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Majiang, or GunShy? by tepples · 2007-10-17 07:09 · Score: 1 · on PC The #1 Choice For Kids Gaming

I agree that a game doesn't have to teach letters or words to be considered "educational". Other skills are just as important as, if not being outright prerequisites to, reading -- take pattern-matching for example. My 5-year-old is doing quite well recognizing the same words over and over in a book, and he rocks at MahJongg. By "MahJongg", do you mean the actual game of mahjong, or do you mean mahjong solitaire, the tile-matching game that has been distributed for computers under such names as "Shanghai", "Taipei", or "GunShy"? And has he tried other pattern-recognition games like Lockjaw Tetromino Game?

Re:Best game ever... by tepples · 2007-10-13 05:35 · Score: 1 · on A Case for Video Game Remakes

I do remember a clone called psycopong, where if you missed to whole table started to spin, and the more you missed the faster it went, so after a while, you couldn't tell what was going on anyway. Are you sure you aren't recalling TOD, a tetromino game?

And so is decompression by tepples · 2007-10-11 01:12 · Score: 1 · on Gaming Usability 101

Yeah, because GBA and DS games don't have unskippable logos... Granted about the GBA, which uses a word-addressed storage. The DS card, on the other hand, is a block device, a medium that resembles a hard drive, optical drive, or USB flash drive more than it does a traditional Game Pak. So it does have loading. Besides, on a platform with such a slow CPU, it takes time to decompress assets such as a JPEG title screen.

Why C++ is ++ungood in some apps by tepples · 2007-10-10 23:56 · Score: 1 · on The Evolution of Language

double plus ungood ? What does that say about GNU C double plus, where hello world using statically linked iostream entirely fills the 256 KB RAM of a handheld device?

Excusably crippled? by tepples · 2007-10-02 08:53 · Score: 1 · on Jericho Won't Be Edited For Germany

And FPS with no jumping makes mee feel inexcusably crippled Just be glad you aren't playing as this guy. Would that be "excusably crippled"?

but where are the mines? by tepples · 2007-10-01 07:31 · Score: 1 · on PSP Slim Debuts To Big Sales in Japan

I still get more mileage out of my PSP playing homebrew and old ROMS[1] than any official PSP releases. (Although Lumines is great.) Great for the gameplay, or great for modding 3.50 firmware PSPs?

[1](NES/SNES/SMS ROMS of games I own, for the legally concerned.) What kind of copier did you use to dump them from your cartridges? (UMG v. MP3.com)

Lockjaw by tepples · 2007-09-07 03:54 · Score: 1 · on Name Your Favorite Bloat-Free Software

Lockjaw is much less bloated than Tetris Worlds, Tetris Elements, or Tetris Zone. It's also much less broken if you set it so.

Size of iostream? by tepples · 2007-08-13 01:00 · Score: 3, Interesting · on The Future of C++ As Seen By Its Creator

Good afternoon everybody, I would like to start by including iostream.h into the discussion.

After this we can get onto the main proceedings which might or might not return anything.

We move to the future by emitting a string of "Hello world" before returning zero.

This is the end of the discussion I hope it was informative. Yes, all quarter megabyte of it. A Hello World program that uses <iostream> has been seen to take nearly that much space when compiled with g++ and linked statically with GNU libstdc++, on fairly recent versions of both MinGW and devkitARM toolchains. Compare this to an equivalent program that uses only <cstdio>, at under 6 kilobytes each. (Actual source code, binaries, and makefiles are available on request.) This hurts especially on one of the platforms that devkitARM supports, which has only 262,144 bytes of program RAM and no suitable shared library mechanism. There are some people who claim to have reduced libstdc++'s <iostream> overhead by a factor of four, but they're not revealing how they did it other than a vague "RTFM".

Size of iostream? by tepples · 2007-08-13 01:00 · Score: 3, Interesting · on The Future of C++ As Seen By Its Creator

Good afternoon everybody, I would like to start by including iostream.h into the discussion.

After this we can get onto the main proceedings which might or might not return anything.

We move to the future by emitting a string of "Hello world" before returning zero.

This is the end of the discussion I hope it was informative. Yes, all quarter megabyte of it. A Hello World program that uses <iostream> has been seen to take nearly that much space when compiled with g++ and linked statically with GNU libstdc++, on fairly recent versions of both MinGW and devkitARM toolchains. Compare this to an equivalent program that uses only <cstdio>, at under 6 kilobytes each. (Actual source code, binaries, and makefiles are available on request.) This hurts especially on one of the platforms that devkitARM supports, which has only 262,144 bytes of program RAM and no suitable shared library mechanism. There are some people who claim to have reduced libstdc++'s <iostream> overhead by a factor of four, but they're not revealing how they did it other than a vague "RTFM".

