[HN Gopher] Gordon Hall has died
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Gordon Hall has died
Author : asplake
Score : 183 points
Date : 2021-03-13 06:16 UTC (16 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.co.uk)
| bovine3dom wrote:
| There seems to be some confusion in the comments here. Rockstar
| Leeds [1] worked on mobile games (like the excellent GTA:
| Chinatown Wars) and ports of games from other Rockstar studios.
| It was founded as Mobius Entertainment and rebranded as Rockstar
| Leeds when Take Two acquired it for Rockstar. It is not the same
| studio that made GTA 1 - 5.
|
| Still an enviable legacy - the studio made some of the best PSP
| games.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstar_Leeds
| ekianjo wrote:
| Yup, commented on this same topic in another reply. Rockstar
| Leeds is not related to the main GTA titles that most people
| have played.
| Cyph0n wrote:
| The PSP games were classics imo: I played the hell out of
| Vice City Stories (prequel to Vice City).
| besnn00 wrote:
| They have my respect just from that game
| 29athrowaway wrote:
| Most GTA games were developed by Rockstar North.
|
| This reminds me of how the release of another confusion... when
| the release of Pokemon Go affected Nintendo's stock price.
| https://time.com/4421450/pokemon-go-nintendo-shares-tokyo/
| forgotmypw17 wrote:
| I played Chinatown Wars on iPhone, and it was the only ever GTA
| series game which I didn't get bored of after half an hour. I
| finished the whole thing, and went back for more. Great game.
| NetOpWibby wrote:
| I listen to the Chinatown Wars remix track that MF Doom did
| with Ghostface Killah.
|
| I also have the radio stations playing as I work sometimes.
| What a fantastic game.
| andreygrehov wrote:
| 51? WTF?! What was the cause of death?
| throwawayboise wrote:
| Has not been made public, as far as I can tell.
| Flex247A wrote:
| RIP
| jonny383 wrote:
| Thanks for the memories.
|
| I think one of the bad things about getting older that people
| don't seem to discuss is the increase in death of both those you
| know or those you know of.
| Angostura wrote:
| And then when you get to my late parent's age - mid 90s when
| they died, basically _all_ your peers are dead. Al those people
| with shared memories of childhood and youth. No one to
| reminisce with.
|
| They coped with it well, but it must be so weird.
| Aeolun wrote:
| Well, at that point you have your children to do that with
| too. Just nobody from your own childhood, which I agree must
| feel pretty sad.
|
| Still, lots of other things to keep you occupied even at that
| age.
| rtrdea wrote:
| I will never reproduce
| s5300 wrote:
| I think it just seems like most things surrounding death in the
| U.S. are in an abysmal state.
|
| Mexico/good portion of the East seem to do things much better
| regarding it. (These are just the places I'm personally
| familiar with. Sure there's many others that approach death
| much differently than the U.S. does as well.)
| dukeofdoom wrote:
| Yeah, watch out for Brain Aneurysm if you have high blood
| pressure. Internal pluming related death is probably the
| leading cause of early death at that age. Don't clog your pipes
| people! Don't sit at the computer for too long either. You can
| get blood clots in your legs. Take care of your heart. Go for a
| walk everyday
| TaupeRanger wrote:
| Just lift weights 3-5 times a week and walk often (preferably
| on hilly terrain). You'll be fine. Don't worry too
| much...that could be worse than lack of exercise.
| agumonkey wrote:
| - efforts
|
| - walking
|
| - eating well
|
| - sleeping regularly
|
| - fun and non toxic people
|
| The top 5 futuristic health tricks from the 4000BC era
| fortran77 wrote:
| Or do none of these things and get special front-of-the-
| line treatment for Government programs, including first
| access to the COVID vaccine, and preferred parking
| spaces.
| mrbonner wrote:
| Can confirm. My dad died last year this time due to a huge
| stroke happened during an endoscopy. Turned out he had a big
| chunk of cholesterol at the aorta. The endoscopic procedure
| probably broke it and sent more fragments to the brain. He
| had an earlier stroke 4 weeks ago and blood thinner didn't
| seem to work.
|
| He was very active, though. So mind you, eating well is also
| a key to go along with exercise!
| intricatedetail wrote:
| If you feel unwell everyday (mainly fatigue and chronic pain)
| and exercise makes you feel worse how can you force yourself
| to exercise?
