Announcing: Batty Junior

Well, I've had a bit of a play and have decided on the next game from Dan's Remakes.

It is sort of a remake of Batty, an Arkanoid clone that appeared on quite a few 8 bit systems such as the Sinclair Spectrum.


Batty - Sinclair Spectrum

I'm going to simplify the game a bit so as to appeal to younger players, which is why I'm calling the game "Batty Junior" rather than just "Batty".


Batty Junior - Coming Soon

I've no firm date set for when the game will be released - I'll have to see how it develops.

Choosing the next project

Now that RetroVaders (apart from the Mac port which will follow fairly soon) It's time to decide what game I'm going to do next. Having a look through my blitz directory there are five or six "nearly started" games. These are the ones that seem like a good idea, but haven't had any real work done on them, or are in the "messing about with" stage (such as my "Hungry Horace" test code).

Having a look through these one of them caught my eye. I honestly couldn't remember how far I had got with it - as it turns out I'd got as far as setting the screen mode before getting side-tracked. Out of curiosity I downloaded some screenshots of the original game, snipped out and upscaled some of the graphics and had a basic game structure running quite quickly.

One thing that surprised me with RetroVaders is how much my kids enjoyed playing it, so with that in mind this game will be another fairly straight forward one, and something that I hope they'll enjoy playing too.

I'm off work tomorrow to do the school run, but while the children are out of the way I may get some more time to play around with this.

What game is it? I'm not telling. Don't drive yourself batty trying to work it out, I'll post more once I've got a "proof of concept" demo version ready.

RetroVaders 1.30 released

RetroVaders 1.30 is now available for Linux and Windows at the usual place. The MacOS X version will follow shortly.

Halloween cakes

Halloween is fast approaching, and those of us with younger children may be looking for something easy and fun that they can do that doesn't involve a computer.

Halloween sponge cakes are probably the easiest cakes to make, and the children can help measuring out, mixing and icing once they've been cooked.

Ingredients

110g (4oz) Butter or margarine
110g (4oz) Caster sugar (you can use normal sugar at a pinch)
110g (4oz) Self-raising flour
2 eggs
Vanilla essence and / or lemon essence
Blue and yellow food colouring

Method

Preheat oven to 190°C: 375°F: Gas 5.
Whisk together the butter and sugar until light and creamy.
Add the beaten eggs gradually with a little of the flour.
Fold in the remaining sieved flour and add the flavouring (about half a teaspoon of each).
Also add half a teaspoon of each of the yellow and blue food colourings - the mix should go a very nice shade of green.
Divide the mix into twelve individual cake cases (make sure the cases have been greased first).
Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.
Turn out on to a wire rack to cool

Don't forget to ice the cakes in green or red once they've cooled.

.
Halloween cakes - as iced by three children,
aged 4, 7 and 33. . . .

Retrovaders: Heading towards 1.30

I'm wondering whether to make an early release of RetroVaders 1.30.

There are a couple of reasons that I'm tempted to release it now. The main one is a bug in the invaders movement code which I'm not at all happy about leaving out there. The other is that there have been enough improvements (imho) to make it a worthwhile upgrade.

The downside to releasing now is that Mac users will have to wait a bit longer for their version (I don't have regular access to a Mac to compile it).

Let's have a quick run through of the new features and see what we have.

Bug Fixes:

UFO Scoring - Now works correctly between 50 and 300 (was going up to 310)
UFO Movement - Bug fixed that could cause the invaders to drop straight down the screen (I've only seen it twice and I've probably played it more than anyone)
Invader drop speed tweaked to ensure that they always land at the same height (there was a slight variance depending on which row landed)

New features:

Joypad support
Options Screen
Game options saved to disk
Multiple backdrops (Invaders, Deluxe Invaders, Retrovaders, None)
Multiple invader sprite sets (Retrovaders, Classic, Atari 2600)
Number of bunkers increased to four
Number of invaders increased to 50
UFO no longer appears if there are less than eight invaders on screen


I've still got some polishing of the options screen to do but I could release the next version this weekend some time once I've got that finished.

I'll have to think about this one.

Dan at work - Dan vs MySQL

Todays challenge was to port the back-end code of our company Intranet from SQL Server 2000 to MySQL. This is due to our company Intranet sitting on our web development server (not the best place for it really).

In theory this shouldn't be too difficult a job as the SQL queries that we run to generate the site aren't really that complicated (no nested procedures or anything like that), the only parts that I was a bit concerned about were moving the data (especially binary objects held in database tables) from SQL Server to MySQL.

I didn't want to install MySQL on the same server as SQL Server 2000, then I remembered that I'd already set up a MySQL database on a test server for use with Merak Email server, so that can hold an extra couple of tables till I can sort out a more permanent home for it.

MySQL comes with a migration tool which takes care of moving the tables and data from the old server to the new one. It will also make relocating the database later on an absolute breeze. There were a couple of gotchas - namely codepage support on some of the databases - the data wouldn't move over until I set the target database to "international" mode.

A couple of the ASP pages needed a little tweak here or there - the original SQL Server 2000 table name was "northeast.dbo" (this was to match a remote version of the database used for our "live" client pages) - the MySQL version is "northeast_dbo" so some of the queries needed a little nudge here and there, as well as MySQL not supporting things like CAST or TOP. All told it took a little over five hours to port our company Who's Who database, Newsletters databases (three of them), Editorial Style Guide and Administration pages (including fixing up the ASP pages).

