Pixelmusement 2014 Archive Last Updated:
December 20th, 2014

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2014 Archive

December 20th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #45 - Re-Themed Christmas Games

So I finally decided to take a look at some Christmas-themed games, but as you'll soon see they're pretty much all games I've already covered on ADG... technically speaking. These are actually "re-themed" games in a sense, originally being a particular non-Christmas game, but having new graphics, levels, or other assets implemented to turn them into a Christmas game of sorts. As such, I don't really have a lot to say about each, though I do my best to show all the pertinent details.

My secret game project is coming along too, though I'm a month behind due to ridiculousness going on in my life at the moment. Once things settle down I'll let everyone know what's been going on. For the moment, there's little I can do other than unnecessarily worry people, so I'm keeping my mouth shut for the moment. If things actually interfere with my ability to make ADG or anything I'll do my best to let you all know, but for the moment, ADG remains on schedule! :)



December 6th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #44 - Hollywood Heat Pinball

I think this video speaks for itself and I wrote lots of additional info to go with it too, so you'll all forgive me if I get this online a little early so I can go to bed. :B



November 15th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #43 - Wonder Boy in Monster World

Nothing too much going on at the moment, so I decided to take a look at a Sega Genesis game that I really enjoyed both as a kid and even nowadays. I was actually originally planning to do a Minecraft-related filler, specifically in regards to Feed The Beast, but recent major version updates and changes as such is having me put off doing so for the time being. It'll probably be the first filler to come out in Season 4 of ADG in February. :B

Since Ivxscape development is on hold I've temporarily (possibly permanently) removed the little bar at the top of the main page of my website. I really wish I could talk about my current game project but it's so incredibly unique and has so much potential... and is so incredibly risky, that I simply can't take the chance. What I can say is that I finished working on the foundation code I was originally writing for Ivxscape, so if I do go back to Ivxscape I won't be starting from scratch and will be right into coding the actual game itself! :D

Also, apologies to Patreon supporters who expected a livestream last week but didn't get one. My sleeping schedule was way too far out of whack to be able to offer one up. There's still a couple weeks left though for the month so I'll definitely find a way to do a couple! ;)



November 1st, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #42 - Cube World

I've been meaning to talk about this game for quite awhile now, but haven't really had a chance to get around to it and was also kinda waiting to see how often new updates would be. Finally gave up waiting for the next update and decided to just do a video. :B

I find Cube World extremely impressive from a programming standpoint. The fact that it runs a perfect framerate despite the sheer amount of polygons it's pushing as it handles an infinite world, combined with how much stuff it has for a game being made by pretty much just two people... Yeah, it's still an alpha, buggy, and missing tons of features, but I see so much potential here and have been following this project for years now. Heck, the whole "power" thing in the game is actually in Ivxscape too! :B

Though SPEAKING of Ivxscape... I'm having to make a very difficult decision right now. Ivxscape foundation coding is almost done, yet last week I came up with... well... probably my best gaming project idea EVER. It's such a good idea I can't say a peep about it, but I will say that it has infinite DLC potential, and that the program itself would be free and that DLC would be what keeps it alive and going strong. It's also something I can make and maintain really quickly given my skill set.

So Ivxscape is, at the moment, on hold while I investigate the potential of this new idea. I'll know in a month or so if it's worth pursuing. If it turns out to be a terrible idea, I'll just stick with Ivxscape. But if it turns out to really be the best game design idea I ever had then... well... I'm switching to it!

The good news though is that most of what I've been working on for Ivxscape has been foundation code, and as it stands, ALL of the foundation code I've been writing will transfer right on over to my new project! This is why foundation code is so darn important and why I really should've been writing better foundation code in the past... and why any of you future game programmers need to do this ASAP. :P



October 18th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #41 - Final Weeks of Season 3

Very short filler episode this weekend just to give you guys a heads-up on what to expect for November and December, as well as a little inside info on how Season 4 of ADG is going to work. Already have the first seven episodes planned out! ;)

Beyond what I talk about in the video, it turns out I'm not the only one having video issues in general right now. The latest Flash update also seems to have broken the older Blip player for some people (including myself) when using specific browsers and has also taken out Blip playback completely for a smaller group of people. If running different browsers doesn't solve the problem try watching the show from http://blip.tv/adg, which is the Blip page dedicated to ADG and uses Blip's newer player. I've mostly stuck to using the older player simply because I like it better and like that I can adjust its look to match the colour scheme on my website, as well as have "ADG" show up as the branding of the player in the bottom-right corner. :B

But it's not just Blip that's having issues. YouTube connectivity has been really sketchy for me lately. The highest throughput I'm getting from them is about 800 Kbps at best, even though I'm on a 6 Mbps connection and am having no connectivity issues with any other websites. On top of this, my connection to YouTube is constantly getting interrupted and I'm fairly certain it's a YouTube bug because what I've noticed is that, if I watch the progress bar intently, even with the video paused, it'll buffer a certain amount of video... then COMPLETELY ERASE its buffer and start buffering again from where it's paused! o_O; (Also affects when playing back, causing playback to automatically pause for a moment to refill the buffer slightly.)