| nucatus wrote:
| Then you must take some rest. Get a good recharge of your
| batteries and get back on the field only when you got
| stronger. Enjoy life, eat well and move around a lot.
| Angostura wrote:
| Set small achievable goals? "I will walk to the end of the
| garden path twice a day?"
| esimov wrote:
| It might sound as a spoiler, but the slogan of a well
| know brand it should be motivating: "Keep walking!".
| dctoedt wrote:
| > _" I will walk to the end of the garden path twice a
| day?"_
|
| Brings to mind how (the late) Captain Sir Tom Moore
| started his famous walk(s).
|
| https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-
| herts-5232405...
| jbroson wrote:
| There's not really an "easy" answer which it seems a lot of
| people trying to get healthy want.
|
| Exercising sucks.
|
| Eventually you get good enough at it that you start to
| enjoy it-- I LOVE running now--but it's not without a
| fairly long period of pain and discomfort.
|
| It's EXPONENTIALLY easier to gain the weight than it is to
| lose it. You can lose the weight through diet alone but
| that's itself incredibly difficult especially with a life
| of bad habits.
| intricatedetail wrote:
| One problem is that I find exercise extremely boring. I
| need constant stimulation to keep attention away from
| pain. For some time I actually could get by with podcasts
| but after listening to few hundreds I started finding the
| same patterns and it was just boring again. In the end I
| had to listen to them at 4x speed to keep myself away
| from pain. Other "trick" was to exercise once pain
| killers kicked in, but they work so short periods now
| that I have to do work instead. Medical cannabis also
| helps but exercise does not feel comfortable. Still
| researching... wherever I sit I have weights within reach
| so I try to lift at least once but after a while I became
| blind to them and forget they exist.
| blfr wrote:
| > Exercising sucks.
|
| _Running_ sucks, rowing a little as well. Lifting
| weights, swimming, walking are all great almost from the
| get go.
|
| Lifting weights is by far the best. You can keep a
| leisurely pace, have plenty of time to talk to people,
| listen to a podcast, or just fiddle with your phone
| between sets, so it's psychologically easier. You become
| stronger so you feel the benefits all the time. And you
| gain muscle which means your base metabolic rate goes up,
| you have much more latitude in your diet and room for
| lapses.
|
| Most importantly (yes), you look better in the mirror.
| Both instantly thanks to the pump and in the long term.
| Which is by far the best motivation to show up again.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| I used to think running sucked until I took up soccer,
| apparently the 2 hours a week every summer and winter
| (not that I played the whole time, I was overweight and
| out of shape, maybe 20-30 minutes total) plus practices
| caused my form to improve. Shinsplints disappeared, and
| as I lost weight my knee pain disappeared. It's not for
| everyone, but working on form can make it a much more
| tolerable exercise if not enjoyable.
|
| Rowing requires you to focus on form as well. If you can
| get the form down (legs, hips, arms, reverse) the motion
| becomes very smooth and the pain that remains isn't pain,
| just soreness and discomfort from the effort. It's still
| damned exhausting, but it's a great cardio and full body
| workout. Back pain is still possible, I have sciatica and
| it's occasionally triggered/made worse by my rowing, but
| on days when I let my form slack or when I've upped the
| difficulty for myself (changed resistance, added time,
| added intensity). But the strengthening of core muscles
| has overall reduced the frequency of my sciatica
| problems. Like with lifting (which I need to get back
| into) it builds up a good bit of muscle and helps raise
| the base metabolic rate, though not as dramatically. I
| also don't think I've ever had a more significant
| improvement in my cardio endurance than when using rowing
| as a frequent/key part of my routine (other than
| swimming, but shoulder issues have forced me to avoid
| that as a regular exercise, I can go 1-2 times a week for
| moderate distance and pace with breaks, but not the 3+
| times of continuous swimming for 30-45 minutes I used to
| do; take care of your shoulders people).