Tomorrow I've got to create a version of our Intranet site for one of our sister sites, and I get the feeling that will be followed by one for another site too. So it looks like things could be a little busy for the next couple of days (at the very least).

BlogRush weekly update

Now that a further week has passed, let's have another look at BlogRush.

Well, there have been a further couple of referrals passed through - which is good. My site has passed their "strict quality criteria" and is not amongst the 10,000 blogs which have been removed. Apparently this should give an increase in traffic, so it seems only fair that as a blog of quality (how about this for a tag line: "Half a page of scribbled lines - a blog of quality") I should give them a bit longer to see if things pick up.

The dashboard still isn't done (aaaargh!) but I'll give them a bit longer and see how the site functions once it's finished.

I'll give it another look in a week and see if things improve.

Oh no! Another release of RetroVaders?

Don't panic, it will be a couple of weeks before the next full release as I want to add some more features into the game, as well as finish tweaking the gameplay / difficulty levels some more.

There has been an update to 1.20 for Windows, basically I've ended up releasing two binaries for Windows: one for OpenGL and one for DirectX.

Why?

Well, today I did some testing on Windows: PC 1 - NVIDIA GForce 5 card - wouldn't run the OpenGL version, but ran DirectX with no problems; PC2 - a very old onboard Intel graphics card - no for DirectX, but ran OpenGL perfectly. Hopefully releasing against both systems should cover as broad a spectrum of users as possible.

I've made a start towards what I'm expecting will be the final version of RetroVaders ("Finally!" I hear you cry) so some of the new features will include:

• Multiple Backdrops (three backdrops at present, and an option for no backdrop too)
• More invaders
• Tweaks to drop speed, enemy shots etc
• Code optimisations
  

A lot of this is already done, as well as some other bits and pieces, but I want to wait for further comments from users before putting this game to rest.


RetroVaders 1.30 - Coming Soon. . . . .

RetroVaders 1.20 released for Windows, Linux and MacOS

RetroVaders 1.20 is available for download from the usual place.

New features for this version include:

All versions:

Full colour invaders (can be disabled)
Mystery UFO now follows the 24, 14, 14 pattern
UFO bonus now displayed when shot
Backdrop can be disabled
New main screen
Minor bug fixes

Windows only:

Windows version now using DirectX for graphics (was using OpenGL)

MacOS only:

Switching between full-screen and windowed now working
Changing resolution now supported

The first review of RetroVaders

Well, I've just found what is probably the first review of RetroVaders, by the chaps at Tectonic. I think it's a positive review. Sort of. Probably.

Perhaps a quote from the review would be in order:

Which is why RetroVaders appeals to me so much. The graphics are pixelated, the movements jerky, the colours uninspiring. I love it.

Riiiiiight.

I'm still not sure if I've been mildly insulted or if he's just being ironic. What do you think?

Update: I've just found this part of it, so I'm now verging towards flattered rather than insulted, again - to quote the new part:

As a kid I spent hours, and innumerable 20c coins, at my corner cafe playing Pinball and Space Invaders. RetroVaders brings back fond memories in today's dated-but-still-cool game of the week.

Game of the week? Cool!

Update #2: On a side note I wonder if they are using Windows Vista? That could cause some performance issues even on a fast machine, due to Vista's problems with OpenGL.

The slowest PC I've tested RetroVaders on is a Celeron 800 with a 16meg Matrox G400 graphics card (not exactly an ultra-modern PC) running Windows XP. The CPU usage never went over 50%.

Sadly, unless someone feels like donating a PC with Windows Vista for me to develop on I'm not going to be able to fully support it. I may look at doing a DirectX version of RetroVaders if this looks like a big problem for a lot of people - I'll have to see how many people (if any) shout up about it.

RetroVaders version 1.20

One comment that had been made about RetroVaders was that the Mystery Ship frequency was wrong. In the original game the ship would appear after 23 shots, then every 14 shots following. The shot frequency resets after each wave of invaders.

Well, now RetroVaders does that too. I've also included the "maximum mystery bonus" cheat from the original, so now if you can shoot the Mystery Ship on the 24th shot (and every 15th shot following) you'll get the maximum 300 bonus points.

I've updated the title screen a bit too so it looks more authentic.

I'll be releasing the next version either late on tonight or tomorrow morning for the Linux and Windows version, with the MacOS version following later on tomorrow evening.

I'm going to try compiling the MacOS release with an earlier version of BlitzMax to see if that fixes issue with switching between full-screen and windowed modes.

Update: Well, compiling under version 1.24 of BlitzMax fixes the screen problems on MacOS. I've also made some more changes to the program, the backdrop can now be switched off, and the invaders are now in colour (which can also be switched off). I've a similar colour scheme to Space Invaders Deluxe. I'll post some screenshots of the new version later on.

Blogging Reality

I hope no-one assumed any bitterness in the previous post about BlogRush. Their site made promises that it can't keep.

So let's be scrupulously honest here for a second and talk about blogging and why we do it. There are three main reasons that people blog.

Reason One - To publicise a product or service

There are a lot of commercial blogs around these days, more because blogging is seen by some as "the next big thing" and "something for the kids". Some can be very entertaining, many less so. Chances are if you are behind one of these then you'll only be reading other blogs that mention your product.


Reason Two - To make money

Work from home! Free money! Accept sponsorship and adverts and make $1000 a week with minimal effort! There are one hell of a lot of these sites around, and to be honest they are up there with chain letters - for every one that makes money, there are hundreds that don't.

