The Brad Hole

Earlier this week, I did a first pass at a command-line dedicated server for Jedi Academy, and so far so good. There are a few minor things to fix, but it's looking pretty good, so hopefully sometime after MacWorld, it'll be ready for consumption. I hope to follow it up with command-line servers for JK2 and (eventually) the Medal of Honor games. So if you've been dying to discard that GUI and love to type in the terminal, or are itching to run a Q3-based server on an Xserve, your day is coming.

In other news, I'm getting over the cold I had last week. Today I thought of the perfect word to describe my current state: nose cheese. But frankly, I don't give edam.

Posted by bradman at 06:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Lots of little things have happened this week worth noting.

First off, Beth and I went to Disneyland this past Sunday and Monday for a quick getaway. We've got annual passes, so it's mainly a matter of a 5 hour drive with some audio books and booking cheap rooms on Priceline. Last trip out, we stayed in the Anaheim Hyatt for $38 a night, this time it was the Anaheim Marriott for $45 a night. Although both are very nice hotels, the Marriott was within easy walking distance of the park, so it has shot to the top of our non-Disney hotel list. I'd never been to the Disney parks during Christmastime, so I was impressed by the decorations they had done. In particular, I thought the holiday arrangement of the small world ride was excellent, as was the Haunted Mansion makeover.

Upon returning, I read on several forums how the recent 1.01a Jedi Academy patch had not solved some of the issues it was designed to solve, which was frustrating. Turns out that the patcher app (based on Stuffit InstallerMaker) was essentially broken - it wasn't patching anything but the Info.plist in the apps, so they weren't being updated properly. A new 1.01b patch is out now that fixes all that and adds in a fix for an issue with the Vjun level that was reported after release. Even though this patch is official, it apparently has managed to fly under the radar of both VersionTracker and MacUpdate.com, which secretly pleases me. :-) Perhaps this has to do with the inaccurate description for the patch on MacGameFiles - I dunno.

I came down with a minor cold on Christmas Eve, which started out (as usual) as a sore throat and has now moved into my nose. My mom is in the throes of coping with the flu, but my dad and brother have more or less recovered, so we met them for lunch on Christmas at the Lantana Grill at the Pointe Squaw Peak. Yesterday, we drove down to Tucson to see Beth's Aunt Betty and her cousin Gary, which is always a good time. It's rare to find someone over the age of 70 who appreciates humor (sometimes self-deprecating) about incontinence and flatulence, but Aunt Betty rises boldly to the occasion.

In 2 weeks, the best Christmas gift I've received in a long time will come true - I'll be going on a tour of Skywalker Ranch. I'm not sure if my benefactors want to be known, but this ranks as one of the most generous and unselfish acts of kindness that I've received in a long, long time, and I'm extremely grateful for this. And it'll be while one of the Star Wars movies is in production, no less! I'll try not to pee my pants if I see George Lucas while I'm there, but I can't promise anything. I may have to put on a pair of Depends just to be safe.

And in the Christmas spirit, I recently became aware of something that happened back in 1914 that struck me as particularly poignant. Read about it here.

Posted by bradman at 06:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I've written in previous blog entries about my more-or-less successful adventures with soy-based Garden Burgers and Boca Burgers. They didn't suck, and I was in general pleasantly surprised.

One thing I've waffled about, increasingly more so, over the past few years is attempting to cut meat out of my diet - something which sounds suspiciously like becoming a vegetarian. ;-) That's problematic because when it gets down to it, I really don't like the taste of vegetables. I'm the type that strips a burger free of tomatoes, detests most forms of corn, marvels at the demon-spawned creation of okra and gets almost nauseous at the smell of a banana. (For the record, I have no qualms with lettuce, some forms of spinach, sprouts, radishes, carrots, asparagus, broccoli and onions, among others.)

But it's becoming harder for me to ignore the reality behind what being a carnivore involves, although I try hard. Today, my resolve was tested with this story on mad cow disease. Some of the grisly facts were put out there for me to unintentionally read.