To fruther cement my notion that YouTube is having issues, a couple days ago when logging in, my messages bell showed three new messages. I open it up, and there's at least a DOZEN new messages... and then it occurred to me that I hadn't seen the message indicator pop up at all for at least a week prior.

Yeah, so Blip is having issues likely related to Flash updates, and YouTube is slightly broken for me at the moment. HOORAY, TECHNOLOGY! >_>;;;

...hopefully all these issues are sorted out soon enough. If I find my own solutions I'll let you guys know about them in these news posts.



October 11th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 150 - Jazz Jackrabbit

Well, today's the last regular episode of Season 3 of Ancient DOS Games and with a little luck, I did this game justice. :)

ADG's nowhere near over though. Next week will be a filler episode to talk about what to expect during November and December, as well as what to expect for Season 4 of ADG, as there will be a slight change to the format to keep things interesting. ;)

Other than that, not much Ivxscape progress to report on, though with my off time coming up from the show, there will definitely be lots more to report in the coming weeks.

Also have something really epic to show you guys, but it'll have to wait until the first filler of November! ;)



October 4th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 149 - Star Control

I'm actually somewhat surprised how similar today's Ancient DOS Game is with its sequel, Star Control II, as both games share the exact same game engine and plenty of graphics. I was initially told going into this that Star Control was just a snazzy battle engine but I was surprised to see the strategy elements which were missing from the sequel. :O

...granted, even without the strategy elements, I'm actually fairly bad at the Star Control games. Not terrible, just not great. Oh well. :P

Progress on Ivxscape is still slow as I'm working on foundation code in order to speed up making games in the future. Having a solid foundation of extra functions and libraries goes a VERY long way towards making more games more rapidly! ;)

Lastly, after some muting and Content-ID nonsense with my Star Wars: X-Wing review on YouTube, the video is fully functional again so YouTube uploads will be resuming soon enough, though I semi-expect the exact same thing to happen to my TIE Fighter review. *shrugs* We'll see. :P



September 20th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 148 - Jetpack

Once again, not much to say about the game that isn't said in the video proper, though I decided to offer a download of the level I made during my run through this game, just in case anyone's feeling like punishing themselves. ;D

I did update the Alphabetal Index for ADG episodes though so that it would be easier to find specific letters in the list. I know having clickable letters up top would be even more helpful, but this was just something I did on the fly so it'll take a bit longer to figure out how to do that. (I may be good at coding games but my web design skills aren't exactly superb.) :P



September 13th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 147 - Blood
(WARNING: This is a mature-rated episode!)

Really tired so gonna make this brief. New episode is up and because it's mature rated the hint for the next episode is: A game made by the same developers who made "God of Thunder", which I covered previously, and while there's a couple games that could be, keep in mind I only cover requested games now. ;)

And... off I go to bed. :B



September 6th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 146 - Nitemare-3D

Nitemare-3D really is a tricky game to comment on, so I'm hoping I did well enough with this week's ADG episode. Only four more regular episodes to go until my couple off months which, just like last year, will each have a couple filler videos to pass the time. I have a couple fairly epic fillers planned too which should be fun. :)

Also fighting a fair-use dispute on YouTube right now over the Star Wars: X-Wing episode of Ancient DOS Games, which is why that episode's missing from YouTube and why I've temporarily halted uploads. Failing the dispute may destroy my ability to continue uploading ADG episodes given how long they are, but so far it's been over a week and there's been no response on the dispute so... no idea what's up with that.

YouTube really is a very stressful place to upload review-type stuff. To completely avoid Content-ID and copyright claims you have to pretty much show NOTHING of actual gameplay, nor play any audio from games at all, which makes the whole notion of doing a "video" review kind of pointless. The whole system REALLY needs some tweaking because I agree that some kind of system should exist to help copyright owners protect their works, but the system in place on YouTube often harshly peanlizes people trying to promote stuff or talk about stuff using only small pieces of copyrighted material, and that's just plain wrong. :/

I kinda don't hold it against Google though... The more I learn about the whole situation with copyright laws like the DMCA and the more I see Google trying to come up with compromises the more I'm convinced they don't want their system to be as vindictive as it is, but that they don't have much of a choice in the matter.