Ask yourself this - how many people are going to sit and look at your adverts? How many visitors are you going to need before you get enough click throughs to earn anything? Do you really believe that you will get money for nothing? Really? If you do then please pop by, click on a couple of my adverts and don't forget to tell your friends!


Reason Three - For Fun

Really this is the best reason for blogging (in my humble opinion). Most of us aren't going to get a lot of hits, in fact we'll be lucky if we hit double figures most days. So why bother?

In my case it is another creative outlet, something I enjoy doing. Blogging allows me to write something other than code or job reports (there are only so many times you can write about unlocking someones user account and still be interested in it).

If you are going to spend all your days staring at web stats for your personal blog then you'll probably end up disheartened and disappointed. Just in case you think I'm exaggerating about the sort of hit rate that most sites have then head on over to BlogToplist and have and check out the Unique Visitors for each site. Yes, there are some high flyers, but most sites are just like us, writing for whoever passes by.

We're currently riding high in the Video Games list at #122 (out of 300), and considering we've only been around for a month and a bit I don't really think I'm doing that badly.

By comparison, at present Dan's Remakes (my other site ) averages 150 unique visitors a day. I didn't think RetroVaders would generate so much interest. Once the interest drops off though then the number of visitors will drop down to the low double figures range again.

So again, why do it?

For me it is an easy answer: "Because I enjoy it!" And I hope that is the reason that you do too.

BlogRush update - still waiting for traffic

I've posted a couple of times about BlogRush, so here is the long awaited status update:

It's Crap.

There, I've said it. For smaller blogs like mine it just doesn't work. Over the past few weeks I've kept an eye on how much traffic BlogRush has sent my way, so here is the total number of people that they have referred to my site:

1

That's right folks, one. The administration BlogRush section still isn't finished which makes tracking what the service is doing difficult. It all makes it impossible to recommend.

In the interest of fairness (or just bloody-mindedness on my part) I'm giving it one more week, and then I'll be removing the link. Reciprocal linking should work both ways, but at the moment I'm sending them more traffic than they're sending me.

I'll update this in one weeks time.

RetroVaders - 1.10

I think I've got the screen resolution problem on MacOS X sorted now, but I'll have to wait till later on tonight before I'll get the chance to do a recompile.

I've ported the screen mode / resolution switching code from Chaos Caverns to RetroVaders and set the default resolution to 640x480. This should be enough to get all three platforms running properly.

There are a couple of other tweaks in the 1.10 release such as removing the auto fire so the base now acts more like the original one, reducing the frequency of the UFO from 1 in 1000 to 1 in 10000, and slightly reducing the amount that the invaders drop each run to give the player a bit more of a chance.

The Linux and Windows versions will get updated later on today, the Mac one will probably be released late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

If this version compiles and runs OK then I'll also try a MacOS X compile of Chaos Caverns.

Update 1: The Linux and Windows versions are now online.

Update 2: The MacOS version is now online too. I've also uploaded a MacOS port of Chaos Caverns 1.000 (I'll post an up-to-date version at the same time as the next Chaos Caverns release).

RetroVaders for MacOS X - Test Release

I've managed to compile a version of RetroVaders for MacOS X (Power PC). There are a couple of minor issues with it - but the game itself should work OK.

Head on over to http://dans-remakes.sytes.net for more information and downloads.

RetroVaders - Coming soon for MacOS X

As an experiment I've compiled RetroVaders on MacOS X and will put the binary on Dan's Remakes later on tonight.

The minimum OS version required is MacOS X 10.3.9. The binary is a PPC one and has only been tested on a genuine PPC Mac. If anyone gets it working on an Intel Mac then please let me know (and also how well / badly it worked).

There are some things that I'll want to fix before I target MacOS properly, but at least the game works. It is full-screen only at the moment (and only fills a quarter of the screen) as the windowed mode looses its graphics after a couple of seconds.

I've got some ideas on how to fix the problems, but it will probably have to wait for Super RetroVaders before I try and implement them.

I've started adding a couple of things into RetroVaders so I'd say that Super RetroVaders is almost a certainty at this point.

Typhoon 2001

Going back ten or so years ago, I'd often pop over to see one of my mates on a weekend. His girlfriend and mine would sit and chat whilst we drank beers and played on the Atari Jaguar.

There were only a handful of good games available for the Jaguar. Alien vs Predator was one, Rayman was another. But the best of the best was Jeff Minter's Tempest 2000 (an update of Dave Theurers's classic Tempest). This was the most intense gaming experience I'd ever played. The visuals were psychedelic, the soundtrack was hypnotic, the action was fast and unrelenting. I know it sounds cliched but it was more an experience than a game.

Tempest 2000 expanded the original game by updating the graphics and sound, and adding extra features such as weapon upgrades, an AI droid and unlockable bonus rounds. Somehow it managed to add all this whilst still keeping what made the original Tempest so good in the first place.

Tempest 2000

There have been a couple of attempts at bringing the game to other systems. The PlayStation got Tempest X3 which was close, but didn't quite work as the game mechanics were changed around too much. The PC got a straight forward (if uglier) port of the Jaguar game (follow the link for the full history of the game).

There have also been a few attempts to create a follow up, both official (Tempest 3000 (Nuon) and Space Giraffe (XBox 360)) and unofficial (Tsunami 2010) but nothing quite captures the feel of the original Jaguar game.