|
| You didn't mention cycling, but it's another good
| exercise that's very unlikely to cause issues for most
| people. Also nice if you can find a good cycling
| route/trail near your home or office, or find a cycling
| group in your area. Riding as a pack can help with safety
| and discovering routes (this is my plan for the spring
| this year, once I get my bike tuned up, since I'm still
| new-ish to this area). Cost is an issue, but there are a
| lot of people that buy nice bikes that never get ridden
| and sell them a couple years later. Clean it, tune it,
| and you've got a great bike at a discount. Keep it clean
| and tuned and it'll last you years. A good indoor trainer
| isn't expensive (though not cheap either) and can turn it
| into a nice year piece of exercise equipment (if you live
| in an area where winter riding is untenable for you, or
| with frequent summer rains).
| alvarlagerlof wrote:
| That's extremely subjective. I for one hate anything
| stationary. They couldn't be anything worse than lifting.
| jbroson wrote:
| I guess it depends on the person.
|
| I hate swimming more than running.
|
| I love lifting weights but hated it for the first long
| while.
|
| Walking, sure but I never considered that exercise, again
| depends on the person.
| jstummbillig wrote:
| Unless your physician is of the opinion that your
| particular issues would benefit from more rest, you first
| have to believe that exercise will (eventually) make your
| life better. And it's not a wild stretch, because all
| evidence points in that direction.
|
| If you _don 't_ really believe that, man, it's super
| fucking hard and the first step has to be a psychological
| shift. I would wholeheartedly recommend a professional, if
| that is in the books for you.
|
| If you do however believe that exercise will eventually
| improve your life, then make it harder to say no: Join a
| club, any club, that involves moving your body. Hire
| somebody, depending on where you live maybe insurance
| coverage will get you going for cheap/free.
|
| The gains in the beginning are hard but boy do they come
| quick.
| RHSman2 wrote:
| Ebike. Doesn't feel like hard work but it's so easy to do
| every day.
| graeme wrote:
| This really depends on the issue. If, for example, you have
| a mobility issue, and walking directly hurt the mobility
| issue, then the solution is physio or massage to resolve
| the mobility issue.
|
| But for your more garden variety "I am tired and my joints
| hurt" then exercise tends to be a virtuous circle. You push
| yourself to do a little, and it is rough, but it improves
| the body's capacity. Then you feel a bit better later and
| can do more.
|
| Being unhealthy is an equilibrium, and you can push
| yourself into a better equilibrium with exercise, food and
| sleep.
|
| For 90% of people reading this what I wrote will be true.
| But you may be in the 10% where you have an underlying
| issue to fix first, so check with a physio and a doctor.
| rorykoehler wrote:
| Have you tried changing your diet? Keto helped me a lot.
| hellbannedguy wrote:
| I probably shouldn't say anything, but I once knew a guy
| whom had general body pain, and it turns out he was very
| low on vitamin D. He was basically a very overweight shut-
| in for years, so it's not surprising he was low. He ate
| every animal in sight though, so I didn't think he was low
| on vitamin D, but he was. (This is not advice. I know
| vitamin research is not definitive. My friend could have
| benefitted from the Placebo Effect from taking supplements.
| I am not a doctor. I don't think I forgot any HN science
| disclaimers? Oh yea, what I love most about you guys here
| is you jump all over statements I'm making right now.)
| uncledave wrote:
| Good advice. Also don't start doing this tomorrow. Do it
| today. I know at least three people now who have pushed off
| everything to next week for years and ended up with
| irreversible bad health outcomes.
| Teknoman117 wrote:
| Man I have to lose weight and get healthy. I'm young enough
| (28) where I probably have enough time for things to
| recover but I'm out of time and excuses to start doing
| something.
|
| Need to halve my mass by the time I hit 30. Never had a
| healthy relationship with food. Parents were always stuck
| on yoyo diets :(. They're still here, thankfully.
|
| I just, you know, don't want to die before them. My
| siblings would kill me. I'd also love to fit on
| rollercoasters again.
| uncledave wrote:
| Genuinely do it. It was the best improvement I made in my
| life. All I did was eat less crap and walk a lot. Turned
| out i liked walking so I now walk up mountains and stuff.
|
| I started over 10 years after you so you're good still :)
|
| If you've got a smart phone get a calorie tracker app
| like Nutracheck and use it. Job done.
| petecooper wrote:
| I will echo the replies to your comment. I made a
| decision to fix myself last August. I switched my diet to
| lower carb and more protein, drank more water, started
| getting up earlier, intermittent fasting, plus some other
| things. I've lost ~23kg (~50lb) since then, and my
| quality of life has improved. Don't set out to half your
| mass, just set out to lose a little, then a bit more, and
| keep going. Don't fail before you start. Drink lots of
| water, your brain and skin will thank you for it.