Another interesting development is that GOG is now offering indie movies for purchase and download. :O

I have to admit, I didn't see that one coming, but I think there's a lot of potential there. Mind you, every day they introduce new material and features their name "Good Old Games" becomes less and less relevant, but as I recently pointed out on a forum, there's nothing wrong with having a company name that only reflects how you started and not where you ended up! :B



September 3rd, 2014:

Finally have a new development journal entry up for Ivxscape. Most of the coding work I've been doing has just been foundation building which is why it's taken so long to get up to a point where I have anything to show, but the video configuration screen actually serves as a great example to explain many (not all) of the little things going on in the background which is going to make it possible to make the rest of this game MUCH faster. ;)

Also, even though Patreon support has dropped back below the $256/mo milestone, I did indeed hit it, even if only for a little, so I'm gonna follow through with the milestone end result of doing exclusively requests on ADG. Besides, I've already planned out which games I intend to cover between now and the start of Season 4 of ADG! :)



August 17th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #40 - All Things Pinball

Sorry this filler went up so late, but when you guys see the sheer amount of content this time around, and when I tell you I ran into numerous technical difficulties with the footage, it makes it a bit more understandable why this took an extra day to get up. :P

But yeah, I've really been getting back into pinball these past few months ever since I did my Epic Pinball episode. Not just from a software side of things, but about a month after making that episode I got a taste of the real thing for my first time in ages and it was almost like "coming home" as it were... like something had been missing from my life and now I finally had it back, as sappy as that may sound. :)

I've since joined the local pinball league and have been attending every league night I can to get as much play time in on the real things as possible! Kinda hoping to get to play just some casual games too, but that's up to the private owners to decide who to invite and when in terms of that stuff. The whole reason any one person would go to the trouble to own expensive gaming hardware like pinball machines is so they can enjoy them on their own time, but considering pinball is so much more fun when you have other people to play with, well... there ya go! ;D

In any case, I've got two weeks ahead of me which are going to be spent pretty much ONLY working on Ivxscape so I really hope to have some solid progress made before September begins. The project's been in the works far too long; it's time to really get it going! ;)



August 16th, 2014:

I think this is the first time a regularlly scheduled ADG video is going to be substantially late. This filler turned out to be MUCH larger than I expected it to be and I've run into a number of technical problems along the way, some of which I'm able to work around, others of which are going to require me to recapture some of the footage I need. So yeah, barring futher ridiculousness, the video will be up Sunday instead of today. :/



August 9th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 145 - Street Rod

Today's game originally comes from "California Dreams", a publishing label I'm slightly surprised hasn't shown up sooner on ADG, though to be fair, the only other two games from them I have are very simple ones, thus it's hard to centre an entire episode around them. :P

It's also good to be looking at something that's gone freeware. Haven't been a lot of freeware showings these past number of episodes. I really should try to squeeze one or two more into the rotation before Episode 150. :B

As for Ivxscape, I'm TECHNICALLY behind on it from where I wanted to be by now, though only because the work I've been doing has been testing my new GUI system and finding solutions to long-standing bugs. My next dev journal will go up when I can actually SHOW you guys the progress I'm making without resorting to screenshots from my dev environment! ;)



August 2nd, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 144 - Hocus Pocus

This is an incredibly nostalgic game for me and I'm kinda surprised it took me this long to get around to it. Funny thing is, despite how simple of a game it is it made for a normal length episode because of all the little quirks it has which I could elaborate on. :B

Other than that, I'm really close to having some solid progress to reveal for Ivxscape. I've been spending the past couple months simplifying the design, which yes, I know, it sounds like a waste of time to spend time simplifying a game when that time could be spent making it, but I'm almost done the simplification process and I managed to cut my estimated coding time in HALF. The Ivxscape project is now something I could potentially finish before the year is over and coding will resume within the next few days! :D

I'll have my next dev journal ready once I actually have a screenshot to show you all of the progress I've made code-wise. When I stopped coding last I was adding the finishing touches to my new GUI sub-system and solving a minor bug with texel alignment. :B



July 19th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 143 - Full Throttle

Nothing much to say about this week's Ancient DOS Game beyond what I've said in the video proper. :B

I should have another Ivxscape dev journal ready to go around this time next week so for those of you tracking my progress there be sure to look for it! :)



July 12th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 142 - BioForge
(WARNING! This is a mature-rated episode!)