Typhoon 2001

Until now. Typhoon 2001 is a freeware remake of Tempest 2000 which attempts to update the visuals and game play whilst retaining the qualities that made the original so damn good. The game has been in development for over a year and has evolved into a game that may be even better than the original. The game uses the original soundtrack, a mix of new and old sound effects, massively updated graphics (compare the screenshots) and now looks astounding.

Static screen shots really don't do this game justice.

Rather than trying to describe the indescribable, why not head on over to the Typhoon 2001 web site and try it for yourself. The game is available for both Windows and Linux, and requires a 500MHz processor and 3D accelerated graphics.

Right, I'm off for another go. See you later.

RetroVaders - Final Thoughts

Well, that's the initial release of RetroVaders out of the way. The response so far has been largely positive too, which is nice.

I've submitted the game to Retro Remakes and Happy Penguin - I'll have to go through my list of other places to submit to later on. Judging from past experience it will take a couple of days before the game appears on the sites, so I'll have to be patient.

I'm toying with the idea of making a "Super RetroVaders" rather than making an update to this one. The update will incorporate any new ideas I've had, as well as suggestions made by others.

I've also started updating the main Dan's Remakes site. This is long overdue and now is probably as good a time as any to start, especially as I need incorporate RetroVaders into the site. I've begun with the "Finished Projects" page, which now uses animated GIFs for the screenshots and also shows the comparison between the original game and the remake.

I'll start working my way through the site over the next couple of weeks, and move some of the non-remake stuff onto this site.

RetroVaders now available for download

RetroVaders, the new freeware space-invaders inspired retro game from Dan's Remakes is now available for download for Windows and Linux.

Head on over to http://dans-remakes.sytes.net for the download links.

RetroVaders - Updated release schedule

The finished game is now ready to go, all that is left is for me to upload the files to my site and update the downloads page.

Unfortunately Virgin Media have chosen today for their FTP service to stuff up - so although everything is finished and sat here on my hard drive I can't update my site.

AAAAAAARGH!

If I still can't get into my site by tomorrow lunchtime then I'll sort out an alternative download location for the files.

New release - RetroVaders

Well, the cat is definitely out of the bag now. If case you hadn't guessed it by the title, this is my "tribute" to Space Invaders. This isn't an identical clone but the basic gameplay is the same.



I made a point of not playing the original whilst writing this, because I wanted this to be my take on it (use MAME if you want the real thing). Some of the main differences are that you score 10 points for each of the invaders instead of different amounts for different types. The UFO scores between 10 and 300 points. Bonus lives are awarded every 1000 points. There are only three bases instead of four.



I'll be doing a final bug hunt tomorrow, writing the documentation (not that it requires much) and releasing the finished game at some point over the weekend (probably Saturday).

Binaries will be available for Windows and Linux. I'll provide a MacOs (PowerPC) version only if there is any demand for it - so if there are any Mac users out there who fancy a quick game of RetroInvaders then make sure you let me know.

The game is being released as freeware and has been written in BlitzMax (hence the ease of porting it between the three systems). Source code is not provided - but again, if there is any demand for it then I'll certainly consider cleaning it up and releasing it under the GPL.

Visit http://dans-remakes.sytes.net for this and my other remakes.

PlayPal - Retro gaming on the go

Once upon a time there was a handheld games system. No, not the Game Boy, this one was in colour. No, not the Lynx either, but Sega's Game Gear.

This was a rather cool little system that unfortunately ate through batteries like a battery eating machine, but on the upside had a crystal clear colour back lit display and some rather decent games available for it, mostly ports from the Sega Master System.

It lasted six years against the unstoppable might of the Game Boy before being put out to pasture, but that isn't the end of the story.

Last year The PlayPal was released. It's based on the Master System rather than the Game Gear and comes with 20 built in games, including some fairly rare ones.

First though - let's have a look at what you get for your money (currently around £15).

Retro Gaming on the go

First off - the packaging is actually rather decent. This is certainly no cheap Chinese clone system - all these titles have been officially licensed by Sega. You get the console and an AV lead. Yes kids, you can also play this on the telly (as long as it supports NTSC)! The d-pad is comfortable to use and the controls are responsive. The console is a little smaller than the original Game Gear and should be OK for all but the smallest hands.

A Mini Master System?

The 2.4 inch backlit display is clear with bright colour definition, albeit at a low resolution. The sound is clear enough and even supports the FM sound samples in games such as Altered Beast ("Power Up!").

There is a good choice of games albeit with a couple of stinkers such as Snail Maze. High points are Sonic - Triple Trouble, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Altered Beast, Columns (and Columns II), Global Defence, Eco II - The Tides of Time and Fantasy Zone.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World

That's seven really good games. Add the others into the mix (and who knows, you may even like some of them too) then you're looking at a bit of a bargain.

The PlayPal certainly gives you good value for your money. At the current exchange rate it's around 75p per game(!) on the handheld it is costs less than some budget games, plus you get the console too. Hopefully they will make a follow-up release with some more of the better Master System games.

In the couple of months since I first wrote this for Dan's Remakes the PlayPal has had daily use, not only by the kids but from my wife too. She has discovered the delights of Columns (no sniggering at the back there) and is hooked.

As a side note, I bought mine via Play Asia. Delivery took less than a week from Hong Kong and was very well packaged. They even gave a discount voucher against my next purchase.

Conclusion: A nice piece of nostalgia at a bargain price. Suitable for all ages.

One step closer to release

Another couple of items have been ticked off before the release. I've embedded the graphics and sound into the executable, so it should be a single 1.3 meg file which can be placed anywhere on your system regardless of whether you're using Windows or Linux.

