Sorry, I thought the CD version was released (along with LeChuck's Revenge) as Monkey Island Madness to coincide with the release of Curse of Monkey Island.
Awesome! Now, my MIDI sounds better than crappy FM MIDI on this onboard sound! Thank you!!!!!!:)
Er... you're using Windows, right? Windows 2000 and newer (and even windows 98 with WDM sound drivers) installs the "Microsoft GS Wavetable Synthesizer" MIDI driver. In fact, Vista/7 remove the option to change synths and force you to use this synth. I'm surprised that there are any cards on any recent version of Windows that default to FM MIDI.
Dunno about Win and Linux, but you can run General Midi.mid files fine with Quicktime. Must be using a software synth. Doesn't sound too bad.
Quicktime claims to use samples provided by Roland to play MIDI. At least it does for the PC version, I just assume that also applies to the OSX version.
Great examples: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and X-Wing.
LucasArts was one of the only companies I can think of to use them. They even gave the system they used for it a name (iMuse).
Having said that, I know of one other recent game that uses something like this: Super Mario Galaxy actually has two or more audio tracks in the same file for some levels, so that when you transition in and out of areas, it switches seamlessly from one to another. It's still not used for area transitions, though.
Gravis, you should never have been outsold by Creative.
Although the WikiPedia page for Gravis doesn't mention this, I heard that Gravis was working on a PCI version of the Gravis UltraSound PnP, but its partner (AMD) decided to stop making the Interwave processor it used.
Gravis left the Sound Card industry immediately after.
A long while back I got a Pentium 90 that came with some Turtle Beach card that used digital samples for MIDI (not certain if it was hardware or software, but it hardly matters).
Hardware. Possibly the Daytona PCI (one of their earlier PCI cards)... but I'm not positive on that.
You misunderstand... the year listed is the year said sound device came out, not the year it was recorded. Secret of Monkey Island supported PC Speaker (of various sorts), FM synths, and MPU-401 Wavetable output (used by the Roland cards).
A later version had the audio as CD Tracks of the Roland version instead, and the version released last year has recordings of an actual band instead playing it.
Each and every time the audio was different (though only slightly for the most recent attempt). Its crazy how hardware changes could make such a profound difference, since I assume its all the same audio code just getting executed differently. It's funny, because in '99, I thought I had mixed something up with the audio setup because it didn't sound right. No that was just how it was SUPPOSED to sound on a good audio card.
Secret of Monkey Island also has 3 different PC versions. 1. The original version, using MIDI 2. The 1997 CD re-release using CD tracks for music... but was basically the MIDI version recorded from a Roland device of some sort. 3. The 2009 remake, using digital audio... but it changes music between a version recorded from the original release on an Adlib card and one recorded by a live band when you switch between modern and classic modes.
The remake of the second game is coming later this year, most likely mid-June or mid-July.
Honestly, current soundcards utterly suck compared to the better ones from a decade ago.
Most soundcards don't bother to include a MIDI wavetable or even an FM synth any more. On Linux you need something like TiMidity. On Windows, you have the MS software synth (I forget its name).
So, to say Windows XP was the direct successor to 2000 isn't 100% accurate. More likely, XP and 2003 were two separate branches that started with 2000. Now, if you were coming from NT4, Windows 2000 seemed like a great improvement, for the most part. I was definitely pleased, that's for sure.
I can say that Windows XP Professional replaced Windows 2000 Professional and that logic holds just fine.
In fact, I can cover the major changes between the release versions of Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional in a few bullet points:
New GUI
Changed how CD/DVD Writers interfaced with the OS (breaking Roxio EZ CD Creator 5 among others).
Talking about segmented systems, how many were there? 10 different versions? More? I don't remember, to be honest, but how should anyone but the most interested enthusiast know what version he needs?
That an end user could get their hands on? 4. Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate. Neither Starter nor Enterprise were available to end users: Starter was sold to OEMs and Enterprise required a Volume License.
Aero was available in every version of Vista except Starter (and starter could only be purchased in "emerging markets"). Home, Home Premium, etc. all had Aero.