...funny story. ADG Episode 60 - Raptor: Call of the Shadows is one of my lowest-rated episodes, probably because tons of people love that game and yet I'm one of the few people who feels it's extremely overrated and not nearly as well designed as it could've been.

With that in mind, the moment I started capturing gameplay footage for BioForge this week, I knew in the back of my mind I might be making one of my lowest-rated episodes ever. I guess time will tell once the comments and everything start rolling it. :P

But yeah, BioForge is kind of an annomaly to me. I really don't understand why people enjoy it so much and I have to wonder if many of the ratings it gets nowadays are just out of fear of downrating something that's been critically acclaimed, or are based on memories of the game as opposed to actual recent experience. Or maybe people just like the story so much they can forgive the fact that it plays so badly? I dunno. All I know is I couldn't stand this thing, but hopefully I gave it a fair look given my dislike towards it.

As for other news, I'll be getting back to YouTube uploads soon. I also want to make mention that archived livestreams are going to be uploaded exclusively to YouTube and not to Blip in order to play nice with Blip's content policies. I've got the first one ready to go, just need a good stretch of time to upload it and also need to prep the website here to have a section for them. :B

Oh yeah! Almost forgot, since today's ADG episode is mature rated, here's the hint for the next episode: An adventure game that has something to do with bikes.



July 7th, 2014:

Click here to watch my 1st Patreon Milestone Video!

Yup. I promised a commemorative video for reaching my first milestone goal on Patreon and spent quite a number of weeks trying to come up with something decent that could really do the event justice, and I think the end result is something very special and not something you could ever get with a typical television show or something that would be competing for ratings. It goes to show the strengths that come with producing an internet video series and just how different (and better) a paradigm such a series is. (Besides, I personally feel "television" as we know it will probably be dead in a decade or two as stronger technologies take the scene for delivering content to people.)

And of course, don't forget to watch the latest ADG episode on Starflight if you haven't yet! ;)



July 5th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 141 - Starflight

Lots of guesses for Star Control 2 this week, so you may wanna check the credits if you guessed Starflight and got a fairly large guess ID because you may've still made the credits anyways! ;)

But yeah, Starflight is one of those games that doesn't get talked about much anymore, even though it's a classic in every sense of the word and was one of the most popular games of the mid-80s. I think just the nature of how it works and how simple it is contributes to why it stays off the radar nowadays, but games like the Star Control series actually pull direct inspiration from Starflight, which is why it's such an important game to take a look at.

I'll be looking at Star Control 2 eventually. Probably not until Season 4 next year... but eventually. ;)

No recent progress on Ivxscape due to a lack of time to work on it. Hopefully will make some more progress soon. Still deciding how best to simplify the game in order to get it made faster without sacrificing the quality of the gameplay and the features that will make it interesting.

As for the quality issue with the filler video regarding Windows 3.1 games, Blip came back to me and said to just letterbox it into a 1280x720 frame to get the HD to kick in. I'm not exactly thrilled about that answer but there's not really much else I can do. I'll get around to doing that soon, even though I imagine most of you have probably already watched the episode despite the quality issues so it's not high on my priority list to deal with by this point. :P



June 21st, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #39 - Windows 3.1 Games

Very tired at the moment so not going to say too much other than: Yes, Windows 3.1 works in DOSBox and makes for a good way to enjoy those old 16-bit Windows 3.1 programs and games and such which don't work anymore on 64-bit systems. ;)



June 14th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 140 - Castle Master

Once again, nothing much to report on, though still working towards getting my first Patreon Milestone video ready. Today's ADG Episode is once again a gifted game too, as have been quite a few games on ADG lately. I'm really grateful for all the games which have been sent in as it's not only made it much easier to decide what to cover, but it also keeps me from having to dig into what I already have, the selection of which started dwindling around the end of Season 2, but now it's a non-issue since if there's a particular game I want to cover which I don't already own, I can just look into buying it!

Mind you, some games are really pricy, which is why the "Exclusively Requests" Milestone on Patreon is set at $256. Since my requests list is nearly 300 games long now, rest assured there'll be plenty of ADG to come! :)

As for Ivxscape, I'm getting close to finishing the simplification process, but I've had to set a lot of my progress on hold due to the milestone video I'm working on. Once that's passed I can get back to work on Ivxscape and I'm really close to getting back into coding again. Fortunately, despite all the redesigning I'm doing now to simplify the game, ALL of the latest code I wrote will transfer over. :)



June 7th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 139 - Rise of the Triad
(WARNING! This is a mature rated episode!)

