Author Archives: Peter

Video: Epic Pinball “Enigma” table

Posted on by
Reply

Before the advent of the Internet, there was the Excalibur BBS (bulletin board system). I discovered several boards based on Excalibur software after my family bought our first home computer. With our trusty dial-up modem squeaking and squawking along, I downloaded every shareware game that caught my eye.

One of my favorite titles from that era is Epic Pinball. These days, Epic Games is best known for the Unreal Engine and games like Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of Wars 2. In the early 1990s, they built a reputation for developing excellent PC games like Jazz Jackrabbit, One Must Fall: 2097, and Epic Pinball.

Thanks to DOSBox, I can indulge in nostalgia and re-play my favorite PC games of the early 90s in Windows. After discovering earlier today that DOSBox allows users to record video of DOS games and applications, I recorded a video of the “Enigma” table from Epic Pinball.

Click past the break for the video.

Continue reading →

Video: Raptor: Call of the Shadows – Bravo Sector Wave 1

Posted on by
Reply

In 1994, just a few months before changing their company name to 3D Realms, Apogee published a shoot-em-up for DOS developed by Cygnus Studios (now Mountain King Studios) and titled Raptor: Call of the Shadows. I downloaded the shareware version of the game from a local bulletin board system (BBS) and played it for hours on end.

I was impressed with the game’s cutting edge (for 1994) graphics, excellent sound effects, and fluid controls. I had played several shmups prior to trying Raptor, but the precision of the mouse-based control scheme was, in my eyes, far superior to controls for console-based shmups of the Super Nintendo/Genesis era.

I recently downloaded the shareware version again, loaded it using DOSBox, and recorded a video of my playing the first level with a trackball. Click past the break for the video.

Continue reading →

How to install a custom campaign on a Left 4 Dead dedicated server

Posted on by
Reply

Valve recently updated Left 4 Dead third-party support, providing players with more user-friendly methods of playing custom campaigns. Most people will be satisfied with hosting or joining local servers (i.e. games hosted on players’ home computers), but some players will be interested in playing custom campaigns on dedicated servers.

This brief guide will only cover campaigns packaged in the .VPK format. For technical information on .VPK files, read the VPK article on the Valve Developer Community wiki.

This tutorial is designed for server admins with remote access to their servers. Server admins with local access will need to make slight adjustments to the instructions.

Server-side Installation

  1. Download the campaign. For this tutorial, I’ll use Detour Ahead.
  2. Extract the downloaded archive file to any directory on your hard drive. In the case of Detour Ahead, the archive file name is 230609-bbls-detour.zip.
  3. Open a FTP client. I use and recommend FileZilla.
  4. Log in to your game server via FTP.
  5. Upload the custom campaign .VPK file from your computer to your dedicated server’s left4dead/addons directory. Click here for a screenshot of the FileZilla user interface for this step.
  6. Upload your addonlist.txt from your local Left 4 Dead install (default directory is C:Program FilesSteamsteamappscommonleft 4 deadleft4dead) to your dedicated server.
  7. Restart your server.
Continue reading →

Wii Fit, Day 7

Posted on by
Reply

My wife and I purchased a notebook computer from Best Buy in Feb. 2009. (No, the title of this post wasn’t a typo or an incorrect paste; this is relevant.) One year, 3 months, and 10 (yes, ten) phone calls to Reward Zone support later, I finally received the long overdue Reward Zone certificates last month (May). Since I am currently unemployed and since most items of interest at Best Buy cost significantly more than the total value of the certificates, I had decided to watch sale bills until something inexpensive struck my fancy.

I had also been eyeing Wii Fit for a few months, but the $90 price point delayed the purchase. (You can probably guess where this is going.) After confirming that Wii Fit was not on sale at any reseller, either online or B&M (brick and mortar), my wife and I decided to purchase the exergaming megahit.

We brought the Wii Fit bundle, complete with Balance Board, home last Friday. I read the manual and set up the Balance Board later the same night; my wife and I started our Wii Fit journey the next day.

Continue reading →

Recommended viewing: Natsume Yuujinchou

Posted on by
Reply

As stated in previous posts, I like to watch anime series currently airing in Japan as soon as fansub groups subtitle and release episodes. On rare occasions, I let an awesome series slip through the cracks and return to it later by chance or recommendation. (Dennou Coil is the best example of this type of temporary oversight.)

The purpose of my preamble is to explain why it’s taken me this long to watch the second episode of Natsume Yuujinchou, which I did today. Here’s a short summary of the series as provided by Anime News Network:

Natsume Takashi has the ability to see spirits, which he has long kept secret. However, once he inherits a strange book that belonged to his deceased grandmother, Reiko, he discovers the reason why spirits surround him. Containing the names of these spirits, a binding contract was formed between the spirits and the owner of the book. Now, Natsume is determined to free the spirits and dissolve the contracts. With the help of a spirit cat, his days are filled trying to return the names to these spirits.

There are few subjects that hold my attention as powerfully as mythology and folklore, so chances were already good that I would watch and enjoy this series. Natsume Yuujinchou does not disappoint, basing its plot on themes found throughout Asian folklore. For example: Knowing a being’s true name gives a person power over that being. (On a side note, the same is true in Egyptian mythology, as explained in a myth where Isis tricks Re into revealing his secret name.)

Continue reading →