Some salient points (aside from the disease itself) - cows that are sickly and can't walk ("downed") are still good enough to slice up and serve as burgers. "Brain matter" winds up in pet food. Some of the animals are ground up and served as livestock food - a form of cannibalism, if you will. These aren't pleasant thoughts for me to consider, and I suppose if I knew just the slightest bit more about what goes on to bring meat to my table, I'd never touch it again so I try to remain blissfully ignorant. I also know that if I were entirely in my hands, I would have extreme difficulty in killing an animal even to feed myself. Here at least the cats can rest easier. ;-)

Given all that, I'm in the throes of forming a New Years resolution that attempts to strike a pragmatic balance. I know full well that I can't easily give meat up, and I think there are certainly cases where I don't have moral issues with it - free range animals come to mind. I also don't really have a problem with dairy products or things like that. My resolution is that I'll try to restrict my meat intake as much as reasonably possible in the new year. There's no way I can go vegetarian, but I'm curious to see how close I can get and still have a diet that tastes good and doesn't make me freak out about all the crazy stuff of which I'd like to remain ignorant. And I'm sure that I'll enjoy a slab of greasy meat every now and again - at social functions, when my diet needs the protein, and in moments of weakness and laziness.

Posted by bradman at 01:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I've got some random follow-up notes to comments on the previous entry.

* I haven't heard of crash-when-leaning-while-opening-a-door bug in MOHAA mp. Does it happen in Spearhead too? More details (and a crash log) would be helpful. If I can easily reproduce it here, count on it getting fixed. If I can't reproduce it, it helps to have as much information as possible so I can guess at a fix. :-)

* I haven't heard anything about the final Civ3 1.29 patch, or the Centipede patch for that matter. I assume MacSoft is up to their ears in Halo and Age of Mythology stuff right now, and with Christmas, New Years and MacWorld all happening over the next 3 weeks, I wouldn't be surprised if it gets pushed aside for now.

* There should be a Jedi Academy demo, but as with above, the next 3 weeks are probably going to limit Aspyr's QA time on it, so I wouldn't count on seeing it until after MacWorld sometime.

* I'd love to fix Bloodrayne's 10.3 crasher, but that's an issue that, at least for now, must be addressed by the Mac developer, Terminal Reality.

* Alien Crossfire has been carbonized - the build is in the same archive as the one with Carbon Alpha Centauri, linked in my previous post. These are in fact new builds that I made in September. They addresses the crashing-when-saving issues and add netplay. In my limited testing, the netplay in this Carbon beta works much better than it ever did in the classic version. The reason for this is technical. SMAC uses NetSprocket, and relies on a feature called "guaranteed packet delivery" to send data over the wire. In the classic NetSprocket, this was pretty broken, and games would often crap out. Since NetSprocket is open-source now, I ended up fixing this issue when we did Age2 and SWGB (which also use guaranteed packets) and now SMAC takes advantage of that as well.

* I've updated the demo app for Jedi Knight 2 and put it here. When we did the original demo, it contained a snow effect that wasn't in the retail version, and the snow rendering went down a new path in the JK2 code that was only in the demo. This code triggered a bug on some video cards that caused totally mis-rendered textures and frame rates that were incredibly low. This new app fixes that, but note that you need the original Mac demo as well. So download that, replace the original demo app with this one and you should be good to go. This new Mac demo isn't an "official" Aspyr release, but I've gotten the blessing to post it here for the morbidly curious.

Also, Jedi Academy should be arriving to folks as early as today. I know that IMG has their stock now, and I got my boxed copy from Aspyr today as well. Make sure you download the 1.01a patch - it's got some nice performance improvements in it. We also put out a "bonus map" installer that contains some multiplayer bonus maps that Raven released a week or so ago. They're pretty cool - check 'em out.

Posted by bradman at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

With Jedi Academy out the door, it's patching time again.