I may be able to reduce the size of the executable a bit by ditching some of the none-required code modules, but I'll worry about that at the end.

I've changed the program to running in "strict" mode (something I should have done from the start). This is the same sort of idea as "option explicit" on QBasic / Visual Basic style programming languages in that all variables must be declared before use, and the variable types cannot change without being re-declared. This is handy for catching typos in variable or object names.

I've change the front screen to make it a bit nicer and added a basic high score feature to the game.

There are only a couple of small things that need to be done now which I should get done tomorrow. It's looking like I'll be releasing the game this weekend providing no show stopping bugs show up when I start testing the game on Windows.

Just for reference (and because I can't remember if I've mentioned this before or not), this is being coded in BlitzMax. This is down to it being relatively easy to use and cross-platform (you buy it once and can download and use it on all available operating systems).

One less reason to buy a PS3

Sony seem intent on shooting themselves in the foot again.

After the ill-feeling caused by the removal of the emotion chip (used for PS2 compatibility), and despite the PS3s less than stellar sales figures, they have now announced that they are removing PS2 compatibility completely. Yes folks, anyone upgrading will need to keep their PS2 around if they want to play PS2 games.

As before, UK and Australian gamers are being shafted first, with the downgrades being made available in other parts of the world later on.

This is apparently to get the price of the UK PS3 down to £299 (around $600) for the low end 40GB model.

As a comparison, the Amazon US price for the 60GB PS3 is $499 (around £250) and this includes backwards compatibility as well as the larger hard disk.

Speaking personally, any chance of me buying a PS3 in the immediate future have vanished. The thought of paying more money for less features is just plain idiotic, and unless Sony wise up to that idea then the future for the PS3 will continue to look bleak.

On a Bug Hunt

One of the most labour intensive parts of game programming (and programming in general) is bug hunting and optimisation. Even if you are a programming genius like what I is bugs can still sneak in to your code when your back is turned.

The only way to track them down is to play, play and play your game again. Be your own most dedicated play tester. One of the tests that I do is create a windowed mode for the game, and play it alongside a CPU monitor. This can give you some big clues as to where there are performance bottlenecks in your game.

For example, I found that while the game was playing, the CPU usage was only 2 - 3%, but pressing fire knocked it up to 70%. Ouch! That was fixed by merging the base drawing and player shot collision code into a single run.

Another bug was down to programmer daftness. Because I'd made the enemy shots part of the enemy structure, when an enemy was destroyed their shot vanished too. D'oh! Needless to say I've created a new structure just to hold the shots and moved the enemy shot code into its own section. This involved some major restructuring of the code but was well worth it.

I've added a simple (but effective) end sequence that fits in with the retro styling of the game.

I'll have to have a run through the code and see where else it can be cleaned up before adding in the final missing features. Dull work, but necessary.

BlogRush updates - Phase 2

Well, it looks like BlogRush is going to be changing. I hadn't realised that BlogRush hasn't been around for very long - in fact, it started around the same time as this blog (around a month ago).

During the two weeks that I've been with BlogRush I've had a grand total of 1 referral from them. Now, that is one visitor that I might not have otherwise had, so it is all for the good I suppose.

BlogRush Phase 2 may shake things up a bit. Some of the more exciting things for me is "Say goodbye to all the non-English blogs, junk blogs, and any low-quality blogs you may have seen from time-to-time in the widget" (hopefully that won't include me!), "Bonus Syndication For All Users, But Weighted Towards Low-Traffic Members" (yay!), "More Categories! (a lot more)". This last one is good, hopefully I'll find a category closer suited to this blog.

A "Random Wibbling" category perhaps?

Those toilet blues

To quote John McClain, "How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?"

Yes folks, it is time for the revenge of the toilet.

Last time it was the flush mechanism, this time the cistern is out for revenge.

"So whats wrong this time?" I pretend to hear you ask? Well, after visiting the porcelain reading room for a bit of quiet time, I'd flushed, washed my hands (of course) and was about to head off down stairs when I heard a dripping tap.

Oh well, I'll turn it off. That's funny - the cistern is still filling up. And why is the floor wet.

Oh no.

On checking, the cistern was leaking and dripping from where it connects onto the loo. There is a wing nut underneath the cistern which, sadly, hadn't been tightened properly when the loo was fixed the last time, and by the looks of things it has been working its way loose ever since.

Well, we've mopped it all up, said some rude things about plumbers in general (and the one who we had last time in particular) and will see if that has stopped the leak. If not, we'll be getting the bugger out again to do the damn job properly.

Dan's Remakes - New Game Update #1

The countdown has started for the new release. It is kind of difficult to say too much about the game without revealing what is actually is, but here goes.

Most of the original arcade games features are intact, in fact there are only a couple of things that I still want to include before the final release. I've reduced the number of enemies (but made them larger and chunkier). This makes the game a bit easier at the start, but the difficulty ramps up as you progress through the levels.

I've upped the speed slightly too. The graphics have been kept simple, but I've used transparancy to help emulate the original reflected backdrop effect (you'll see what I mean when you play it).

Bonus lives are in (every 1000 points earns a new life). Unlike the original all enemies have the same points value.

Things left to do before a release:

• Implement missing game "bonus points" feature.
• Tweak the difficulty levels a bit.
• Tweak the shot mechanism a bit.
• Create a proper intro screen and menu (there is only a holding page at the moment).

Things that might be in the game:

• Multiple screen resolutions.
• Fancy pause screen (same as Chaos Caverns perhaps).
• Special in game effects (although I don't want to overdo it this time round).

