…comes out tomorrow.

I have been teaching myself the new XNA library for Zune by working on a small tetris clone for that system. I don’t have any working code to show off yet, but here is an asset mock-up to ogle. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will have something playable to try out.

The DOS machine has been keeping me entertained with some Monkey Island 1&2 and Command&Conquer lately. I have also been able to successfully dual-boot both DOS 6.22 and Windows Me.
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I accidentally misreported the system specs, it is actually a P3 500MHz with 192MB of RAM. I bought a 10GB hard drive to put in it from the local used comp parts store.

I started out by installing DOS7.1 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Both installed fine but when I went to install audio and network drivers, everything broke. Both of these are on-board devices, and appear to have DOS drivers, but I have had zero luck getting them to run.

I ended up installing a Sound Blaster AWE64 card I had sitting around, which I have gotten working good, but it required installing DOS6.22 instead. With a little experimentation I was able to get the newer interface features from 7.1 working on 6.22. I had to copy the Command.com and doskey.com from a 7.1 installation and paste them into the 6.22 directory.

Today’s milestone was rewarded with a very enjoyable session of Commander Keen 4.

Well, not the operating system specifically, just the games I used to play on it.

I can’t get my Creative X-Fi card working in DOSBox, so I decided I am going to build a new computer just for running DOS. So far I’ve dug out an old P2 333MHz computer with 384MB of ram in it. I still need to find a hard drive to stick in it, and a VGA monitor. I actually managed to find my old DOS 6.22 discs but they don’t seem to work any more. Fortunately, bittorrent was able to provide a suitable replacement. I’ll post again when I get it all put together and let you know how it runs.

…and are taking over the overpriced desktops market.

Seriously though, there is no way that likeness is coincidental. Click below for proof.
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My reason for linking this has more to do with loving Battlestar Galactica than wanting to share some perspective on space sim design.
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As I prepare to be blasted with GDC08 news, I decided to create a list of links which will keep me up to date at a glance. I offer it to you as well, as I am sure its usefulness is universal.
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I found an article discussing the culture of indie studios that is somewhat interesting. It unfortunately doesn’t really dig to deep into the subject, but rather just gives sort of an overview with comments from some indies to back it up. It is worth a read regardless.

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Sins of a Solar Empire is a new 4X/RTS game by local developer Ironclad. It looks like a pretty sweet game in itself, but you could find out all about that at any site, what is more interesting to talk about is the fact that it will be DRM-free when it reaches stores on Monday.
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