You forgot Tetris clone after Tetris clone by tepples · 2007-08-07 10:51 · Score: 1 · on NES Emulator for iPhone Emerges

It seems that, for any device that comes out these days, we first see the NES emulator, then other emulators. This is then followed by ports of Doom, Heretic, Hexen, and maybe Duke3D. This is then followed by Linux, Quake, and Descent. You forgot the obligatory Tetris clone, then the Tetris clone with some gimmick related to an uncommon hardware feature, then the Tetris clone with two dozen different options for house rules...

You forgot Tetris clone after Tetris clone by tepples · 2007-08-07 10:51 · Score: 1 · on NES Emulator for iPhone Emerges

It seems that, for any device that comes out these days, we first see the NES emulator, then other emulators. This is then followed by ports of Doom, Heretic, Hexen, and maybe Duke3D. This is then followed by Linux, Quake, and Descent. You forgot the obligatory Tetris clone, then the Tetris clone with some gimmick related to an uncommon hardware feature, then the Tetris clone with two dozen different options for house rules...

Re:I'm curious... by tepples · 2007-07-26 22:14 · Score: 1 · on Project Arcade

Does the book out anywhere that abandonware is a myth and that unless you already own an arcades' worth of authentic machines this project will involve copyright infringement? Only if you mention MAME by name. You aren't infringing copyright if you play free software on your cabinet. For example, you don't need to pirate Arika's Tetris The Absolute if you have Lockjaw.

Because maybe they actually like Lumines? by tepples · 2007-07-24 03:27 · Score: 2, Insightful · on Price Cut Leads To PS3, PSP Sales Boost

I got one with the thought that there was no downgrader in sight for the 3.51 firmware, which would most definitely be shipped on the new model. Mine came with 3.40 Is there a way for an individual customer to get a retail store to let him check the firmware version on a PSP before buying it?

PROTIP: hay noobz you only need to use it once, no need to hog all the copies of Lumines out there! Ever considered that maybe they end up liking Lumines and don't want to try the GBA version in an emulator?

Re:Just some more... by tepples · 2007-07-15 08:44 · Score: 1 · on Vista Makes Forensic PC Exam Easier for Lawyers

For security, two of your articles were published before Vista was even released to the public, and the only relevant link just explains that if an installer requests admin mode, you can give it admin mode and it can do what it likes, citing a 'malicious freeware Tetris installer'. The article fails to mention that this happens in the same way for both OS X and Linux Three nits, by increasing importance:

Tetris brand tetromino game is not freeware; it is proprietary commercial software. Lockjaw is not Tetris for the same reason GNU's not UNIX.
Freeware tetromino games tend to be able to run without installation on Mac OS X or GNU/Linux more often than on Windows.
Unlike Mac OS X and GNU/Linux and unlike previous versions of Windows OS, Windows Vista has a heuristic for detecting programs that look like installers, and it automatically prompts for elevation instead of running the installer as an ordinary user and letting the program install to the user's home folder.

Re:Games!! by tepples · 2007-07-07 03:05 · Score: 1 · on 2008 - Year of Linux Desktop?

Uh... Minesweeper? How about Luminesweeper?

Re:if only linux had more games. by tepples · 2007-07-06 14:55 · Score: 1 · on 2008 - Year of Linux Desktop?

Sorry? What other games library is there on linux other than SDL? I used Allegro 4.2.1 to make LOCKJAW, and my friends on tetrisconcept.com found the source ports to Mac OS X and Linux to be trivial. So if you don't like SDL, you can use Allegro instead.

Because Lockjaw competes with Tetris by tepples · 2007-06-10 08:44 · Score: 1 · on Nintendo Wii Homebrew Contest 2007

The argument that the console manufacturers want their cut from licensing games doesn't stand up either, because they will continue to get their cut from those commercial games. If the sectors are additive, then that income is not reduced. Unless each copy of Lockjaw means that Microsoft doesn't get its cut from a copy of Tetris.

Re:Uhhh.. just do it? by tepples · 2007-05-04 01:21 · Score: 1 · on Writing Open Source Documentation?

Notice the only thing there is "About".. which is really helpful when it comes to figuring out how you play this puzzle game. That is, unless "About" or the package's README file gives the URL of a help page on the web that explains the game mechanics. I try to do that for my own free puzzle games such as Luminesweeper and LOCKJAW. Or is it that you are trying to learn the game while commuting?