I might do a second release after all to add in the extras (and fix any bugs that might make an appearance), we'll have to see what the reaction to the game is.

There will definitely be Linux and Windows versions of the game (the game is being developed in Linux using Blitz Max).

I'll post more later on this week when hopefully I'll be that bit closer to the final release.

Release date: When I'm happy with it.
Price: Freeware.
Primary download site: Dan's Remakes.

Linux on HP OmniBook XE2

(last updated 07/10/2007)

Sometimes working in IT does have its benefits. Take today for example. We´ve been clearing out some of our old hardware, and amongst the 80486, Pentium I and Pentium IIs was a small stack of old laptops. Most of them were digital doorstops, but there was a stack of three HP OmniBook XE2s. All three of them had problems - but thankfully not the same problem, so I was able to swap things around a bit and come out with a working (if low-spec) laptop.

The spec of the rescued laptop is a Celeron 433, 160 meg RAM, 40GB hard drive, 800x600 resolution display. Although the laptop doesn´t have any in-built network ports I do have an old wireless card that I´ve wanted to try.

I wanted to test the laptop out with Linux, but the only distro I had to hand was an old beta version of Freespire, but what the Hell, at least I could use it as a quick test even if I was going to replace it with Ubuntu later on.

The install was straight forward, taking around half an hour. I accepted the defaults and took over the entire hard drive. Everything (including the sound card) was detected OK. So far, so good.

Now here is a good thing. Freespire auto detected my wireless card and it works fine with my home network. In fact, I´m posting this from the Laptop.

I´m probably going to install something a bit more lightweight on this (probably Slackware), but I´ve got to admit that I am impressed with how easily everything was installed, and how little configuration was required.

I´m going to play around a bit more with this - who knows, I might even keep Freespire on for a few days.

. . . .

Update #1 - 6/10/2007

Or maybe not. One problem with Freespire is that it is dog slow on older hardware. This is a shame - as overall the distro seemed rather nice. Click'n'Run works well for installing additional software and updates, but the laptop just seemed to be running slower than my old Pentium MMX 233 laptop. I'm not too sure if this was entirely Freespires fault, as I was running on battery power so it may have stepped down the CPU speed. One good positive is that at least I know that my wireless card will work with Linux.

I did give Ubuntu Gutsy a try but couldn't get it to boot into the live CD. This is strange as Freespire is based on Ubuntu and it worked fine. I'll maybe give Ubuntu another try at a later date and see if I can figure out what is going wrong.

So instead I'm re-installing the laptop with Zenwalk, a Slackware derived distro. I've always fancied giving something like Zenwalk a shot and I'm certainly curious as to how it will compare with something more "modern" like Freespire, Ubuntu or Mandriva.

Ths Zenwalk installer is very similar to the traditional Slackware one in that it is text based. One important difference is that you don't choose the packages that need to be installed, this is a single CD with everything you need on it. I'm installing using the default options, so this will be taking over the entire hard drive and configuring the partitions itself.

The Zenwalk install took around 40 minute and takes up a similar amount of space to Freespire. One notable difference is that whilst Freespire creates one large partition, Zenwalk gives us separate Root, Home and Swap partitions. I've got to admit this is a much better way of laying out the disk, as at least if you need to re-install at some point then your home directory and files will be safe.

After the main install has finished, there are a couple of options to configure for things like the Admin password, adding a new user and so on, then you reboot, the sound card is detected and on you go.

Or not, as the case may be. Zenwalk uses a very minimalist desktop enviroment (XFCE) - too minimalist for my liking. Also although it detected the wireless card (whoo!), it doesn't work (boo!). It took a while to track down the problem - which turns out to be the firmware for the card (an Atmel based one) isn't included. Once I'd tracked down the firmware and copied the .BIN files into /lib/firmware, one reboot later and everything was working great.

Not a difficult thing to do once you know about it, but not really that well documented. Yes, there were warnings (available via dmesg) but how many novices are going to check there?

Oh well, at least it does work. Zenwalk certainly feels faster than Freespire, it also boots up a lot faster (around half the time that Freespire took). Right - time to play around with it a bit more.

. . . .

Update 2 - 7/10/2007

Well, Zenwalk works OK, MP3 and MPEG playback worked out of the box, USB devices are automounted, everything pretty much works as expected.

One issue I have found is with the Zenwalk tools. If you are running in 800x600 then you can't use all of the tools. This is especially true of the update tool - which although you can view the software, and add it to the list to install, the install button is hidden - presumably somewhere off the bottom of the screen.

I'm going to install KDE from the Zenwalk repositories and see how that works, as I'm still not sure about XFCE.

Dan at work

Well, it's Friday at last, traditionally the quietest day of the week. Of course, it doesn't always work that way. For the last couple of Fridays we've had all sorts of Internet related problems to contend with which have kept us busy from shift start to shift end, so having a quiet(ish) day is nice.

This also allows me to do some of the less glamorous but still needed admin tasks, such as working my way through our servers event logs and investigating any errors or warnings, ensuring that all AntiVirus software is up to date on the servers, checking patches are installed and so on. More than enough to keep me occupied, but nothing to panic about.

. . . .

I should have known better than to say it's quiet. Three calls in a row there (one external engineer who has come to repair one of our printers, and two internal support calls).

Better run before anything else happens.

The boy stood on the burning deck....

