Wednesday June 29, 2005
Posted by SJ Zero

The version on this site, 1.5, is a complete windows port. It also has several earth shattering bugs I have to fix before the 1.6 release. Regardless, it shows a fully functional windows port with far superior compatiblity, control, graphics and sound than the final DOS version. If you want to get an idea of where Quest for a King is going, check out the win32 demo for a good idea.

For those that care, I HAVE had this version of the engine running in Linux, but I don't have any binaries at the moment. The next release will be dual-platform.

March 27, 2004
Posted by SJ Zero

This demo will either work great for you, or will lock up at the first chance. There's a strange, seemingly hardware specific bug I have yet to work out that will cause it to freeze at a certain instant. If you have this problem, please send me the debug.txt from the game right after a crash, so I can try to fix this bug before it gets out of hand.

September 23, 2003

Screenshots are all well and good, but I think many of you appreciate action before words and pictures. Because of that, I am extremely proud to bring you the new AND improved demo! In addition to new art and music, I've finally fixed the dreaded FINAL SPELL BUG, so all you folks waiting to try the uncanny VAMPIRE SLASH can! Of course, the spell itself really sucks, but nobody said that the bug wasn't a blessing! With this bug finally stopped, I can finally begin the process of contnuing the plot. For a nice demonstration, open the console(which I finally got around to fixing again in this demo!), and type "script 122" (without the quotation marks). What you're seeing there is the beginning of the end of the prologue to the game. That's right, all that gameplay, and it's just the beginning of the beginning. Anyway, please, check out the new demo, you can get it from the link above(Quest for a King). Comment on the forum.

!

September 2, 2003

School -- what a time consumer. First thing I know, it's the first week of school, next thing you know, it's the third!!! Luckily, some of that time wasted can be recycled, and so I give you todays update; a before and after screenshot to tantilize you before I release a new demo.

Before: Taken a couple weeks ago
After: Taken tonight

That's just the beginning too. Just wait. With all this free time, Quest for a King will have a new and incredible demo up soon!

August 17, 2003

Here I sit, in my new room in a new city, and I realize that nothing has changed. I am still the same man who woke up a week ago and got ready to move. This is the greatest suprise of all. In all the changes my life has faced in the last week alone, I have changed my image, my clothing, my status socially and in terms of the government, I've awoken from a year long nightmare from which I feared I may never have reached the end of, and yet, I am the same person. This is the final piece of the puzzle I've been trying to comprehend for over two years. How I can move away from my family, the last piece of my humanity, and retain my sanity and humanity is finally clear to me -- I am the sole piece of my old life that I have left. Ironic as it sounds, it's the truth. Puzzling and vague, it's a lesson that nobody can ever be taught, but everyone must learn.

Anyway, I've got some really cool things to show this month. First, two revamped songs, First the classic Jeremy Theme, revisited, and the incredible Leroy's theme, Revisited. Listen to them. The originals can be found in Quest for a Kings Music folder. The latter is incredible with the enhancements. Also, I have a scanned concept art. I'm not picasso or DaVinci, but they're interesting and cool in their own way. Here they are:
Zero
Raven

As usual, Any comments should be directed to the Message Board.

July 22nd, 2003

That was the slightest bit depressing! Anyway, finally doing something I've been wanting to do for a while, I managed to dig up the old news archives and post them online before the final copy was destroyed(even counting archive.org, there was only one (1) remaining copy of my news page after 9/11/01 left on earth! How creepy is that?).

In Quest for a King, I'm on the verge of one of the most important cinematic moments in the game. The amount of second-guessing is incredible. Will this really work this way? Can the plot flow in a way better than this? It's a curse at the same time as a blessing, because quickly made games rarely are perfect(see Nietzsche, which has it's fans and it's moments, but is no Quest for a King!!!). Also, I'm working on the second issue of QB Accelerator Magazine, which I have been told is quite good so far. As usual, I barrel through deadline after deadline with little work done, but I should have some time over the next few weeks.

Also, a nice announcement for those keeping track, After 2 years of working and saving, I've gotten my tuition in order, and I'm going to college this fall! Electrical Engineering Technology at a college I don't care to mention(I've got this thing about mentioning stuff like that on-line). In terms of a grand adventure, I'm quite excited. After two years of unskilled labour, using my brain again will be a welcome rest of the body, and a welcome excersize for my atrophied grey matter. I might even get a couple 2001-style longass rants in here again. That might be interesting, to say the least, after my writing style has transformed into this far more structured, elegant, prose.