Re:Uhhh.. just do it? by tepples · 2007-05-04 01:21 · Score: 1 · on Writing Open Source Documentation?

Notice the only thing there is "About".. which is really helpful when it comes to figuring out how you play this puzzle game. That is, unless "About" or the package's README file gives the URL of a help page on the web that explains the game mechanics. I try to do that for my own free puzzle games such as Luminesweeper and LOCKJAW. Or is it that you are trying to learn the game while commuting?

PSP firmware cat-and-mouse by tepples · 2007-04-30 13:52 · Score: 1 · on The PSP - Sony's Missed Opportunity

The PSP has some of the best homebrew out there! Even with the firmware version on the PSP units being shipped to stores? Sony regularly updates the PSP firmware, and each new version closes a hole that homebrew had been using to execute. Nintendo, on the other hand, hasn't even tried to block the NoPass + SLOT-2 homebrew solutions such as SuperCard+SuperKey that have been around for nearly a year or the newer SLOT-1-only solutions such as R4. You can get a PSP with a 1 GB Memory Stick PRO Duo card for $250, or you can get a DS + R4 + 1 GB microSD card for $175.

East Germany, Germany, advertising causes need by tepples · 2007-04-30 13:13 · Score: 1 · on More Than 1500 Schools To Deploy DDR By 2010

The commies are coming! Someone beat you to that joke.

What brand of dumper? by tepples · 2007-04-30 12:25 · Score: 1 · on 20 Years of Handheld Console Evolution

PocketNES allows me to play the large library of legitimately acquired NES games on my GBA. :-) What brand of copier did you use to legitimately copy your legitimately acquired NES Game Paks to your GBA card? And is it possible to go the other way? I want to get into NES development on the actual hardware, but I want a copier that can write my homebrew to an NES cart that has flash soldered onto it.

Winelib by tepples · 2007-04-23 06:18 · Score: 1 · on The Completely Fair Scheduler

You can't just take source from one architecure and expect it to compile on another Then how do apps compiled against Winelib manage to work on non-x86 architectures?

especially if we are talking about hardware limited machines. A lot of cross-platform PC/console games use the same game logic code (though not the same graphics engine) across all platforms. Likewise, LOCKJAW uses the same game logic on the PC, GBA, and DS versions.

That and Microsoft doesn't want you to use PocketPC Word instead of Microsoft Word even if the limited features suit your needs. So in other words, "because proprietary software is still popular."

There were a lot of people that lost their (parallel port) scanners during the 98 to XP switch because of lack of drivers. But Microtek refused to help the SANE maintainers make drivers for numerous ScanMaker scanner models while Microtek was still making and selling them. Unfortunately, there isn't yet much of a Free hardware movement.

Otherwhise just run to your local store and buy a new machine. I would if I had money to move to a town that had jobs.

GPL for games? by tepples · 2007-04-04 11:57 · Score: 1 · on RMS Explains GPLv3 Draft 3

According to RMS, using a non-free software is ethical only if you use it to make a Free Software replacement.

Let's see if I understand his logic right. Is he saying that using Tetris is ethical only if I use it to make LOCKJAW? So what about songs or movies? How would one make a free replacement for one of those?

Game consoles does not run code that is not signed by manufacturer, thus making it impossible to ever run Free Software.

What free hardware is designed to sit on top of a television, receive input from four USB or Bluetooth gamepads, and play interactive video games? Do enough Free games support this play method?

Another thing to ponder: Given the incompatibility between Creative Commons licenses and GNU licenses due to the credit removal clause of all Creative Commons licenses (see my Wikimedia Commons user page), what license should be used for a work that contains significant parts that are a computer program and significant parts that are not a computer program, such as a video game?

Re:One question: by tepples · 2007-03-04 04:43 · Score: 1 · on Mass Market DS Homebrew Cart Released

Did the homebrew writers get a fair deal when Datel took their work and sold it at a profit? Did the author of $RANDOM_LINUX_APP get a fair deal when Mandriva/Linspire/Red Hat took their work and sold it at a profit? If it's free software, like my own GBA homebrew projects, then Datel is just exercising "the freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2)".