A patch for Jedi Academy (yeah, I know) is imminent, and it should be followed by patches for Alice (to fix sound issues), Jedi Knight 2 (to fix some issues I caught in Jedi Academy as well as the accursed level-loading crasher), and a patch of sorts for Galactic Battlegrounds and Clone Campaigns to fix saved-game compatibility.

You can actually fix SWGB now if you have the original CD. Just copy the "genie.dat" file from the "Data" folder on the CD to your SWGB "Data" folder on your hard drive, replacing the copy that's in there. This issue only affected people who installed Clone Campaigns - if you didn't ever install the expansion, you're already set. Of course, the downside to this patch is that if'll break saved games that you created since installing Clone Campaigns, so if that's more important than having saved-game compatibility with the PC version, then you don't want to do this.

Further down the line, there should be patches for MOHAA and Spearhead to bring them in-line with the latest core code we're using in the Jedi games. If any other MOHAA-specific bugs come up, those will hopefully be addressed too.

But what about Alpha Centauri, you ask? Fear not. If you're impatient, feel free to give the latest (and beta, I might add) build a spin. It has, for perhaps the first time ever, working internet netplay thanks to the glory of OpenPlay's decent NetSprocket layer. I don't think this build works with GameRanger though - I'll have to work with Scott to fix that.

Posted by bradman at 05:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)

I saw a new trick today from e-mail spammers. They've managed to craft spam such that it'll pop open a new "reply" window in mail when certain spam arrives, even if my filters file it away.

It uses some kind of HTML refresh trick in the header of the message to spawn a reply window. I'd post the html, but my skills are too weak to figure out how to nest HTML in HTML. ;-)

Anyway, now I have to look forward to random outgoing mail messages popping up throughout the day until I can figure out a way around this. Woo-hoo!

In all frankness, just what to the spammers hope to gain by employing increasingly annoying means? Tricking your potential customers into replying strikes me as particularly bad business.

Posted by bradman at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The last piece of the MWSF 2004 trip has fallen into place - I booked plane tickets for Beth and myself earlier today. We'll be there from Sunday through Friday. Our intent is to hit some of the touristy things in the area in addition to MacWorld, as Beth has only been there before for about a half-day during a stopover. This will be the second MacWorld I've ever attended. The first was MWSF 2000, which was right when my first Westlake project, Alpha Centauri, was wrapping up. I've been to WWDC in 2001 through last year, but it's got a very different feel to it, obviously, and few of my Mac gaming friends and cohorts ever attend it consistently.

I'm really looking forward to it, and I hope that I get to see/meet as many folks as I can. I don't believe I'll be working the Aspyr booth, but I suppose that I'll naturally be gravitating towards it quite a bit. If you see me there, please feel free to stop and say hi, unless I look hungry or am walking at a fast clip with a determined look in my eye. :-)

I'm curious who will also be there - feel free to leave a note in the comments if you'll be attending so I know to keep an eye out for you.

Posted by bradman at 01:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Beth and I watched the new Battlestar Galactica this week on SciFi, and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed so far. I'd read some of the online reports beforehand about how they were "butchering" it, so my expectations were low. In hindsight, I should have probably realized that complaints about reworking something that - let's be honest - wasn't all that good to begin with were a bit misplaced.

It felt like a completely different, new and fresh series to me that happened to borrow just the bare minimum from the original series to share the name. Beth was most freaked out by the very butch and very female Starbuck, and I admit this change did seem gratuitous to me, but otherwise the series kept me in a suspended state of anticipation for nearly the entire 4 hours. I thought that Edward James Olmos owned as Adama, and I hope to see more of the new robotic Cylons than the brief glimpses we got at the start and end of the mini-series. The human Cylon thing was a neat take, although a part of me wonders if it was done primarily for budget reasons. I also appreciated the more mature take on the series, and I could see that it would benefit from not having to be censored. They did a good job of capturing the gritty nature of war, but I could see that they were running right up against the edge of what they could show on regular TV.

So anyway, bring on more SciFi - I'll watch 'em!