July 20th, 2003

Have you ever wondered where your life has gone? Months wash away like leaves in a torrent, but you still find yourself the same man, in the same bed, looking at the same screen, night after night.

May 12th, 2003

Nietzsche won third place in the RPGDX Spring 2003 MiniRPG compo!!!

YAY!!!!!

It was a whole lot of fun, and One Man Army Games(misidentified in the title screen as reaper's army productions) has a finished game under it's belt. I'm as thrilled as a person could be. I'm off to eat Ice cream sandwiches in celebration and spend too much money on Sobe!

If you haven't already, try Nietzsche today!

April 14th, 2003

After conversing with a couple about site designs, I decided to try my hand at yet another site redesign. A couple pictures can go a long way towards making this site seem warmer. Tell me what you think!

On another note, after working with the UGL library under Windows 2000, I've decided that my nextgen engine probably won't be in QB. Why? Because Microsoft has broken every standard they ever had in DOS. EMS is completely and inexplicably dead, which means every program based on EMS stops dead in it's tracks. I will definitely be sticking with QB for smaller projects though.

April 6th, 2003

The past couple months have been far from quiet, as anyone close to the Quest for a King project can tell you! in March, we released a new demo, and now here's another -- Here is a new demo for all those people who missed the last one. Have fun with it.

You'll notice the site redesign here, and a cleaning up of the interface. Use the new Message Board to tell me what you think of it. That's it for now. Have fun! :)

Febuary 9th, 2003

Two important things today; First, this site can be accessed with the fewest ads using http://powerusr.sphosting.com. http://powerusr.freeyellow.com works, but takes longer to load and has a terrible problem with ads. So use http://powerusr.sphosting.com. I don't get any money for the ads, so less ads is better. While you're at it, you might want to check out Mozilla or K-Meleon, since both can block popups. I'd recommend K-Meleon just because it's so much smaller than Mozilla. They also have much nicer interfaces than Internet Explorer(in my opinion, at least), and are free, so take a look!

January 02, 2003

Merry Beermas and a Happy New year to everyone. I hope this is a year to remember(hopefully because the tech economy recovers. :) ). All the Quest for a King fans out there (all three of you!!!) are in for a treat in the coming months -- finally I'm expanding the gameworld. Yes, I know that the Kingdom of Xan is a nice place and all, but we just have to move out of there, or the plot will never make it anywhere! I've also put a lot of work into the code, including some improvements in terms of speed(though some decreases as well -- I figured out a way to store twice the sprites into the same amount of space -- which is good, but it requires a bunch of math to draw sprites now -- and that's not so good. The improvements in flexibility(in the plot and with the character graphics) will be sufficient enough to tip the balance sigificantly though, and the renderer is still among the fastest non-PUT pureQB engines out there. That's it for this update, but don't worry -- very soon, there will be a revolutionary demo put out. One which will make all the other ones look pathetic in comparison -- of course, just like all the other ones. In case nobody noticed, Magic was broken in the last release, but now it's back with a vengence. As are all the other features I accidentally broke in that rushed demo. cest la vie. Well, rock on until we meet again(and post in the forums, for cripes sake! :) )

October 07, 2002

On this day, the redesign of the site began. Hopefully the site makes a bit more sense now... At the very least, it's something different to look at, right? By the way, it is a sitewide redesign, so I hope you enjoy the new design, BWAHAHAHAHAHA!


September 30th, 2002

I've just set up a new demo release. There are a couple known bugs, such as the long wait when you use the second spell, and the fact that only you can move during a script or battle, but it works, and works well anyway. Here's the demo. I won't be posting it on the RPG page because there isn't really enough there to justify it. When the bugs are worked out, I'll do an official demo release, but in the meantime, I'm doing this. :-)

August 21st, 2002

Just a small update(aren't they all), I've posted notices everywhere which might be a portal to a download. If you don't live in missouri, it doesn't apply to you, but if you do, think long and hard about what that judge just did. He has taken away the guarantee of free speech for game developers everywhere, based on the story of doom, fear effect, and resident evil(or rather, as his ignorance called it, "resident of evil creek"). No fucking way. Free speech is far more important than ensuring a few media saturated kids get a little less killing in their diet from their parents favourite babysitter. Words cannot express my anger at this development. No mere social matter justifies taking first amendment rights away from game developers. Some may disagree with me, but on this I shall not budge. It's an issue too important to me as a game developer to drop.



April 11th, 2002

Yes, I've finally updated the site. This new design is a slight variation on the old one. The only real difference is that I've altered the layout somewhat, now I'm using tables to get some cool effects (like the top there -- much less space is needed for all the stuff up there. That's a good thing.)

