Errorlog V.two

XNA 3.0…

James — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:40:25 +0000

…comes out tomorrow.

Zune Tetris

James — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:32:07 +0000

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.

MS-DOS #3

James — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:21:13 +0000

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.

It took a little bit of googling, and a large bit of experimentation but I found a way to dual-boot DOS and Me from the same HDD despite Microsoft saying you can’t. Here are the important bits: both OS partitions must be primary partitions (you can’t use FDISK to do this, you need something like Ranish Partition Manager 2.4); you need to replace your MBR with a boot app that can hide whichever primary partition is not in use (I used Suzhe’s Smart Boot Manager because it will automate the partition hiding).

You should be able to figure it out from there; leave a comment if you have any troubles though.

MS-DOS #2

James — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:06:43 +0000

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.

I miss MS-DOS

James — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 04:14:56 +0000

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.

The Cylons have found earth

James — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 07:49:25 +0000

…and are taking over the overpriced desktops market.

Seriously though, there is no way that likeness is coincidental. Click below for proof.

Beyond the Red Line

James — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:23:21 +0000

My reason for linking this has more to do with loving Battlestar Galactica than wanting to share some perspective on space sim design.
Read

GDC08 Metalink

James — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:30:43 +0000

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.

Joystiq
Wired
Kotaku
Gametrailers
Xbox

I’ll add more this week if I come across anything.

Indie Culture

James — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:02:20 +0000

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.

Read

Stardock makes DRM Companies Cry (Again)

James — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 05:26:17 +0000

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.

For years PC games have shipped with some sort of CD copy-protection which supposedly prevents people from copying the CD or ditching the CD completely. For just as many years, piracy communities have been breaking said copy-protection, and doing whatever they want. The result is an ongoing war, in which consumers are forced to tolerate publishers’ increasingly invasive and debilitating copy-protection schemes while pirates simply snicker at every new attempt and break it with their usual expediency.

Those who have been watching the subject of DRM for a couple of years will remember that Sins‘ publisher Stardock has actually been DRM-free for a while now. In 2006 Stardock released Galactic Civilizations II online and through retail stores with no CD copy protection. Today, it is one of the best-selling strategy games ever.

Publishers need to realize that there is really no justification for using DRM on PC games any more. Stardock has proved that dropping DRM doesn’t mean dropping sales; proved so well, in fact, that they are releasing another AAA game with the exact same distribution model. Will we ever see EA or Ubisoft doing the same thing? I hope enough consumers will scream that they simply won’t have a choice.

Source: Stardock_Games Blog

The new Errorlog

James — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 09:12:12 +0000

Well, I am just setting up my new blog. Hopefully I can keep this one a bit more up to date.