(apologies to Mrs. Felicia Dorothea Hemans)

The boy stood on the burning deck,
The flames they drove him crackers.
A spark shot up his trouser leg,
And set fire to his. . . .

or

The boy stood on the burning deck,
He waved to all the dockers.
He waved to his girl,
She was known as Shirl,
The one with great big. . . .

and finally

The boy stood on the burning deck,
His body was all a quiver.
He gave a cough, his leg fell off,
And floated down the river.

Dan's Remakes - New game coming soon

As well as blogging here, I also have a games remakes site over at http://dans-remakes.sytes.net, which specialises in freeware remakes of classic (i.e. old) games.

At the moment there are only a couple of games on there - a small version of Arcadia (originally by Imagine Software), and a tribute to Manic Miner (called Chaos Caverns). Both are available for Windows and Linux and I'll try and provide an OS-X version if there is any demand for one.

Apart from whoring my other site - why blog about it here? Well, I'm going to move some of the earlier blogs (such as the game and hardware reviews) onto the blog here.

I'm also going to be releasing a new remake sometime during the next couple of weeks. Normally I follow the old "release early, release often" format for these games. With Chaos Caverns I slowed down the releases a bit to make it more worthwhile for people to update the game - extra levels, new graphics and so on are much more inviting than just bug fixes.

This time however I want to release a completed game in one go. I've purposefully chosen one of the most retro of all retro titles for this one (especially as the game has just been featured in Retro Gamer magazine). I'm not doing a straight clone of the game - after all, where's the fun in that - but I'll be tweaking the game play and graphics as I see fit.

I've got most of the game mechanics working already, so it is really down to the fine tuning and adding the extra polish to make the game worth downloading and playing.

I'm also not releasing the name of the game yet. Feel free to speculate, and keep and eye on the blog here, and at http://dans-remakes.sytes.net for updates.

Are there any real blogs left?

Here's a thought. I've been looking closely at BlogRush and the blogs that are listed in it, and something struck me as odd. Most of them don't actually contain any real content. No articles. No thoughts. Just lists and instructions on how to "Make Money Online" and "Increase your earning potential".

Before anyone says it, then yes, I've just added a list there in a blatant attempt to get some traffic from BlogRush, since as far as I can see those sort of posts are the only way to generate traffic via their site.

It's kind of depressing really. I'd sort of hoped that there might be the next Will Wheaton blog on there (someone who's posts are always entertaining to read), but no - only fake blog after fake blog.

Anyone know of any listing sites for genuine blogs rather than the scam ones?

In fact, if you've got a favourite blog then post it as a comment, and I'll post a top ten list of real blogs that people should read. And yes, I'm going to start it with Will Wheaton In Exile. Let's celebrate the best in blogging.

Top 10 Adsense keywords

Apparently these are the keywords that will earn you the most via Adsense.

Top Adsense keywords according to CyberWyre

$69.10 mesothelioma treatment options
$66.46 mesothelioma risk
$65.85 personal injury lawyer michigan
$65.74 michigan personal injury attorney
$62.59 student loans consolidation
$61.44 car accident attorney los angeles
$61.26 mesothelioma survival rate
$60.96 treatment of mesothelioma
$59.44 online car insurance quotes
$59.39 arizona dui lawyer

Hey, if a couple of you click on the adsense links for these then I can retire a happy man! Whoo hoo!

Blogrush - does it really work?

The fastest and easiest way to drive a flood of targeted readers to your blog... absolutely free!

Sounds pretty good doesn't it? I'm always a bit dubious when it comes to things like this - there is usually a catch somewhere - like ending up providing free advertising for someone but not receiving enough clicks to actually earn from it as an example.

I set up BlogRush on here a couple of days ago, and I've got to admit I've been less than overwhelmed so far. In fact, my whelm is so far under it is in danger of reaching the Earth's molten core. Now, I'm usually a good one for being patient about things. BlogRush are in the process of updating their servers at the moment so I've been unable to check what they are actually doing. Until today. According to their stats I've been serving out pages for them (which I knew), but I've received back a grand total of. . . . .

None. Nothing. Naff all. Not a sausage.

Hardly a flood. Not even a trickle. To be perfectly honest I couldn't even describe it as a drip.

Once the BlogRush dashboard is available (apparently within the next couple of days) I'll be able to find out more about what is happening - but at the moment I can't say too much in favour of the service.

I'm going to give it a couple of weeks and see if it does bring any traffic in. I'm not exactly holding my breath though.

Don't forget your password - or else!

Hang on to your passwords folks - here comes the Government.

New laws, which came into effect on Monday, give the police and other government agencies the right to demand access to your data. Should you refuse, or even worse have forgotten the password or lost the encryption key, then you'll be off to jail for up to two years. No trial here, straight to jail. Should you be accused of being a terrorist then the jail time goes up to five years.

The original version of this law was passed by Parliament in 2000, but after a public outcry the section relating to the enforced handover of passwords and encryption keys was never activated.

Yes, our Labour Party benevolent dictators want your passwords and encryption keys, and they aren't going to take "no" for an answer. This is all in the name of keeping us safe from Terrorists, Pedophiles and other criminals.

Please leave your freedom at the door on the way out.

The Your Sinclair Rock 'n' Roll Years

Those of us in the UK and "of an age" may remember the Sinclair Spectrum (Sinclair Timex for any Americans reading) with a certain amount of fondness.

One of the real benefits of owning a Spectrum was "Your Sinclair" magazine. Your Sinclair was probably the first "modern" computer magazine, with a less serious, more entertaining style. Whilst other magazines concentrated on type-in listings and hardware reviews, YS contained in-jokes and pop-culture references.

