07/05/2002-08/05/2002 @00:49:41 ^01:45:07

...Until dead imps dribble out of the monitor!

AKA more Doom stuff

I should have posted this yesterday. But Freedoom has updated. Apparently they've done all the patches (i.e. wall textures) now. Earlier I visited the site and it had gone a bit wonky, I don't know why but I just took another look and it's working once more (I was hit number 11000! Cool, nice round number:-) - yeah, while I think about it, click on the counter, it's a really nice web stats page; Felix, you will love this, trust me:-) )

Freedoom is a project to clone the entire Doom and Doom II IWAD files and make them "Free", for inclusion on Linux CDs and the like, so you don't have to buy the game to play PWADs. I think it is a fantastic idea. The wall textures, and flats (floors/ceiling graphics) are all really good. However I'm not so sure about the sounds, and sprites (monsters, weapons etc.) replacements though. In particular NOTHING will ever be as good as the original DSGETPOW (sound you get when you pick up a large powerup, like a soulsphere) I've made whole tracks out of that, it's so beautiful. Still, never mind; I have the original IWADs, I can mix and match...

Moving on to today, for some reason I decided to create a user profile for the Doomworld forums. I might never use it but then again I might do. I like the way you can comment on news items. I think that sort of thing would be nice for this site but would require some dynamic content stuff that the server doesn't support and I don't know how to code. Oh well, just email me instead, it's not hard (although I do my level best to make it so, by using anti-spam measures and so forth)

Finally, in my version of the DIY source I have implemented a cheat called "the Golden Gun". It affects the pistol and is toggled on and off with a type-in cheat code. For those not familiar with N64 GoldenEye, your pistol will now kill anything in one shot. It's quite fun especially with very big monsters, and indeed useful if I want to do a quick run round an empty level but don't want to use the massacre function to kill every single living thing on the map.

There was some weirdness with getting the game to compile with GCC 2.95.4 (which was released for RISC OS at the end of last year) so for now I simply downgraded back to 2.95.2 because I couldn't be bothered to fix it:-)

I don't seem to have ever linked to DIY before. How odd. Oh well. I should really make a page for it or at the very least send my rather large list of changes upstream. And yeah, the fact that it's a port of the Doom engine to RISC OS, and works best with RISC OS (although does compile on various unix-type platforms) and contains lots of my personal customisations is one of the reasons I don't want to move my Doom stuff onto my new system just yet.

PS If you're wondering where you've heard that dead imps phrase before see the 2001 review. Also while I'm linking to stuff, go and read Planet of the Imps NOW. It's HILARIOUS. I think numbers 88 and 92 are especially funny.

To post to AAW or not to post to AAW

I was faced with an unusual question earlier today. I read a post on AAW and I thought, "I could follow up to this but is it worth it?"

This is remarkable. A year ago I'd've just pressed the followup key and got on with it. It just goes to show how your habits can change. There are a number of reasons, I'm not in the habit of posting so much these days, never mind all the times I've posted something over the past year and been flamed/ostracised for it, or the "gap" before I got the modem connection at home. But you know. Just struck me as weird, that's all.

Fox network special "when fingers get caught on furniture"

Why is it that recently I keep catching bits of myself on fixtures and fittings?

Only this evening I reached down to put a saucepan back under the cupboard under the sink and got my jumper caught on the gorgeous leopardskin print doorknob behind me.

Worse, I caught my finger on the shelf in one of the cupboards above the cooker as I reached in and took the skin off.

I'm not clumsy! Why do these things keep happening, damnit?