What game are you currently playing?

[N0t_mINe]

Holy crap, I fell of the transfusion forums again. Time to rectify that little mistake.

[Tchernobog]

I have always been around.



What I have not been doing lately is playing very many games, but I did just complete a casual go through Doom again since I got Dave Taylor's original Linux port working with the funky VoxWare MIDI musserver patch with my Sound Blaster 16 WavEffects card. A fascinating bit of hackery.

[Tchernobog]

War! Age of Imperialism

[Tchernobog]

Took another long break but I am back at it now.

[Tchernobog]

[Tchernobog]

[N0t_mINe]

I guess Haunted Dorm wouldn't make for good visuals?

[Tchernobog]

Something fun I might as well share here: I can get the old Linux version of Shogo to work on my modern Arch Linux install again!



It started giving me segmentation faults around five years ago, but it turns out that was due to a bug in the Gallium3D drivers that was fixed in April 2022:
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/issues/1924

There are still a few hoops you need to jump through, namely removing the bundled libSDL-1.1.so.0 file and then extracting the legacy libraries included in the Shogo-Libraries.tar.gz archive from the Blood Wiki into the same directory. After that set "MaxFPS" "60" in the autoexec.cfg file to cap the framerate. All arguably still simpler than using dgVoodoo2 to get the game working on a modern Windows environment.

Biggest problem is the bottom three arrow keys on my keyboard have died, so I had to limp through the menus with just the up arrow and set my mouse sensitivity in the config file.

[N0t_mINe]

What's with all these key boards dying?

[Tchernobog]

What's with all these key boards dying?

In fairness the keyboard I have been using is a Macally iKey from the year 2000 that I picked up from a local thrift shop in 2007 for a couple bucks. So all in all it has given me 16 years solid service. I originally just bought it as it did not have a Windows key.

Currently debating if I should take this as an opportunity to go mechanical and shell out for something like a Das Keyboard, or if I should lean more retro and try the beige Perixx PERIBOARD-106M. The Perixx has been very well reviewed for a membrane keyboard so far.

[Tchernobog]

So I have finally gotten around to trying to get through all of Heretic and HeXen. I had only messed about with the demos before.



I had no idea that the level scripting in HeXen could be so janky. The doors to the Heresiarch's Seminary refused to open when I first reached the hub, and instead I ended up having to use the Dark Servant artifact to summon a Maulotaur so I could hop on a pillar and then hop on its head to get inside. Then when I reached the final area of the Gibbet in the Castle of Grief hub the Chaos Serpents refused to spawn in after I killed all the Afrits. The level scripting for that room is infamous for breaking apparently.

I ended up just loading up my save from the end of the Seven Portals so I could unlock all the secret levels this time, and on the second attempt the doors to the Heresiarch's Seminary opened and the scripting at the end of the Gibbet worked without a hitch. I just have to beat the Necropolis hub now.

Other than that HeXen is very Blood like with its Build Engine like trappings so I am enjoying it. Far more than I did Heretic, which after the original three episodes descends into a slog.

[N0t_mINe]

Damn, damn, damn, damn!

It happened again!

[Tchernobog]

All is calm, all is quiet.











Last two games I played were two free software platformers from the turn of the millennium, U.R.B.A.N. The Cyborg Project and Worminator 3.

[Tchernobog]

In fairness the keyboard I have been using is a Macally iKey from the year 2000 that I picked up from a local thrift shop in 2007 for a couple bucks. So all in all it has given me 16 years solid service. I originally just bought it as it did not have a Windows key.

Currently debating if I should take this as an opportunity to go mechanical and shell out for something like a Das Keyboard, or if I should lean more retro and try the beige Perixx PERIBOARD-106M. The Perixx has been very well reviewed for a membrane keyboard so far.

The Perixx PERIBOARD-106M dropped the Windows logo for the beige variant and now instead has literal "Start" buttons, probably because people kept complaining that the modern Windows logo clashed with their retro systems, so I went ahead and bought that since I never wanted a Windows key for my Linux keyboard in the first place.

[Tchernobog]

Freaks! 2002





The backstory to this is actually rather Blood like, with you being murdered and betrayed and then rising from your grave to seek revenge. Then the second episode is set in space like Duke Nukem 3D before a trip to hell in episode three just like with the original Doom.