Well, I had to cover this game sooner or later, especially with the new remake out released at budget pricing. Haven't played the remake yet as I wasn't actually big fan of the original, but having seen some footage of the remake I'm glad they kept at least some of the ridiculousness of the original game! ;)

Nothing much else to report on really. I'm a bit behind on a lot of things right now, mostly due to not really thinking through how much effort would be required to handle everything and thus simply not having the time to get things done. I sometimes find it amazing how much video content my fellow web show artists are able to put together... then again, they're not trying to make games while they do so. ;D

Yeah, Ivxscape is one of the things I'm running behind on. Still working on design simplification but at least the graphical design is in place so as soon as the design's ready I'll be making rapid coding progress. :B

Lastly, since this week's episode is covering a mature game, here's the hint for next week's game: It's a game which uses dumbbells to represent the player's health.



May 17th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #38 - E.T. (Atari 2600)

Considering I showed everyone way back in Episode 2 that I have a physical copy of this thing, one has to wonder how I went THIS long without talking about it! :o

Everything else to report on is related to Patreon in some way. Specifically, I've got a really fun idea in the works right now for the $128 Milestone video. I don't want to spoil anything about it because I feel it's an extremely fitting thing to do. The other thing to mention is that I do still intend to get livestreaming going at some point. I'm still considering the best way to ensure that Patreon supporters are the ones who get direct stream access as it happens, while non-Patreon supporters will still get to watch the stream once it's concluded.

No progress to report on Ivxscape. Presently simplifying the design down so that I can finish it before this year is over rather than take another two. On the topic of making games though, I added a link to the Links page for indie game designer Mark Incitti, someone I've met in real life and actually play pinball with now whenever the league I'm in gets together. He's mostly made recreations of other existing games, though one of his more original creations, AtomHex, is quite a laid-back game where playing it for extended periods is easy, but actually getting decent scores is the tricky part!

And yes, I'm aware of the coincidence of making Filler #38 immediately following Episode 138! ;)



May 10th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 138 - Macadam Bumper / Pinball Wizard

This game's been on the back burner for awhile now and considering I didn't have a lot of time this week to work on today's episode it seemed like a good time to cover it... especially since I only needed to spend about two hours playing it to get all the footage I needed! :B

A couple other updates as well. Firstly, the Q&A videos didn't really go over too well so I'm thinking of replacing them with livestreams. The idea is that once a month, people who have pledged $4 or more per month on Patreon will be allowed to participate in the livestreams as they happen, chatting it up with everyone else and providing suggestions for things I should do in whatever game I happen to be playing. The games chosen will be DOS games and I'll specifically be playing them how the stream wants me to, as opposed to how I normally would. After the livestream is ended the hope is that it can be archived so that everyone who wasn't able to participate will still be able to watch how it unfolded, that way it doesn't seem like I'm hiding content behind a paywall or anything, just the ability to interact with said content as it's made. :B

Still only just an idea at this point. I need to learn more about how to do it and run some tests before I can be sure I'll go through with this idea.

The other thing to mention is that I'm probably going to be making a paradigm shift with the way I'm making games. To put it simply: Making a web show takes away a lot of time which would normally be spent coding and the amount of time it takes to make a complex, feature-rich game is kinda ridiculous given how little time I have to work on any. So I'm thinking of scaling back my game designs to be much simpler, and in the process, less expensive for people to purchase when they're ready to go. Ivxscape is still going forwards, but I'm already trimming the design down substantially so a number of announced features will be disappearing or changing in the process. This doesn't mean I'll be releasing "cheap" games though, just games with fewer complexities. Remember, complexity in and of itself does not inherently make a game good or bad! ;)



May 3rd, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 137 - Under a Killing Moon

I'm surprised how many people sent in incorrect guesses for this week's game considering it almost got voted in for Episode 131. Ah well. :P

Beyond that, there's not going to be a Q&A video for this month. In fact, the Q&A videos didn't seem to really get any attention so I'm scrapping them. For the moment, I'm thinking of replacing them with monthly livestreams available specifically to those pledging $4 or more a month on Patreon towards my stuff. If any of you have any thoughts on that, whether you're pledging money towards me on Patreon or not, please let me know! :)

As for Ivxscape, slow but steady progress and nothing to really show for the moment. Still on track for an end-of-May pre-alpha, though we'll see how it all goes down. :B



