[Mactels On The Horizon]

Sorry, this is an old entry from 2005. I was testing something earlier today which caused this entry to get bumped back to the top with the current date.

 

..Al

[Summer Full 'o Movies pt. 5 - The Incredible Hulk]

Speaking of oversized men, shouldn't the slightly-less-oversized Hellboy get a sequel sometime soon? Loved the first

July 11th.

I'm looking forward to that as I enjoyed the first movie.

 

..Al

[A new label. Starting Out.]

I also subscribed, so as to not miss future installments.

 

Thanks for much for taking the time to describe the thought processes behind the creation of artwork such as this, as well as sharing early versions of the work. While I'm sometimes privy to seeing a label before it's done, I don't get all the detailed commentary.

 

I look forward to reading and seeing more!!

 

..Al

[The iPhone's Killer App]

I agree, the SDK is going to be a huge boon to the iPhone. I will probably try my hand at developing apps for it as well. Not crazy about Apple forcing people to pay $99 a year to have their apps sold or given away free in the iTunes Store, and Apple takes 30% from any sales of your software. You're going to see a huge number of apps, it's going to be crazy. And this will certainly help spur new sales of the phone. I can't wait to see what people come up with! Hell, just seeing Spore running on the iPhone is exciting, and Apple even demonstrated an AIM app.

 

The enterprise improvements (and there are quite a few of them) are really going to be a big deal for large businesses. Hell, I'll take advantage of the "Remote Wipe" feature if my phone ever gets stolen.

 

..Al

[So this Bantha walks into a bar...]

Ugh!

 

..Al

[Getting Squished]

Marvellous. Thanks for sharing these WIPs and sketches

Agreed, it's great to see the original sketches and the thought process behind the design. Thanks for taking the time to write this up and share the images!

 

..Al

[Santa Claws]

That is awesome! Cats and Christmas trees. :) I don't know how many knocked over trees I've had to pick up due to a cat or how many ornaments I've found all around the house due to cats.

 

..Al

[Houston Area Arcade Group Expo!]

Sounds like you had a blast, glad you were able to make it! I attended the show several times while I lived in Austin (including last year), but now that I'm in Ohio it's not as feasible. Hope I can make it next year!

 

I look forward to seeing your pictures once you post them.

 

..Al

[Colony 7: Let's go Crazy]

See, instead of just cleanly overwriting "elevat" or "squish" with the newest version, Z26 is flooded with identical entries, forcing you to play the "guess which is the most recent version" game, unless you always delete the older versions manually

You can always just pass the filename on the command-line. Or stop using z26.

 

I also like having the date as part of the file, or at least a version number, when dealing with development versions of a game.

 

..Al

[Take 4]

Ah, David is reviewing more homebrews.

[White tomorrow]

You people living in Ohio are so lucky.

Not sure I'd say that.

 

..Al

[Squupdate 2]

Just ran it on a real system and it looks great!

Good; I was slightly worried since I'm using an illegal opcode that I'm not sure has been used before, LAX (ZP,X), and I wasn't 100% sure that it would work correctly.

I only tested it on one system (a 4-switch Atari 2600). I'll try the next build on a 7800 as well, and a few other 4-switch systems I have setup. Don't have any other varieties of 2600 consoles (6-switch, Jr., etc.) setup now, though, but if it works on the 7800 I am using (which has compatibility problems with some games), you should be okay.

 

Well, I'll tell you. Here's how it works:

Each building is ~48 floors high, with three monster types, 1 bonus item, and a suitcase of cash at the top. When you grab the suitcase you start at the bottom of another building with different monsters (but otherwise essentially the same). Each "wave" of monsters is a level, so there are 3 levels per building. There are 15 types of monsters, after that each level has random monsters (different on each floor). Each type of monster has a specific behavior, either moving from side to side, following you, or moving erratically. They move faster at higher levels.

 

You can lift your legs to avoid the bad guys but it is much more fun to position yourself so that when your legs come down they smash the monster. Monsters will unsquish after a short period of time and turn white, at which point they can't be squished again.

 

As far as I've ever been able to tell, the girders, monster positions, monster colors, bonus items, and the monsters themselves starting with level 16 are randomly generated and are not the same from game to game. One thing I have noticed is that in the A800 version there are always at least two girders to climb.

 

And that's it. It isn't very complicated or deep, but I've always enjoyed it - it just has some undefined factor to its gameplay that makes it fun even though I've played it a million times before. I think it's because it is fast-moving and the squishing of monsters is done well - it is so satisfying to smash those little bugs!