A new QB magazine called QBXL will be up as soon as I can remember I'm supposed to be coding after drinking lots of beer(harder than it sounds!). That's all I'm going to say about that for now. It's a pretty long magazine, so they'll introduce themselves better than I could.

Work on Quest for a King has been slow, but important. The first two spells of the game are in place and written. There's one healing spell, and one attack spell. The enemy will become a *lot* stronger because of this. The spells are quite powerful, and battles will require you to use them. Anyway, the game is a lot more fun with actual battles, so I should have a new demo up pretty soon. It all depends on how long it takes to implement more battles, art, and such...

Comment on this

January 24th, MMI


Just uploaded a new demo. It's not as ground breaking as the last demo in terms of new gameplay or levels, but it does have lots of new art.


January 21st, MMII


The silent period. I am the proud new owner of a AMD Duron 900 with a Geforce 2 MX 200 onboard. Expect a review of most of the components soon, also expect the minimum spec of my game to stay the same. I'm not the kind of person who lets his code get sloppy just because he has a faster machine. :)

Lately I've been just planning for the future. The demo is almost all the plot I have planned to this point, so more work is obviously nessessary before I can continue work on that. Since I've changed to QB 7.1, a lot of limitations are now gone, which is really cool. I was reaching the absolute limit for source code, which would have put a damper on what I could do. Now, I can implement the attack scripting system, and it's all good. Things are slowing down, but not stopped.

Also, I don't think I've posted a link to the new artistic style I'm using for this game. The old sprites were basically just the style I was able to reverse-engineer(can you truly reverse-engineer art?) from FF2. I recently took some screenshots from FF3, and got some ideas on how to introduce depth and detail to the tiny 20x20 people.Here's the link to the image. I hope you enjoy the new style, because most of the characters in the game are being set up like this now.


December 25th, MMI

Merry christmas. That's it. Enjoy.


December 4, MMI

Just a little community service announcement from your local SJ.:



I'm just asking everybody who reads my site to enjoy life. Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll, Booze, whatever Big Brother is telling us is satan this week, do some real research. Find out why people do these things if they are so evil. Find out why the start. Find out what it would take for them to stop. A lot of my generation would be suprised by the answers to these questions.

Teens, have fun. You'll actually have to worry about something soon, so live it up. Have some memories to look back on when you are working 7 to 5 in a few years. Don't be forced into a midlife crisis at 21 just because you did whatever you were told. Have a little fun. PLay it safe when it comes to stupid things(drinking and driving, cocaine or heroine), but have fun with the stupid things that we are so brainwashed to hate. There's no reason to accept it without any reason. A lot of these things are just a bunch of overprotective parents who don't want their kids to live their lives or make mistakes.

And one more thing...

Don't listen to advice from anonymous webmasters on the internet. That type of person is bordering on insane, so it just doesn't pay to listen to those webmasters advice.


November 26th, MMI

To quote the Archon from Starcraft: "I need focus!".

The past week has just been me living my life as if I had never worked on a game. Sad, really... I just didn't have the drive to work on it. Call it whatever you want to, the bottom line is that I got absolutely nothing done this week. On the other hand, I did get some research done, which will eventually help.

I may end up going with MP3 music in the end, because despite my best efforts (which would be QBrectMusic...), the music is *still* inconsistent between systems. I'm thinking of rendering the music using wingroove(the best sounding wavetable synth in the industry), and then just encoding it, which would also let me put some sounds in the battle system and stuff... We shall see.

November 14th, MMI

I just put a counter up. I missed being able to tell how many people had visited my site :)

I spent the last couple days recuperating from the all nighters I pulled to get the last relese out the door. :) Don't expect another release soon.

Midnight, November 9th, MMI

THE RELEASE EVERYONE HAS BEEN WAITING FOR HAS ARRIVED!!!

It's arrived with a vengence! I beg everyone to try it, but first try the SCRP8 demo so you know just how much work has gone into this game so far! It's really incredible just how different the two demos are, and that difference is only going to grow!

I REALLY need feedback on this release, please post it on my board or send it to the E-mail address above, because this is the point where I can implement suggestions, rather than when 90% of the gameworld is complete.

Finally, thanks for trying it out (if you are here, you're likely not leaving :-) ), and thanks for the patience of everyone who has waited for this release. Finally, (a trivial thing), thanks go out to betrayal, the guy who gave plentiful, decent, workable, realistic feedback for the last demo. Without him, this game would have turned out for the worse.

November 7th, MMI

The next release will be on November 9th, to mark the first anniversary of Quest for a King. This next project will have the beautiful BETA status which all games in development have.