Your Sinclair ran from 1986 to 1993 and closed with the Big Final Issue. This isn't the end of the story though.

In 1997 Nick Humphries, inspired by the BBC documentary series "The Rock 'n' Roll Years", created a site dedicated to your Sinclair. Featuring news and reviews from each edition of the magazine it has grown into a comprehensive tribute to the magazine and even contains new material provided by Nick himself.

Not content to rest on his laurels Nick has taken on the task of producing a TV style documentary, chronicling the life of the Sinclair Spectrum.

The Your Sinclair Rock 'n' Roll Years - The Documentary copies the format of the original BBC documentary, mixing game footage, adverts and pop music for each of the years of the Spectrum's life. Currently 1982 to 1988 have been released, with 1989 in production.

The documentaries can be downloaded directly from Nick's site or viewed on YouTube.

Cash to Blog?

Can you make a living from blogging? John Chow says you can - and he's willing to show you how.

Now, if you are like me then your Scam Detector (tm) will probably have gone into meltdown and you will be getting ready to run in the opposite direction. But wait, there is something a little different about this.

He's going to tell you FOR FREE.

You can read John's advice and information either by browsing his blog (linked above folks) or by downloading his free ebook. I've been having a browse through this and there is some really good stuff in here, including not blogging just for money - blog because you want to (advice well worth remembering).

Is this going to make me a fortune? Who knows, although somehow I doubt it. On the other hand, if it makes some cash back then great. I'll drop in an update in a couple of months and we'll see just how much (if anything) I've been able to make.

Amiga Forever?

The Amiga will always have a special place in my affections as the first serious computer that I ever owned. Before that I'd been a Sinclair Spectrum owner, so moving from an 8bit machine with tape storage to the 16bit floppy disk powerhouse that was an Amiga 600 was quite an experience.

At the time the Amiga completely outclassed the PC. It had a fully multi-tasking operating system, needed less memory to run, had better graphics, better sound, cost less, and certainly had the edge when it came to games. There was also a massive user-base (over 1.5 million users in the UK alone). The fact that the Amiga has been resigned to the bargain bin of history whilst the PC has become the computer of choice for most of the planet is a tale of mismanagement and stupidity that defies logic and easy explanations.

Between the buy-outs, lack of new products, in-fighting, more buy-outs and so forth there has been very little joy for Amiga fans during the last ten years or so. The PowerPC based Amiga boards are like hens teeth to acquire, MorphOS (an AmigaOS style operating system for PowerPC) is nearly impossible to obtain at the moment, generally speaking things haven't been looking too bright for the old 'Miggy.

Recently there has been an upsurge in interest in the venerable Amiga, with rumours of yet another buyout, new Amiga hardware and an updated AmigaOS on the horizon and I'd love to be able to say that this is an exciting time for Amiga, but, well we've been here before.

One Amiga product that is available is Cloanto's Amiga Forever. This is an emulated Amiga environment (using UAE as the emulator) with legally licensed Amiga ROMs and Operating System. You can get it in a variety of packages ranging from a downloaded zip archive to a DVD release, which also comes with a second DVD containing Amiga related film footage such as the Deathbed Vigil which chronicles the last days of Commodore.



The first DVD as well as containing the emulator, ROMs and system files is also bootable and uses KX-Light, a cut-down version of Linux to autostart an Amiga 3.x based Workbench (the Amiga equivalent of Windows) with all the trimmings. I say 3.x rather than 3.1 or 3.9 because due to licensing issues the version of the OS is a mix of parts from 3.1, 3.5 and 3.9. You also get a small selection of ready-to-run emulated games, and Amiga Kickstart releases from 1.0 up to 3.1 and the required ROMs to emulate an Amiga CD32, which was a short-lived CD based Amiga console.

One really good thing about this is that because it uses the Open Source Amiga emulator UAE, you can download the latest version of the emulator free of charge, and it is also cross-platform. Personally I run it on Linux, but it works just was well on a Mac or using the default Windows set-up.

UAE itself uses a JIT code translation engine (Just In Time - it translates the Motorola 68000 code into x86 native assembly on the fly) and when you are using Workbench it really gives you the feeling of using a top-of-the-range Amiga workstation.

Time has not been kind to Workbench. Although Workbench 3.1 stood up well when compared with Windows 3.1 and even gave Windows 95 a run for its money, comparing it with a modern Windows XP, OSX or Linux desktop manager isn't really fair, as Amiga Forever is basically giving you an OS from ten years ago - so many of the trimmings that we take for granted like anti-aliased fonts are absent.

On the other hand a TCP-IP stack has been installed, and a basic web browser provided. Productivity software like Turbo Text and Personal Paint are installed, but again, don't stand up well when compared to the likes of Open Office and The Gimp.

As a nostalgia trip Amiga Forever is great. Being able to run an emulated Workbench at 1024x768 with 256 meg of memory shows what Amiga would have been capable of if the hardware development had been done at the time.

Who knows, maybe one day there will be a modern Amiga type computer, with an up-to-date Workbench equivalent.

As a footnote to this, there is an Open Source re-implementation of AmigaOS / Workbench.

AROS (the AROS Research Operating System) intends to do for the Amiga what Linux did for Unix. By this I mean they are re-implementing the entire Operating System from the ground up using all their own code but retaining source code compatability with the original. Their site is well worth a visit for those interested in where the future may lie for Amiga fans.