoles could have tons of low level features that effectively make the console difficult to emulate.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Alternatively, Homeline could make emulators for them, since those exist anyway.

Atari of course has elaborate anti-piracy measures. Defeatable but it means that just getting an Atari console will give you access to the games that nobody has bothered to crack yet.

[Astromancer]

Gaulia

The Myth world of Gaulia seems to be linked to French literary Faerie Tales of the 17th and 18th centuries. What makes this myth world valuable is that one of its miracles works off plane.

The Fountain of Lions is a magical healing well much like the Well of the Water of Life or Tubber Tine, the Burning Well. Normally this type of magic doesn't work away from the parallel of origin. However, the water of The Fountain of Lions works on any parallel were stories about The Fountain of Lions have been written by the locals. How well it works varies according to how widespread the stories are.

Currently, research is being done to see if other magical fountains have similar or related traits.