Again, since I don't have my own blog yet...<br />
<br />
I think my next game project will probably be a Galaga type game. That is, a space shooter with a simple starfield background, tight keyboard controls, and ships that have interesting movements. I don't feel any Mac games have really gotten this genre right. I hear from Psychotronic that Kaijin is popular, but I don't understand why. The game feels so weird to me. <br />
<br />
Anyway, I know many Midnight Mansion players may have no interest in a <blockquote>twitch</blockquote> shooter, but I'll be making it for *me*, to do something that *I* want to work on and play. As a nice simple game project that will be a break from things like Midnight Mansion, where I have to deal with legacy code, legacy resources, etc. And a break from a project I started last summer, which was a casual game that I hope to finish some day, but it was hard to work on because I don't really enjoy casual games myself. <br />
<br />
Psychotronic may end up being an alpha tester for this game too, because he also likes twitch shooters like Galaga.

I really should start a blog. But until then, I'll post my random thoughts here, in this forum.<br />
<br />
Today I tried Parallels Desktop. It's something I've been wanting to try for some time. I've had an Intel iMac for nearly a year, and installed Windows XP via Boot Camp when I first got it. Boot Camp is fantastic. You restart, and within 30 seconds, Windows XP has finished loading, and you can play the latest games, like Doom III, on your iMac. It really is like a real PC.<br />
<br />
I had heard that Parallels is fast -- nearly as fast as a real PC, plus you don't have to restart. That's nice, because restarting requires you to close open documents (I jot down the day's <blockquote>To Do's</blockquote> in Notepad, and then I have to find a palce to save this where I'll remember to open it later), close applications, etc. Basically shut down everything you're doing. Plus transfering files to Boot Camp is a pain -- I've ended up emailing them to myself. Parallels lets you just drag and drop.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, once Parallels finished installing, I found it was just too slow for me. Mainly starup, shut down, AND everything on your computer AFTER you quit Parallels STILL runs really slow! I probably don't have enough RAM for it, because that's the only reason why my whole computer would be slow even after quitting Parallels. I have 1 GB of RAM, but I probably need more like 2GB to avoid paging things to the hard drive. (Switching to any program results in a delay of 10-30 seconds while it pages that program's RAM back into memory.) <br />
<br />
In the end, I found myself wanting to restart after quitting Parallels just to avoid the memory paging. Which defeats the purpose of using Parallels -- to avoid having to restart.<br />
<br />
Oh yeah, I almost forgot... Windows XP is an annoying littlle brat that requires you to re-activate it because <blockquote>your hardware has significantly changed since you last ran Windows.</blockquote> That's right, even though Parallels is simply using my existing Boot Camp installation of Windows XP, Windows still requires me to re-activate it for the parallels <blockquote>installation</blockquote>. So Microsoft wants me to pay for Windows twice if I use it in both Boot Camp and Parallels. How lame. I remember reading about this, but I had forgotten about it.<br />
<br />
So in the end, Parallels just isn't worth it to me. It's actually far *faster* to reboot into Boot Camp than it is to start up Parallels. So that's what I'll continue to do, and I suppose I'll just have to keep emailing files to myself when I want to transfer stuff from OS X to Windows XP.<br />
<br />
Of course, Parallels is stilll a great solution for some people, especially those who need to transfer stuff between Windows and their Mac on a regular basis. I'm not saying it's a bad product. It's just not for me.

<strong>Helter Skullter / easy 1.1</strong><br />
<br />
Designers: joeb (= Matt and Joe)<br />
<br />

Attached Files

  Helter_Skullter_Easy.zip (Size: 19.53 KB / Downloads: 1)
  Helter_Skullter_Easy-HD.zip (Size: 19.53 KB / Downloads: 1)

A question: How can I make my own Midnight Mansion? Thus the Sprites, Graphics and sound modify, so that my Mansion on the High Score cunning is? <br />
<br />
It would be cool if it would go!

Hey Nice Mansion, <br />
<br />
But With this Game data and I understood it not yet completely in such a way...  :-[

Hehe, Who of you can play well ping pong? <br />
<br />
( Should one between-ask simply times in such a way its ) <br />
<br />

Hey,<br />
<br />
I have a new Cool Mouse, I bought it yesterday with an autoshow in Geneva  <br />
This mouse has it fully in itself  

Attached Files

  Cool_Mouse.jpg (Size: 19.53 KB / Downloads: 1)

Thx to the marvellous work of arevn, four Jack-stucks could be fixed. In the rooms 14517, 14729, 16501 and 16538.<br />
<br />
For re-downloading see the 3 lists.

<strong>The Mansion Family - Mind Mines 1.2</strong><br />
<br />
Designer: aquaMat<br />
Difficulty: normal to hard<br />
Rooms: 55 rooms<br />
<br />
Jack is leaving his modest house in the city to find luck in the hills. <br />
He has heard about a charismatic guy who invites people to come live <br />
with him and his <blockquote>family</blockquote> in an underground labyrinth in the hills: the <br />
Mind Mines.<br />
<br />
But Jack has also heard some <blockquote>less friendly</blockquote> stories about the man and <br />
the place. Some people in the city claim the place is long deserted, the <br />
family gone. A few voices even hint at darker things.....of creatures <br />
involved, of black magic and the family being not so nice at all...<br />
<br />

Attached Files

  The_Mansion_Family-MindMines.zip (Size: 19.53 KB / Downloads: 1)
  The_Mansion_Family_Mind_Mines-HD.zip (Size: 19.53 KB / Downloads: 1)

I've already posted this question in the Helter Skullter thread but wanted to get a wider response so I'm posting it here as well.<br />
<br />
What's everyones' thoughts on mazes? The real kind that you need to sit down with a pencil and paper to figure out. I want to add one to Search For Jack but I remember some negativity in regards to mazes. I will say this about the one that will be in SFJ. There will be a map before you actually enter the maze and. it will only be 9 rooms with no critters but other challenges.<br />
<br />
Thoughts?????<br />
<br />
Joe B