Tag Archives: Video Games

Jul 11 2006
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Myst V on Intel

I have an intel-based mac, and I am trying to install Myst V on it. Even though the game is Mac compatible, it was never made to run on mac Intel chips, and thus the problems. Ubisoft released a patch, but it really does not work. I have tried almost every method suggested to me so far, and the most useful have been the new patcher, and the following hack. The patcher does basically all this for you, but this is an explaination of it.
(Note- I did not figure this out. It is taken from Luis Carlson’s Technoblog. The specific post can be found here. I have modified it a bit to work better, but other than that it’s all his)

The following information is not to be used by anyone because the EULA might prevent you from doing so. It is for informational purposes only and mainly takes place on the command line within the Terminal.

cd ~
mkdir myst5 && cd myst5
jar xfv /Volumes/Myst\ V\ EOA/setup.jar
cp -r /Volumes/Myst\ V\ EOA/support .

at this point, type ls and look for a long string of letters and numbers. copy this.

cp -r /Volumes/Myst\ V\ EOA/setup/INSERT LONG STRING HERE/md5 INSERT LONG STRING HERE, TOO
curl -O http://www.kpdus.com/jad/macosx/jadap158.zip
unzip jadap158.zip
./jad com/installshield/wizard/service/file/PureJavaFileServiceImpl.class
open -t PureJavaFileServiceImpl.jad

Look for public String[] getPartitionNames(). This is the place that caused the pesky error. What happened is that Intel Macs currently are missing a Java library that will provide the installer with a list of partitions for the computer. All we have to do is hard code that list and we are home free. Change it to look as follows.

public String[] getPartitionNames()
throws ServiceException
{
String as[] = new String[2];
as[0] = “/”;
as[1] = “/Volumes/Myst V EOA”;
return as;
}

Save and close the file. Back to the command line.

mv PureJavaFileServiceImpl.ja{d,va}
javac PureJavaFileServiceImpl.java
cp PureJavaFileServiceImpl.class com/installshield/wizard/service/file/
java run

Now, in the event that it creates a binary which doesn’t work, uninstall myst v (leave the /myst5 directory you made), and just run the installer from the disc. Because we changed something in Java, it should now work correctly. 🙂 Happy Myst’ing!

Eh, screw that. Nevermind, as the above obviously does not work.

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Jul 10 2006
2 Comments
Life in general

More Reasons Ubisoft Sucks.

Being a Myst fan, I obviously hate Ubisoft. For those who don’t know or understand why, it’s becuase they were the publishers Cyan Worlds was working for for a long time. They own the rights to Myst III, IV, and have the licences for V. They were the ones who originally published Uru Live, and pulled it’s funding when not enough people signed up for it.

They’re the ones who are responsible for what happened to Cyan Worlds in September of last year.

They have manufactured an anti-piracy program which has the ability to shut down your computer if it suspects piracy. And that means if you have the disc in one drive and are burning another disc in another drive, it will shut down your computer, potentially doing lots of damage.

This is the huge capitalist pig of a game publisher.

And on to today’s topic, their support. The support form I filled out to get help with installing Myst V on my mac (read the next post for info on that) is pretty good. They have a platform selector (with every platform they publish games on, which is virtually every one), and then a game selector, then a selector for the type of problem. I filled this out neatly, and proceeded to tell them my story and ask for help. I must have mentioned the fact that I’m trying to use their stupid patcher to get it to install on my INTEL BASED MAC at least 4 times.

I just now received a reply from them (very prompt, congrats), which was somewhat confusing. Here’s a sample.

– Updating your video drivers:

Please visit your sound, video, and 3D card manufacturer’s websites for the most recently available drivers for the components in your system.
Major video chipset manufacturers web sites:

http://www.nvidia.com – GeForce/TNT/Riva/Vanta/Etc models
http://www.ati.com – Radeon/Rage Pro/Rage 128 Pro/Etc models
http://www.3dfx.com – All Voodoo model cards
http://www.s3graphics.com – All Savage model cards
http://www.matrox.com – G200/G400 models

Once you have downloaded and installed these drivers according to the manufacturer’s suggestions then follow the next step.

– Updating your Directx:
Download and install DirectX from http://www.microsoft.com/directx. For more help with this, please search the Ubi Soft Database for how to update drivers.

– Please check to see if there is a patch available for your game at http://support.ubi.com/patches.php

This is ridiculous, because my software updater automagically updates my drivers (all of them). That’s a link to www.MICROSOFT.com, the guys who make WINDOWS?! Oh wait, theres a patch available! Oh that’s right, THE PATCH IS WHAT I’M COMPLAINING ABOUT. Another sample:

– Try running the game from the executable
Instead of starting the game from the start menu or the Autorun menu, try running the game from the executable file in the game’s installation directory.

– Close all programs running in the background
To do this in XP:
Go to the Start menu, and choose Run. Delete anything on the Open line that you’ll find there, and type in the work MSCONFIG. Click on OK, and that will bring up a program called the System Configuration Utility.