| pfarrell wrote:
| 100% agree about water and about setting smaller goals
| that you can celebrate. This thought clicked for me.
|
| If you can lose 10 lbs (4.5 kg), that's like setting down
| a bowling ball you are carrying all the time. You will
| definitely experience a quality of life improvement when
| you do that. Good luck. Then, do it again.
| mindvirus wrote:
| If you can afford it, I recommend hiring people to help.
| Seeing a personal trainer just once a week has been life
| changing for me. I just have to show up. Just being
| accountable to someone else has been huge.
| saalweachter wrote:
| Bit of generic advice:
|
| At the end of the day, it's all "calories in / calories
| out", but the real trick is figuring out how to change
| your calorie balance in a way that works for you, long
| term.
|
| Some people do really well on some sort of rigid "I will
| eat an exact, precise amount of food each day", be it
| something like Nutrisystem or Soylent or just very
| carefully counting calories each day; other people can't
| stick with it. Some people do better just adding a solid,
| regular block of exercise each day, be it the gym or just
| walking; other people have trouble carving out the
| regular time. Intermittent fasting, eating windows,
| changing the composition of your diet, eliminating snacks
| or liquid calories, taking up a sport, becoming a gym rat
| ... there are a lot of reasonable ways to change how many
| calories you're consuming or how many you're burning.
|
| The hard part -- besides _actually doing it_ , because
| that's rarely _easy_ -- is finding one that you can
| commit to _forever_ , so you aren't, as you say, just
| trying out yo-yo diets.
| throwawayboise wrote:
| Exercise is great, but you can't out-exercise a bad/high
| calorie diet. Running a mile on a treadmill (if I believe
| the computer) burns about 135 calories. A typical Big Mac
| meal is about 1,100 calories.
| saalweachter wrote:
| Eh, depends on what your calorie surplus is.
|
| If I don't pay attention to what I eat, and am fairly
| inactive, I tend to eat about 50-100 calories more per
| day than I burn, amounting to a 5-10 lb/year gain.
|
| That is enough of a gain that it really adds up over
| time, and once it has added up it is quite daunting to
| deal with, but as far as maintaining goes, it's very
| reasonable to just add a small amount of light exercise
| on a daily basis.
| acomjean wrote:
| Getting a healthy lifestyle I think is important and at
| any age is a great time to improve. I think of it more of
| a journey than an endpoint. It will have ups and downs
| but try to keep it heading generally in the right
| direction.
|
| I'm much older but try to stay active (bike commuting,
| regular exercise, yoga, better diet) although not at my
| ideal weight it's helped.
|
| I have a coworker who lists exercise as a required
| "hobby". I never thought about it like that, but it what
| helps her keep it up.
| geferdeba wrote:
| Nes afe doacae picwss.
| qrbLPHiKpiux wrote:
| Vice city had the best cast.
| Hamuko wrote:
| Apparently Vice City was a turning point for the franchise when
| it came to hiring big name cast members since apparently many
| of them were kinda full of themselves and hard to work with.
|
| Not that this is really related.
| qrbLPHiKpiux wrote:
| William Shatner - you say sabotage. I say sabotage.
| jibanes wrote:
| wasted... j/k.
| petecooper wrote:
| Not appropriate.
| ReptileMan wrote:
| Really? This is literally the death screen game message. And
| I think the head of a bunch of studios that was pushing the
| limits about R rated gaming content would appreciate it as a
| tribute, not take offense.
| petecooper wrote:
| I understand what is is. I don't think it's appropriate.
| thisisjohnwill wrote:
| After years of lurking & a few throwaways, this is my first
| comment on HN as myself.
|
| Few people we meet stand out in such a way as Gordon did for me.
| Unfortunately it too often takes tragic life updates to have
| these fleeting connections return to the surface of your daily
| thoughts.