Posted by bradman at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A week ago today, we found out that Jedi Academy was approved by LucasArts, and I'm sure a lot of you read the PR yesterday or the day before about it, if you didn't see the mention on the Aspyr status page last Friday. This was undoubtedly a TurboPort - roughly 7 weeks from start to finish. Fortunately it went pretty smooth, and LucasArts was pretty instrumental in that. They deserve a pat on the back at the very least. :-)

Posted by bradman at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I've mentioned in past articles about my fondness for things that remind me of my childhood: Kenner Star Wars figures, McDonaldland glasses are two. And now I'd like to add Christmas to that list.

My parents weren't particularly well-off, but neither were they scraping by. As such, our Christmases tended to be pretty good, all things considered, and the memories that go along with them linger to this day. I can still clearly envision my parents' tree: articifial, green, Sears, and tall. It had these pipe-cleaner like arms, color-coded at the inner tip, that you stuck into a wood base. It looked pine-tree like and to this day stands as my definition of The Christmas Tree. We strung colored lights around it, some garland and we had a ornaments that we used for well over 30 years. Some would break, new ones would be added, but the tree today isn't much different from the one 30 years ago.

Yesterday evening, Beth and I started down this path. As a new family, we now have a new family Christmas tree. It's not too different from my ideal: green, artificial and tall. As a kid, our family tree seemed gigantic, but it was probably 7 feet tall, give or take. This new tree is gigantic - 9 feet. That was perhaps a mistake, but it's ours now so we'll live with it. It also differs from my parents' tree in that it doesn't resemble a pine tree, it resembles a fir. But we've strung it with colored lights, garland and a brand-new set of ornaments. As the years go by, I'm sure some will break and new ones will be added, but it'll probably look much the same as it does today.

My parents bought a new tree around 10 years ago - it's solid white and around 9 feet tall. They put it up most years in addition to the green family tree, but sometimes they only put up the family tree. My mom was telling me today that while the white tree is nicer, she's always thought of the green tree as the only one that matters around Christmas time. I don't think they'll ever part with it.

Posted by bradman at 05:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I guess this covers more than just the weekend, but what the heck. A Major Work Milestone was hit last Wednesday, so that pretty much made the rest of the week go smoothly. I think news of this will come out in the form of a PR sometime early this week.

On Thursday night, Beth and I went to Oregano's in Scottsdale. When Glenda and Suellen were here a few months back, they raved about the pizza, so we figured we'd give it a shot. All our prior attempts were met with 2 hour waits, so why not 7pm Thursday night? Well, what luck - we only had a 1 hour wait. :-) We toughed it out, but all the time I kept wondering - can this be right? You see, Oregano's used to be located within walking distance of my dorm at ASU, so I'd go there pretty frequently. I remember it being unremarkable, but a good value. Was this the same place or was I going crazy?

It turns out that this was the same chain, but they have altered their menu quite a bit since my college days. Their roots still show though - the prices are amazingly good for downtown Scottsdale, and pretty good for just about any place for that matter. I got the Cajun Chicken Pesto pizza, and it was quite the wonder. We ordered some "KickBUTT" cheesy garlic bread and were greeted with this massive loaf - it was close to 3 feet long, no joke. Beth got some kind of chicken pasta bowl, also huge. Size definitely matters. :)

We'll be going back, but probably to the location in Tempe - turns out they have relocated about a mile away from the place I remember, so it's definitely more convenient for us than driving into Scottsdale.

But enough about food. I got some quality time in with MacMAME this weekend, and a release is fairly imminent. Beth and I went Christmas shopping earlier this evening. Or rather, we went shopping for Christmas decorations. Our intention is to get an artificial tree fairly soon, so we hit up Target for some ornaments to hang on said tree. It'll be our first tree - we didn't have one last year. I managed to also find a super-tiny stocking at Wal-Mart that says "Ian" so we'll hang one over the fireplace for him. Beth found a much nicer, but non-personalized mini-stocking for Bagheera at Target, so he'll get to participate as well.