Look down the list of startup items (not the tab labeled Startup), and choose Selective Startup (if it is not already selected). If you don’t see this, make sure you’ve clicked on General, near the top of the window. Once you’ve chosen Selective Startup, uncheck ‘Load Startup Items’, and leave ‘Process System.INI file’ and ‘Process Win.INI file’ checked. Once you’re done here, click OK, and let it reboot your computer.

Look at that. Last time I checked, Mac OS X does not have an Autorun menu. Last time I checked, there is no Start Menu or an option called Run to choose. Last time I checked, Process System.INI and Process Win.INI didn’t exist on my computer, and last time I checked I WAS RUNNING OS X 10.4.7, NOT WINDOWS XP, YOU STUPID MORONS!

I read the e-mail carefully, and not once does it mention Mac OS X.

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May 26 2006
Life in general

Holy Crap He’s A Fake!

Wow. Reading all these posts about the infamous PSP Fanboy/DS hater got me…frankly not that excited at all. I figured “hey, first amendment, right? He’s entitled to his own opinion.”

Well, then I found this movie. The dude completely contradicts himself. In other words, the PSP Fanboy is a fake. He fabricated both 12 minute long rants which are complete opposites.

Pretty smart, in my opinion. It provides a good look at the response of the community. The DS fans (read: fans, not fanboys…) are much more protective of their system than the PSP fans. Granted, the anti-PSP video was released 5 days after the DS, and only 3 days ago, but there has been no fanfare about it. Odd.

I’m not trying to make a point, merely conjecture. Pointless, I guess. This, of course, explains his lack of solid proof and the constant use of “look it up” in both rants. Now we can just guess what his real preference is. As for me, I’ll stick with the –This word removed to protect Zib– (tee hee)

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May 25 2006
1 Comment
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GodMod – The Game

Ok this is the “second draft” of the post I lost…

While I was sitting in school getting bored (what else is new these days?) yesterday, a great idea struck me for a video game. It would be called GodMod – The Game. It’s a flash-based two person online game, mostly text based but with a few animations.

I made this mockup image to help explain:


(yes, those avatars are temporary placeholders, not final 😉 )

The idea is this. You have 1 minute to type the most godmodding (see excerpt) description of your opponent’s death you can think of. This can involve anything you want, from Seppeku to dinosaurs to landmines to just plain fire to rabid hamsters. So you type it in Area 1, then after one minute has passed the entries are submitted (regardless of whether you’re done or not).

This is where the code kicks in. The program scans the entries for keywords (such as Hari Kiri, Dinosaurs, Flames, etc.) and key phrases, and scores each entry according to how many keywords were used and how descriptive they are. The winning entry is displayed in Area 2.

As a bonus, the winning entry is then animated in Area 3. The losing character acts out the description (approximately), according to what keywords/phrases it found in the winning entry. For example, if the word ‘fire’ was found, it would burst into flames. I think that the game would be hard to make, but very rewarding.

Godmodding refers to when a player describes the outcome of their own actions against another character. For example, player A stating, “A strikes B and B takes damage” would be considered godmodding on the part of player A in most situations. In the game, you wouldn’t include yourself in the description, just the outcome.

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May 24 2006
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Uru Live ‘Blue Sky’

On the Uru Live Website, under the in developement section, there’s that “Blue Skies” section. I like most of what I see, the vehicles, the guild system, etc. The guild system is a great idea, very much like the ancient D’ni society.

Then there’s the one I don’t understand. “Player mounts”? What are player mounts? I know the answer is lurking somewhere on the Uru Live forums, but I’m afraid to wade through the posts there looking for the answer, because of the fact that there are already over 4000.

Lastly, there’s the pets. Yes, I said pets. In Uru. That’s just over the top and completely uncalled for. If you want pets in a video game, play this, this, or this. Don’t pollute our great game with your furry poop machines, please.

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May 19 2006
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The Return Of The King

*Sheds a tear of joy*

Oh my god, thank you. Uru Live is back. Or at least, it is set to be back this summer (in beta, back in full in fall/holiday season). It’s going to be so awesome, and I will not make the mistake I made before in not taking part in the phenomenon. It is such an amazing game that I’m amazed at how dense Ubisoft is for taking it down in the first game. But still, they just lost a ton of money for themselves now. If they had kept it up, look how much they could’ve made. In the first day there were over 200 people signed up for beta. That’s 200 people willing to pay $10 a month to play the game they shut down. $2000 a month, and that was only with the people who signed up on day one. The game is now being released through Gametap, but you don’t have to have Gametap to play, and it’s going to be available internationally. Heck, they might even port it to Mac! 😀

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May 19 2006
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The Wii

Well, Nintendo has chosen the name for their next-gen system (previously known as the Revolution). It’s going to be called…The Wii. The Nintendo Wii (pronounced like ‘we’) is set to be released in the 4th quarter of 2006 (this was revealed at E3). It features an innovative controller design (resembling a TV remote controll), and has the possibly most mocked name of all time. Oh well, I respect their decision.

Wii will change everything. Wii will start a Revolution.

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