|
| Gordon was just some guy I met who was a) in the games industry
| and b) hosting a (killer btw) party at SIGGRAPH 2009 in New
| Orleans. I had shown up looking for a job in gfx like a year too
| early - and got this party invite instead. Foreign concept to my
| engineer brain that those two were actually not only related but
| often on the same path... which Gordon took the time to explain
| to me over shots of "I don't even know what" while overlooking
| Bourbon St & the still ongoing party shenanigans inside. After
| another half hour of "but seriously though how does one make
| games for a living" crash course, I left that party lighter than
| air.
|
| Fast forward more than a decade and I still qualify that as one
| of my favorite days ever.
|
| A few minutes given freely can make a seriously outsized
| difference. Take the time. Pay it forward. You're already a
| mentor to more people than you think.
|
| Thanks Gordon. Rest easy.
| smokelegend wrote:
| IMHO one of the greatest of all time games, thanks for the
| memories...
| cryptoquick wrote:
| They say the brightest rockstars die the quickest, but are the
| most beautiful. Rest in peace, it was a life not wasted.
| nojvek wrote:
| I have spent many years of my life playing GTA. Starting from
| GTA1 all the way to GTA5. Definitely a generation defining
| series. Are they ever going to release GTA6?
|
| RIP. Thanks for all the entertainment and joy you have brought me
| and my friends.
| electro_blah wrote:
| Reminds me of that episode of The Office. Also, that username.
| ekianjo wrote:
| Gordon Hall worked specifically on the mobile versions of GTA
| (like Chinatown wars) not the other canonical episodes in the
| series. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto:_Chinat
| own_Wa...)
|
| The original GTA was from by David Jones and Mike Dailly, and
| the series were led by Rockstar North (ex-DMA design), not
| Rockstar Leeds.
| softwhale wrote:
| I remember watching this video (initially posted in 2009) with
| Gordon Hall discussing what R* was looking for programmer wise:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G15hTiOZWw&ab_channel=ATM
| matthewmorgan wrote:
| Buried by the so-called British Broadcasting Corporation in the
| UK regional news section, yet if he'd been some random US
| 'rapper' his death would've been on the front page.
| carmen_sandiego wrote:
| Taylor Swift's Tweets are front page at this point.
| matthewmorgan wrote:
| Twitter itself also being heavily promoted by the BBC, on
| almost every page
|
| https://i.ibb.co/fMVXY2n/image.png
| carmen_sandiego wrote:
| Yeah, a not-insignificant number of their articles are also
| just an embedded Tweet with some archive text about the
| people involved. I wonder if they're generating some
| 'articles' algorithmically.
| mhh__ wrote:
| No they aren't?
|
| Currently the BBC news front page is dominated by reporting
| of a very dramatic murder case, for example.
|
| https://snipboard.io/1YdnX8.jpg
| carmen_sandiego wrote:
| Yes, "at this point" doesn't mean "literally this second".
| "This point" just means "this far past the threshold of
| lazy, shallow journalism". Not a point in time.
|
| Her Tweet about Netflix was on the BBC front page a few
| days ago, on a day I'm sure many other murders happened.
|
| Even if you didn't see that one, surely you saw a ton of
| space dedicated to the minutiae of silly Royal drama worthy
| of the tabloid press. Every minor comment received a brand
| new front page bump.
| mhh__ wrote:
| Those other murders weren't committed by a police
| officer.
| carmen_sandiego wrote:
| What does that have to do with anything? That story
| wasn't even known at the time of the Tweet. I'm comparing
| the prominence that the Tweet was given with that of any
| other murder in the period it was on the front page.
|
| Unless your ranking goes police officer murder > Taylor
| Swift Tweet > regular murder?
|
| Even now, the front page is tracking Twitter rather than
| reality. There are multiple articles about women being
| unsafe on the streets of the UK, and how no-one cares
| about their plight. Women aren't even close to the most
| at-risk demographic for violent attacks. But that hashtag
| isn't trending, so who cares, I suppose.
|
| That's what news = engagement gets you. You can't use the
| BBC or most modern news to get any sense of the relative
| magnitudes of society's issues. Rather, you get a
| feedback loop of the same topics that social media algos
| push.
| mhh__ wrote:
| That's because it isn't worthy of anything beyond the regional
| news at this time? It might make it onto the national TV news
| as a short segment, but currently the the Everard case is
| taking up a lot of space and the obit slot is taken up by
| Murray Walker who sadly recently died.
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(page generated 2021-03-13 23:03 UTC)