SuperCard and M3 by tepples · 2007-03-04 04:36 · Score: 2, Informative · on Mass Market DS Homebrew Cart Released

Uhm, doesn't atleast one of them work for GBA games to? I don't remember which one thought, I guess the M3 simply doesn't. SuperCard CF, SuperCard SD, SuperCard miniSD, and SuperCard Lite work for GBA homebrew. (SuperCard Rumble does not work in GBA mode, and SuperCard DS One is for DS homebrew only.) CycloDS is a rebadged SuperCard. All "M3 Perfect" cards work for GBA homebrew. (M3 Pro has reduced features, and M3 DS Simply is for DS homebrew only.) The original GBA Movie Player works for GBA homebrew developed to run in multiboot mode, such as most of my own projects.

Tetris since 2001 is "broken" by tepples · 2007-03-02 08:29 · Score: 2, Insightful · on Ten DS Games That Should Be Made

It seems that every Tetris game released since 2001 is broken by design. For instance, Tetris DS inherits its infinite spin and T-spin triple rules from Tetris Worlds.

LOCKJAW, on the other hand, is exactly as broken as you want it to be.

Tetris since 2001 is "broken" by tepples · 2007-03-02 08:29 · Score: 2, Insightful · on Ten DS Games That Should Be Made

It seems that every Tetris game released since 2001 is broken by design. For instance, Tetris DS inherits its infinite spin and T-spin triple rules from Tetris Worlds.

LOCKJAW, on the other hand, is exactly as broken as you want it to be.

Playing a game for months on end by tepples · 2007-02-26 11:06 · Score: 1 · on Microsoft 'Refocusing on Fun', Alien Hominid Comes to XBLA

If you're playing a game for hours, days, months on end - you're not exactly buying other games in that time-frame. Well, in theory you're not. Explain Animal Crossing then. A player can beat it in two months, but you have to play it for a year to finish some of the optional objectives (golden rod, golden net). Yet Nintendo still sells other games. Does Viva Piñata also include calendar-based objectives?

Tetris is a brand name by tepples · 2007-02-13 09:16 · Score: -1, Offtopic · on "Very Severe Hole" In Vista UAC Design

From the blurb: "This means that a freeware Tetris installer would be allowed to load kernel drivers."

Point of terminology: Except for one PC DOS based prototype by Vadim Gerasimov, Tetris software is not freeware. Calling Quadra, Lockjaw, Bedter, or Emlith "Tetris" is just as incorrect as calling RC Cola or Coca-Cola "Pepsi" or calling GNU "UNIX", because it's not.

</anal-retentive>

Corrected: "This means that a freeware Soviet Mind Game installer would be allowed to load kernel drivers."

Re:New comers by tepples · 2007-01-30 14:40 · Score: 1 · on Next-Gen N-Gage Getting Ready to Go

The Nokia fanboy suck-up explaination I've heard for having to remove the battery to get to the game was to keep the machine from being on while running the game. That was an incredibly dumb idea. Anyone that's seen an original game boy would know that its power switch has a tab lock that prevents the game from being removed. If Nokia can't learn lessons from existing systems then they just stepped into the wrong market.

You're right, but I'll clarify: SD cards and DS cards are a block device. This makes it more like a disk than like a traditional Game Boy Game Pak. Therefore, N-Gage could have handled surprise removal of the SD card the same way that the Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2 slimline handle surprise removal of the medium.

Which US mobile carrier is homebrew friendly? by tepples · 2007-01-30 14:18 · Score: 1 · on Next-Gen N-Gage Getting Ready to Go

1. Alow and foster homebrew (aka Mame games). Apart from Gridlee and Robby Roto, the vast majority of MAME games aren't pure "homebrew", that is, free software or other lawful freeware. LOCKJAW Advance, on the other hand...

Nokia phones, and most likely most others, have done exactly that for like a decade now. Maybe your provider removes the functionality What provider in my country (USA) doesn't?

Re:TPM is anti-virtualization by tepples · 2007-01-26 16:11 · Score: 1 · on AACS Hack Blamed on Bad Player Implementation

What can you honestly run on your computer now without clicking "I agree" on an EULA?

Free software, such as LOCKJAW.

SLOT-2 cards allow use of GBA homebrew by tepples · 2007-01-24 08:23 · Score: 1 · on January DS Homebrew Overview

The move to slot one is kinda disapointing for me as I just was given a slot-2/passme set up

The advantage of SLOT-2 is that most SLOT-2 cards allow you to run homebrew designed for GBA compatibility mode as well, such as TOD, Luminesweeper, LOCKJAW, and everything else I've made. The SD cards for SLOT-2 adapters are also significantly cheaper at Staples than the microSD cards for SLOT-1 adapters.