We briefly flirted with the notion of giving Bagheera a middle name that was more conventional so we could get him a personalized stocking as well. "Bob" was the best we could do, because it started with a B and sounded nice as a whole - Bagheera Bob Cat. I think I'll start calling him Bob now and see how he takes to it. Perhaps his psychotic behavior can be traced to a dislike of his current name...

Posted by bradman at 01:16 AM | Permalink

I've been a good boy this year, so I've got my annual wish list for Santa. In no particular order, here's a wish list of games I'd like to see brought to the Mac, with a (hopefully) brief explanation why. Most of these are pipe dreams, not games that are necessarily realistic candidates. I should also point out that I'm not the sort of gamer who salivates over the latest first-person shooter, or who plays online against a bunch of other people in the hopes of being called a cheater because I miraculously won a deathmatch. :)

1. Jedi Knight 1 (and the expansion, natch) - I'm a Star Wars whore and this game was the winner of so many awards that it's sick. It still hurts to think that it was actually planned and in development, only to be canned in mid-stride. Also, the original Dark Forces remains to this day one of the few games I've actually played through to completion. I can count the others on one hand.

2. Spyro, or a similar console platform game. I played the hell out of Spyro 4 for the PS2 over the break. The series in general has great visuals, great gameplay and a great sense of humor. Plus, it's not so hard that my unfrozen caveman mind can't win it. Most of favorite games have a sense of imagination and "unrealism" to them that draw me in and immerse me. I'd be delighted if this genre of game could take hold on the Mac and compete favorably with consoles, but that's unlikely to ever happen. But as my dreams involve nothing less than total Mac gaming world domination, I'd be remiss to leave this out.

3. Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind (and the expansions). Here we have some solid, modern 3D RPG action. This is a gaming area in which the Mac has always seemed to lack, and I'm not sure why. Morrowind did well on the PC and spawned 2 expansions, so its absence on the Mac is puzzling.

4. Half-Life. I hate to even mention this one, given it's storied history on the Mac, but it's hard for me to ignore the game because the storyline is so engrossing. If only...

5. Monopoly Tycoon. I'm also a sucker for a relatively simple yet engrossing strategy game. I enjoyed the original Theme Park back in the day (thankfully it had a Mac version), and was fascinated by this particular game on the PC. The Mac gets most of the best-selling games on the PC, but not necessarily the best games. If the Mac had a larger market share, it'd probably be profitable to port some of these great, yet not-so-hot selling games over.

6. Grim Fandango. I love LucasArts adventure games. Most of the older 2D games are playable on the Mac now thanks to ScummVM, but Grim was a 3D game, and as such doesn't make the cut. It's a shame too, because it's brilliantly funny.

7. System Shock 2. I loved the atmosphere of the first one, and this one doesn't pull any punches either. I'm extremely jealous that Glenda and Ken got to do the Mac port of the first one, although I probably would have felt differently had I been working on it. ;)

8. The Ultima series of games, by Origin. Oddly, Ultima 3 is the only one that has ever made it to the Mac in a commercial capacity, and then twice! I've heard that Ultima 2 was made for B&W Macs, but I don't have any confirmation of that. If someone can confirm that (or wants to sell me a copy!) I'd be interested. Unofficially, folks are working on reverse-engineering playable versions of Ultima 4, Ultima 6 and Ultima 7, and of course most are playable via emulation anyway.

9. Need for Speed series. Gorgeous and a blast to play. The less said about this, the better.

10. Crimson Skies. What a fun game, and what an original concept. I don't really like flight sims, but this is one amazing exception.

So that's it. What you didn't see in that list is probably intentional: I have no interest in World War 2 first-person shooters or, really, any military/realistic shooter. Those aren't my bag, baby and they have plenty of supporters (and sales) as it is. I'd rather see Mac gaming diversify a bit and add some games with some imagination to them. Ultimately, that won't happen until the Mac market share grows enough to support those titles, but a man can dream, can't he? :)

Posted by bradman at 12:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)