Thanks for taking the time to type that up, much appreciated. Just wondering, if your goal is to go up the building, why bother squishing monsters that are below you, presuming that you are already climbing up a girder and leaving them behind?

 

..Al

[White tomorrow]

Looks like we might get some significant snow at the end of this weekend into early next week. It's damn cold outside right now (the temperature has been dropping all day), and winter has officially arrived as far as I'm concerned.

 

..Al

[Squupdate 2]

Just ran it on a real system and it looks great!

 

I've never played the Atari 8-bit computer game so I'm not overly familiar with the gameplay. Obviously you need to climb up and press the button to lift your legs up over the bad guys. I assume the falling objects will knock you down a level or something along those lines? What happens when you get to the top? Do you go to the next level? Are the "ladders" consistent each time you play, or are they randomized? Do they match the 8-bit version?

 

Just curious.

 

..Al

[7800 Controllers]

I agree, I can't use those controllers for a long period of time, either. I generally have a 2600 joystick plugged into my 7800, and will only torture myself with the 7800 controller for games that require two buttons. I do have some European 7800 pads somewhere--I need to track them down.

 

..Al

[Colony 7: Birth of a Label]

I had to open each of these images in a tab and then switch back and forth between them repeatedly to see the subtle differences. Some of them certainly won't be visible on the printed label.

 

It is a great looking label, though! Can't wait to see what it looks like on a cartridge!

 

..Al

[Quart is in session]

I only now saw this for the first time. I love what you did with the poor Gingerbread Man!

 

..Al

[Thanks Al!]

Thanks for the kind words, I really appreciate them, and I'm glad you enjoy the site. Especially after all the headaches I went through today in moving the site over to a new server!

 

Thanks again,

 

..Al

[Squish 'Em Again (and again and again and...)]

Just ran the binary--looks pretty good so far! Coincidentally, the ColecoVision High Score Club is playing Squish'Em Sam, which is good because I don't believe I've ever played the game before!

 

..Al

[Squish 'Em Again (and again and again and...)]

Oooo, I missed your last blog posting, so I need to try this latest binary!

 

..Al

[I'm old!]

Happy Birthday!

 

Only 25? You're young! And you're making ME feel quite old!!!

 

..Al

[Brog Bloken]

I ran the update query on the server for you so once you copy all the blog pics to your server they should be visible again.

 

..Al

[Maybe a Vectrex would have been funnier]

Just wanted to let you know that I'm really enjoying these! Maybe we could feature them somewhere on AA as a (semi-)regular strip of sorts?

 

..Al

[Mac Mini]

The big drawback with the integrated graphics chip is that it can't run Final Cut Pro (the same applies to the non-pro MacBooks).

 

Is that a technical issue or another one of Apple's tactics to force you to upgrade?

I think it has an integrated graphics chip onboard because of the tiny size of the Mac Mini. Many high-end graphics cards are significantly larger than the Mac Mini itself, not to mention expensive. Even an older (but still somewhat powerful) design still probably would have taken far too much real estate on a circuit board, and these designs probably generate a fair bit of heat which is an important consideration for the Mac Mini. Also, the Mac Mini board is probably a reworked laptop design--same onboard graphics as the Macbook, uses SODIMM memory, 2.5" hard drive, etc.

 

I have two Mac Minis--an older PowerPC design (which I use as a wireless networked media player connected to a projector) and a dual-core Intel version that I use to run Windows (inside of OS X) in order to program EPROMs and other devices. Great little machines, but I would not do any high-end graphics related work on them. I recently sold my older Dual 2.0 Ghz G5 PowerMac (while I could still get something for it) and tried to use one of my Mac Minis as a temporary replacement. In the end it was driving me nuts as it was a fair bit more sluggish than the Dual G5. It just bogs down on some tasks I do a fair bit, such as sending large jobs to a printer..

 

..Al

[Mac Mini]

I have two Mac Minis (one PowerPC and one Intel) and they are great machines for their size. One of them I use as a media player connected to my projector and it works very well for that. I probably will replace that with an Apple TV at some point, since the Mac Mini does not have digital audio out.

 

As for a laptop, I have a Macbook that I use and it's quite nice. It will be interesting to see if Apple comes out with a tablet at some point. Rumors of that have been flying around for a while.. I would not be surprised to see a tablet using a multi-touch screen similar to the iPhone.

 

..Al