April 19th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 136 - Googol Bonus Disk

This thing exists! :O

A fan of the show by the name of Bob Mackey recently offered to send in an old disk he had containing the Googol Bonus Disk games... There was no way I was saying "no" to that! Unlike the regular Googol Math Games which were freeware, the bonus disk could only be obtained from registering the software, thus copies of it are extremely rare, to the point where not even illegal download sites have this thing and there's no footage of it on YouTube or other such places. It's truly been lost to time... and it's about time that changed! ;)

Now that I have this, two things are going to happen. The first is I'm going to look into getting it archived and I do know someone who can help with that. The other is that, if by some miracle I ever get contacted by Paul Dawson, creator of the Googol Math Games, and get permission to release this software online for all to play, I am capable of doing so! :B

Mind you, as I've said before, Paul Dawson's pretty much disappeared off the face of the planet, but you never know... When I did my video on Amulets & Armor there was nothing in the works at that time, yet now there's a freeware release of the full game for modern systems. My point is: You never know! ;)



April 12th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 135 - The Oregon Trail: Classic Edition

Would've been good if I could've taken a look at the very original DOS version of The Oregon Trail along with the updated version I got ahold of, but alas, the original DOS version is much more difficult to find copies of. :P

Nothing too much to say at the moment. Making progress on Ivxscape though I will admit, out of all the time I spent this week not working on ADG I mostly just played games. :B

Don't worry, already getting back into the swing of coding and everything. ;)



April 7th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Q&A - April 2014

Thanks to all of you supporting me on Patreon, the first Q&A video is ready to go! Only three questions for this first one, but now that everyone will have an idea of how these videos will work, hopefully there'll be even more questions next month! ;)

I know I said this just a couple days ago, but if you want to submit questions for upcoming Q&A videos, simply pledge $4/month or more on Patreon and you'll be sent an eMail address to send questions to! (Or if you lost this eMail address, just send me a regular eMail and ask for the question to be answered in an upcoming Q&A video, and I'll also send you the proper eMail address again. :)



April 5th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 134 - Really Old Edutainment

Well, I may be very low on regular edutainment titles, but it turns out my 2000 Games shareware CD actually has some interesting ones on it worth checking out, even if they're really small, so I combined three games into a single ADG episode! :)

Also, don't forget that the first Q&A video is on Monday! It's a little late to submit new questions for this first video, but those of you who've supported me for $4 or more on Patreon can still send in any questions (and any KIND of questions) you want for me to answer in May's Q&A video! ;)



March 31st, 2014:

FINALLY... this took freakin' forever and was the most incredibly difficult design work I have ever done, but I'm pleased to announce:

Ivxscape Logo

No, this is not some completely new game that's replaced Vectorzone... though that's not far off. Vectorzone has BECOME Ivxscape! The new name is to help separate it from other games and things that have been coming out lately with the word "Vector" in title and there have been sweeping changes to the ultimate methodology and functionality of the game. So let's get some of the basics out of the way which you might be wondering about if you've been keeping up with Vectorzone's development.

The first major change was the story. The name "Vectorzone" was meant to alude to digital memory vectors and vector graphics, but "Ivxscape" is a shorthand word which stands for "Iridescent Vectorized Extensions Landscape". That third word "Extensions" is the key to this whole ordeal so keep it in mind. The one aspect of the story that hasn't changed is that there's a digital world invading the computer networks of the planet. The major change though is that now, instead of playing as someone operating a computer terminal from the real world trying to fight back against this digital world, you play the role of someone who's been physically trapped inside and is trying to find their way out! Might seem somewhat like Tron, but trust me, there's more to it than that, that's just the basic gist of it. ;)

The next major change is that the game is no longer an open-world experience. Instead, the game gives you subtle control over HOW the world around you is generated. Not going to reveal too much about the process just yet, except that it's similar to the Minecraft mod "Mystcraft", based on the Myst series.

Crafting has also gone by the wayside, but in its place is a much simpler system called "Extensions", which is kinda like a halfway point between a crafting system and a socketing system, like those seen in Diablo and Torchlight. Basically, every time has slots and you can install extensions into those slots to add new abilities to your equipment. However, each extension itself needs to be built out of various resources which you'll find as you travel, plus you need a template to actually lay out which resources to use to get a particular effect.

Other than that, all the changes from my original concept after removing the spinning camera are all minor. Heck, some of the stuff from back when the camera still spun are STILL present, such as the 16 different crafts you can pilot.