Actually, Home Basic didn't have Aero. That was the major difference between Home Basic and Home Premium.
microsoft became big by starting in the cheapo PC market
If you're referring to DOS/Windows, I'm pretty sure it was just the IBM-compatible PC market back there... as opposed to the Mac (that they developed Multiplan/Excel for), mainframes, and minicomputers. Their OSes work just fine on the i686 PCs of today, too.
However, embedded devices are an entirely different class of device, one that MS doesn't have much market penetration in.
You might want to ask on the AlliedModders forum if it's possible to create a new class in TF2. They're the people who make SourceMod, which is a pretty popular mod framework for Source games. I know the TF2 Zombie Fortress mod was written into it... as well as RMF Ability Pack, which gives new abilities to the various classes.
I almost forgot. Team Fortress 2 is not the only Team Fortress game using Source. There's also [url=http://www.fortress-forever.com/]Fortress Forever[/url]. I've never played CustomTF, so I don't know how close FF is to it.
To be honest, I'm not sure. I know if you own TF2, you can access TF2's assets in Garry's Mod. This is how most Machina TF2 videos are created. Garry's Mod also has a dedicated server with which to host online games (this is how the Garry's Mod version of Prop Hunt works). Having said all that, if you use TF2 assets in a Garry's Mod online game, the players must have both TF2 and Garry's Mod in order to play it.
Taking things you created in Garry's Mod into TF2 doesn't really work, though. TF2 itself is too locked down to patch in new classes. However, you can adjust their behavior with server plugins, as Zombie Fortress demonstrates.
On a side note: Valve uses their master servers to control new item drops in TF2 (which you are given at random time intervals). I think this can be overridden, but Valve recently released an update that severely impacted... hat mods of all things. Again, this only affects the TF2 side, not the Garry's Mod side.
I'm a little confused, the article spends a lot of time talking about how modders scorn newer games for the Source engine. How is this evolving?
I guess the author doesn't realize that the Source engine is continually evolving.
Don't believe me? Ask the Sourcemod people. There are apparently 6 versions of the Source engine currently in use in games. Here's the list of each one and which Valve games use them.
Orange Box (newer) Engine: Team Fortress 2 Day of Defeat: Source Counter-Strike: Source*
The Left 4 Dead Engine: Left 4 Dead
The Left 4 Dead 2 Engine: Left 4 Dead 2
* Counter-Strike: Source is currently transitioning from the HL2 engine to the Orange Box engine. The new version is currently in beta. ** The Orange Box engine "forked" last year when TF2 and DoD:S received updates that were incompatible with the version of the engine used by HL2:Ep2 and Portal. As I recall, this involved features that were ported back from the Left 4 Dead engine.
There are things like Prop Hunt (already mentioned), Zombie Fortress, etc... There are also frameworks for writing server mods for Source games, such as SourceMod (which in turn uses MetaMod: Source as a base). Zombie Fortress is built on top of Sourcemod.
Honestly, though, if you really want to get into modding with the Source engine, consider getting Garry's Mod. The catch is that Garry's Mod requires you to have another game on the list linked from its Steam Store page (which I can't access from work). I know Garry's Mod is also sold in several game bundles like Garry's Mod + Team Fortress 2 or Counter-Strike: Source + Garry's Mod. It is not part of the Valve Complete Pack, as Garry's Mod is not actually by Valve. If you are going the TF2 route, wait a few weeks as it tends to get its price slashed in half (or more) around major updates, of which one is coming soon... but that price cut is not always reflected in game bundles. Right now, half-price TF2 ($15) plus full price Garry's Mod ($10) is the same price as the bundle ($25).
In theory, if you have any valid Source game on the list I mentioned earlier, you can make a mod that just uses the base game engine. This is what Garry's Mod is, despite that it is essentially a framework for writing other mods.
The catch is that people wanting to play said mod also need to own the applicable game, or in the case of the Source engine, one game from the list.
f all of these "modders" would contribute to creating an open source game instead of nipping at the scraps left by commercial games we would have even better open source games in the control of the community instead of unrewarding idea mills for the corps. Not to say that commercial games should not exist. Just that it would be nice if these very talented people would be more farsighted in their efforts.
Well, that's just it: Mods are usually not completely new games. Specifically, they rely on an existing game engine that is, more likely than not, a commercial engine.
They may also rely on assets from the game they are modding (HL2's default textures, sounds, etc... for Source games).
Unless you can give them a reason to use open source game engine X over, say, the Unreal 3 engine or the Source engine, why would they use it?
I haven't played Prophunt for TF2 (I was going to recently, but Valve had broken it in a TF2 update), but I've heard the Garry's Mod version is much better.
Better yet, wait for Valve's next major TF2 update, which is coming soon (probably within a month) because TF2 tends to go on sale around major updates.
Or just get the Orange Box, which includes HL2 and its two episodes in addition to TF2 and Portal (although Portal is free through next Monday).
Perhaps there will be real progress in UI design now that Google is putting its resources toward that goal. I hope windowing systems die soon. There has to be a better design than a metaphor to desks and file cabinets...
Google's idea of an application UI on Chrome OS is a web app running inside Chrome.
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Sorry, I thought the CD version was released (along with LeChuck's Revenge) as Monkey Island Madness to coincide with the release of Curse of Monkey Island.
Er... you're using Windows, right? Windows 2000 and newer (and even windows 98 with WDM sound drivers) installs the "Microsoft GS Wavetable Synthesizer" MIDI driver. In fact, Vista/7 remove the option to change synths and force you to use this synth. I'm surprised that there are any cards on any recent version of Windows that default to FM MIDI.
Quicktime claims to use samples provided by Roland to play MIDI. At least it does for the PC version, I just assume that also applies to the OSX version.
Yes, and it's one of the few cards that do (note that I said "most" and not "all").
LucasArts was one of the only companies I can think of to use them. They even gave the system they used for it a name (iMuse).
Having said that, I know of one other recent game that uses something like this: Super Mario Galaxy actually has two or more audio tracks in the same file for some levels, so that when you transition in and out of areas, it switches seamlessly from one to another. It's still not used for area transitions, though.
Should have addressed this in my last post...
Although the WikiPedia page for Gravis doesn't mention this, I heard that Gravis was working on a PCI version of the Gravis UltraSound PnP, but its partner (AMD) decided to stop making the Interwave processor it used.
Gravis left the Sound Card industry immediately after.
Hardware. Possibly the Daytona PCI (one of their earlier PCI cards)... but I'm not positive on that.
You misunderstand... the year listed is the year said sound device came out, not the year it was recorded. Secret of Monkey Island supported PC Speaker (of various sorts), FM synths, and MPU-401 Wavetable output (used by the Roland cards).
A later version had the audio as CD Tracks of the Roland version instead, and the version released last year has recordings of an actual band instead playing it.
Secret of Monkey Island also has 3 different PC versions.
1. The original version, using MIDI
2. The 1997 CD re-release using CD tracks for music... but was basically the MIDI version recorded from a Roland device of some sort.
3. The 2009 remake, using digital audio... but it changes music between a version recorded from the original release on an Adlib card and one recorded by a live band when you switch between modern and classic modes.
The remake of the second game is coming later this year, most likely mid-June or mid-July.
Most soundcards don't bother to include a MIDI wavetable or even an FM synth any more. On Linux you need something like TiMidity. On Windows, you have the MS software synth (I forget its name).
I can say that Windows XP Professional replaced Windows 2000 Professional and that logic holds just fine.
In fact, I can cover the major changes between the release versions of Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional in a few bullet points:
He's feeding it Raid of course!
That an end user could get their hands on? 4. Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate. Neither Starter nor Enterprise were available to end users: Starter was sold to OEMs and Enterprise required a Volume License.
Actually, Home Basic didn't have Aero. That was the major difference between Home Basic and Home Premium.
If you're referring to DOS/Windows, I'm pretty sure it was just the IBM-compatible PC market back there... as opposed to the Mac (that they developed Multiplan/Excel for), mainframes, and minicomputers. Their OSes work just fine on the i686 PCs of today, too.
However, embedded devices are an entirely different class of device, one that MS doesn't have much market penetration in.
You might want to ask on the AlliedModders forum if it's possible to create a new class in TF2. They're the people who make SourceMod, which is a pretty popular mod framework for Source games. I know the TF2 Zombie Fortress mod was written into it... as well as RMF Ability Pack, which gives new abilities to the various classes.
er... Fortress Forever.