This is all concept of course, but programming has once again resumed and you can read more details about what I've gone through by checking out the latest Development Journal, though it mostly just reiterates everything I've just said. :B

Now that the major design work is out of the way, it's time to start churning out code! I've updated the FAQ for the game as well. As for when it will be ready, I don't have a clue. Any estimate I give you guys will just be pure speculation. I'd LIKE to have it done by the end of the year, but I can't even promise that. It really depends on how busy ADG keeps me and how smoothly the coding process goes. I am going to at least try to make an effort to get the first public pre-alpha out in May. Keep in mind it may not have all the functionality the last Vectorzone alpha had as I'm essentially rewriting a lot of code and only copying and pasting where appropriate.



March 15th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 133 - Skunny Kart

Very tired at the moment and today's Ancient DOS Game is one I don't particularly care about because of how bad it is, so I'm not going to dignify it with lots of extra text here. Hope you guys enjoy the video and off I go to bed. :B



March 8th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 132 - Wacky Wheels

Wow... a HUGE number of people sent in guesses this week, almost smashing the record set for the Duken Nukem 3D episode!

Also, my first milestone over on Patreon has been reached! I said I'd do a video to commemorate the event... except... I don't have a freaking clue what to do for it! ^_^;

If anyone has any suggestions as to what I could do for such a video, feel free to send them in, even if you're not a Patreon supporter. I could really use some ideas!

Also, still struggling with my current game project. What else is new? I swear though, the instant I have some good news to share on it I will, and I think letting you guys know I'm still working on it is far better than just letting leaving you all in the dark. I'm continually trying out different approaches and ways to balance all the stats and everything and sooner or later SOMETHING is going to work. When it does, you'll all know because I'll announce all the changes and post lots of details and everything! :B



March 1st, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 131 - Crusader: No Remorse
(WARNING! This is a mature rated episode!)

So guess what? Today's game only won by a SINGLE vote! Under a Killing Moon got exactly one vote less than Crusader did (while Legend of Kyrandia didn't get a single vote at all), so I'll probably get around to Under a Killing Moon sometime soon, though Edutainment month is coming up in April though so I'll probably get to it in May or July. :B

In terms of game making, progress is definitely being made design-wise on my next game. I know I said I'd have more details ready to announce by now and while I COULD go ahead and announce it, it skipped my mind how much work I still need to do to actually be physically capable of properly announcing it here on the website and everything. (IE: Doing up the new logo properly, editing the side menu on every single game-related page, etc.) So, that's gonna have to wait for the time being. :P

As for those of you who recently became Patrons of the show through my new Patreon account, I had to get the episode prepped and uploaded before the first round of payments went through, so those of you pledging $1 or more per month will see your names in the credits of the next episode. ;)

Lastly, since this week's game is mature rated, here's the hint for the next episode: It's a racing game with animals in it! :D



February 15th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #37 - Nostalgia Trip: Inserts

Today's filler is a long one despite how little time I spend on each individual item, but for those of you who get a real kick out of nostalgia, this video will provide! :D

Also taking votes for the next ADG Episode. At the end of the filler you can see which games you can vote between. Voting will end at the start of Saturday, February 22nd, so make sure to send in your vote before then!

Lastly, judging from the view counts, I think a lot of viewers missed the off-schedule Monday filler video, so if you did, you may want to give it a watch!



February 10th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Filler #36 - Patreon

I now have a Patreon account set up!

The idea behind Patreon is that it enables people to directly support content creators on a regular basis, kinda like Kickstarter, but with pledges based on each piece of content created, or in my case, monthly for all content. It's a way for those of you who've wanted to support the show more directly to do so beyond simply watching it and spreading the word! :)

Though I want to make this perfectly clear: I will NEVER start charging money just to watch Ancient DOS Games! This is just an extra thing for those of you who want to give that extra bit of support, plus I have some rewards set up too so that everyone who provides a monthly pledge (even as little as $1 a month) will get something in return for being super-awesome! :D



February 8th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 130 - Epic Pinball

Running a little late with getting Patreon stuff set up, but that should be going very soon as all I've got to do is edit together a little video to describe the place and why I'm starting up an account there and what it means for everything going on here. (The short: Absolutely nothing unless you want it to!)

Also, any eMails sent to the eMail address for Vectorzone will fail, since I'm very close to being ready to announce the new name, although I still don't have anything playable yet. Just a few more details to iron out with the design and I can get back to coding the game. This has been one of the most difficult game designs I've ever worked on, but it's come a long way and what you guys are going to get for the wait works incredibly simply with a huge amount of customization. Also, instead of "crafting" which a lot of games do nowadays, it has a much different mechanic in place that would probably be one of the last things you would ever expect out of a shooter, yet fits the overall theme and customization aspects of the game surprisingly well.