Bah, I spotted that I used a url BBCode tag and still clicked Submit.
I almost forgot. Team Fortress 2 is not the only Team Fortress game using Source. There's also [url=http://www.fortress-forever.com/]Fortress Forever[/url]. I've never played CustomTF, so I don't know how close FF is to it.
To be honest, I'm not sure. I know if you own TF2, you can access TF2's assets in Garry's Mod. This is how most Machina TF2 videos are created. Garry's Mod also has a dedicated server with which to host online games (this is how the Garry's Mod version of Prop Hunt works). Having said all that, if you use TF2 assets in a Garry's Mod online game, the players must have both TF2 and Garry's Mod in order to play it.
Taking things you created in Garry's Mod into TF2 doesn't really work, though. TF2 itself is too locked down to patch in new classes. However, you can adjust their behavior with server plugins, as Zombie Fortress demonstrates.
On a side note: Valve uses their master servers to control new item drops in TF2 (which you are given at random time intervals). I think this can be overridden, but Valve recently released an update that severely impacted... hat mods of all things. Again, this only affects the TF2 side, not the Garry's Mod side.
I guess the author doesn't realize that the Source engine is continually evolving.
Don't believe me? Ask the Sourcemod people. There are apparently 6 versions of the Source engine currently in use in games. Here's the list of each one and which Valve games use them.
HL2 engine:
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
Counter-Strike: Source*
Half-Life: Source
Episode 1 Engine:
Half-Life 2: Episode 1
Episode 2 (formerly Orange Box) Engine**:
Half-Life 2: Episode 2
Portal
Orange Box (newer) Engine:
Team Fortress 2
Day of Defeat: Source
Counter-Strike: Source*
The Left 4 Dead Engine:
Left 4 Dead
The Left 4 Dead 2 Engine:
Left 4 Dead 2
* Counter-Strike: Source is currently transitioning from the HL2 engine to the Orange Box engine. The new version is currently in beta.
** The Orange Box engine "forked" last year when TF2 and DoD:S received updates that were incompatible with the version of the engine used by HL2:Ep2 and Portal. As I recall, this involved features that were ported back from the Left 4 Dead engine.
There are things like Prop Hunt (already mentioned), Zombie Fortress, etc... There are also frameworks for writing server mods for Source games, such as SourceMod (which in turn uses MetaMod: Source as a base). Zombie Fortress is built on top of Sourcemod.
Honestly, though, if you really want to get into modding with the Source engine, consider getting Garry's Mod. The catch is that Garry's Mod requires you to have another game on the list linked from its Steam Store page (which I can't access from work). I know Garry's Mod is also sold in several game bundles like Garry's Mod + Team Fortress 2 or Counter-Strike: Source + Garry's Mod. It is not part of the Valve Complete Pack, as Garry's Mod is not actually by Valve. If you are going the TF2 route, wait a few weeks as it tends to get its price slashed in half (or more) around major updates, of which one is coming soon... but that price cut is not always reflected in game bundles. Right now, half-price TF2 ($15) plus full price Garry's Mod ($10) is the same price as the bundle ($25).
In theory, if you have any valid Source game on the list I mentioned earlier, you can make a mod that just uses the base game engine. This is what Garry's Mod is, despite that it is essentially a framework for writing other mods.
The catch is that people wanting to play said mod also need to own the applicable game, or in the case of the Source engine, one game from the list.
Well, that's just it: Mods are usually not completely new games. Specifically, they rely on an existing game engine that is, more likely than not, a commercial engine.
They may also rely on assets from the game they are modding (HL2's default textures, sounds, etc... for Source games).
Unless you can give them a reason to use open source game engine X over, say, the Unreal 3 engine or the Source engine, why would they use it?
I haven't played Prophunt for TF2 (I was going to recently, but Valve had broken it in a TF2 update), but I've heard the Garry's Mod version is much better.
Better yet, wait for Valve's next major TF2 update, which is coming soon (probably within a month) because TF2 tends to go on sale around major updates.
Or just get the Orange Box, which includes HL2 and its two episodes in addition to TF2 and Portal (although Portal is free through next Monday).
Google's idea of an application UI on Chrome OS is a web app running inside Chrome.