I'm really hoping to have it all ready to announce by the end of the month, but experience has taught me to make no promises on the time frame. As for Patreon, if all goes to plan that should be up on Monday so look forwards to a Monday update! :)



February 1st, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 129 - Sango Fighter 2

Got a little sick just a couple days ago and while I'm on the mend, I'm gonna make this brief: New ADG episode is up, still stuggling with the design of the game I'm working on, and considering launching a Patreon account so people who want to support the show directly and get bonuses in the process can do so.

That's all in a nutshell! :)



January 18th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 128 - Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold
(WARNING! This is a mature-rated episode!)

Geeze, it'd been awhile so I forgot how ridiculously difficult this week's Ancient DOS Game was... Ah well. :P

Not much going on at the moment save for continued design work on my game project. I really hope I can get far enough along to post details and the new name by the end of the month, but so far, I'm still very deep in getting all the new design stuff worked out.

YouTube is continuing to be a ridiculous place. I'm probably going to end up taking down any videos there which YouTube doesn't want to monetize or flags through Content-ID, not because I'm greedy and want the extra 50 cents a month, but because I don't trust YouTube to keep ads off of videos it doesn't want to monetize and I have a real problem with forcing you all to watch ads if they're not going to benefit me. Plus, any video hit by Content-ID, even ones that aren't monetized, can become monetized if the supposed owner of the matched content chooses to do so by default.

At present, of the 60ish videos I have up on YouTube so far, 8 will be coming down. I haven't done this yet because I'm waiting on some eMail responses from people first which may affect the decision to do this. If any of you have an opinion about it too, feel free to let me know. :B

Also, since this week's episode is mature rated, here's the hint for the next episode on February 1st: It's a game related to one I've already covered but wasn't actually released in North America, not until more recently anyways. ;)



January 11th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 127 - World Class Leader Board

In a bit of a bad mood at the moment because I had to deal with YouTube Content-ID nonsense just minutes before I was about to make today's ADG upload... on my video about VVVVVV no less... whom the creator of said game was perfectly OK with... >_>;;;

On a related note, I haven't seen a single ad on YouTube since right before Christmas... I know I'm not blocking them and I'm still showing ad-revenue in my video manager, so I have to wonder what the heck is going on over there right now.

As I've said before though, given all the trouble I've run into with YouTube, you'll never catch me uploading anything there EXCLUSIVELY. Everything will always show up here and on Blip first.

Also, some people have been worried that because of Blip's mass video takedowns my stuff might get affected. To which I shall respond simply: My Blip videos are safe! Blip seemed to have updated everyone who passed their internal review to Pro status and I was one of those people. Also, they're only removing stuff that doesn't conform to the guidelines they had towards having a show on Blip, something I made myself very familiar with before I even uploaded my first video. Blip is NOT YouTube, it was never meant to be a staging area for random videos, so many of the takedowns have either been people who weren't treating their Blip shows as "shows", people who didn't keep to regular updates or barely uploaded anything in the first place, people uploading stuff with large amounts of technical issues, or people uploading stuff of dubious legality. I should also note, Blip has always had a policy not to upload raw video game footage without commentary, so I imagine some of the people who've been hit may've neglected to check that when they signed up. :P

But yeah, my Blip account isn't going anywhere. YouTube on the other hand... who knows? That system is just a disaster waiting to happen. x_x;



January 4th, 2014:

Click here to watch Ancient DOS Games Episode 126 - Advanced Tactical Fighters

We ended last year's run of Ancient DOS Games with Electronic Arts, so let's start this year with MORE! 8D

In any case, today's ADG episode ended up a lot longer than anticipated. In fact, my original script made it nearly half an hour long, so a lot of trimming needed to be done. Ultimately, I think the episode ended up well enough. :)

Beyond that, I'm extremely fed up with how long my new game has been taking, so I'm probably going to simplify the heck out of it. The result will be a much smaller game with fewer features that I won't be able to sell for as much as I intended, but I should be able to get it done sooner and then I can move on to other projects I've been wanting to get to for awhile now.

Other than that, nothing much to say. 2014 is here and with it, many more episodes of Ancient DOS Games to follow! Don't forget the schedule either: Every 1st, 2nd and 3rd Saturday of every month! ;)

drex
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