Also, you'll notice the new, more streamlined site design. Tell me what you think. The RPG page also has been upgraded with a better layout, making it easier to download the latest version of Quest for a King.

Finally, the QB Project registry has also been upgraded, with a far nicer layout and look, so tell me what you think of that on the message board.

November 5th, MMI

The next release will be up soon, since I've already sorted out the sound stuff(the big factor hindering this release). The next version will be playable, and as I write this, I'm implementing some dynamic sprite creation routines, so the water will move, though not realistically :).

This site will not support windows XP, and if you have any questions about getting Quest for a King to run under it, take them somewhere else. Windows XP is living proof that Microsoft wants to be the only software company on the planet. Why did they write MSN messager when ICQ worked just fine? Why did they include CD-Rom burning software and camera software when every respectable company includes this in their bundle? I believe that Microsoft would like nothing less than to just clone any popular application. I'm certain we'd be seeing MS napster(tm) if that was legal, and that's just the beginning. Why do they do this? Because they can, and in doing so, they will remove any choice from our lives. ICQ runs just fine on Linux and BeOS, and they hate that. MSN Messager on the other hand is proprietary and it sucks.

Anyway, just expect a release soon. When I do, remember to take a look at the SCRP8 demo first to see just how far the game has progressed since the last demo.

I got a new E-mail account for this site, as you can see above. Any questions or comments to either Powerusrs Gaming or One Man Army games(the developer working on Quest for a King) should be directed there, as hotmail is too crappy to be used as an E-mail service.

October 23rd, MMI

I FINALLY FIXED THAT DAMN IF ROUTINE!!!

Yes, for those of you who didn't know, this painful little routine has been the sole reason I haven't released a demo in such a long time. There was a problem with the game design where many events could only happen once, but there was no mechanism in place to change it. I almost had the mechanism in place, but there was a lingering bug which I fixed today. For the record, IT WAS SUCH A STUPID BUG THAT I SMACKED MYSELF IN THE FACE AFTER FIXING IT! :)

The next demo will be up soon, and hosting has been taken care of. When the program is actually ready, there will be much fanfare (I'm just so proud of my new demo :)), and it will be a time to celebrate. I can't wait!!!!

October 4th, MMI

Another day, another update. I am writing a demolition derby game right now. I'll upload it as soon as it's playable.
September 28th, MMI

I fixed the link to the RPG section, which I broke when I put in the new look.

I also uploaded a new version of the lib. Take a look. It runs really well.

September 27th, MMI

uploaded a lib I am working on -- it is quite a bit faster than the regular PSET command in QB, so it's good.

Good news for you folks -- the next demo will be one very epic demo indeed! Compared to the earlier ones, it's a damn final fantasy. I'm very excited about this next release. This release will have a large part of the first part of the game (there are many parts!) Scripted and in the game already. There will also be bugs though. Some I don't consider bugs, the major ones are just dependency on a feature I haven't put in yet. In fact, all of them are. I need to code the savegames for a lot of things. To understand why, you first have to realize one thing -- this game will be epic, dynamic, at times non-linear, and it will have a lot of different choices. This is a fantastic thing, both for me and for you. The problem is that I couldn't possibly maintain all of these changes to the gameworld in memory. There will simply be too many. Every time you talk to someone and they say something different when you click on them again, that's another byte of information. Every time you finish a script that was only meant to be activated once -- that's another byte. Every time a character changes places to reflect changes in the plot -- that's more bytes. They add up. My solution is to save all the data on NPCs, objects, and script activators in a savegame directory. This will mean a Shadow of Power like savegame system, where the world is persistant, and you can't really save because of all the new data. The game will be paced so that it won't be too hard to get back to a town or something when you are low on health, so that old SOP problem should be fixed. We'll see.

New features in this demo are legion. I wrote a new greyscale algorithm which is more accurate. I've made a new font, and as an extention of that, optimized the routines to the point where they can be used in realtime battles. I've coded the realtime on-map battles. It damn near killed me, but in what I believe is a first in a QB RPG, battles happen chronotrigger style, where NPCs fight against you. It's only bound to get better. I've started the new magic system, which will be scripted, so there can be nearly infinite spells. I've started gamepad routines -- another first (or close to first) in QB RPGs. This game will be completely playable by keyboard or gamepad. I finished off the true active time battle system. While some things halt the battle, such as choosing a spell, or an enemy to attack, not playing will get you killed because the game doesn't stop when the speed counter is full. There is a new black and white renderer. The dialogboxes are faster. All the flicker problems in the game are gone. There is a new program I wrote to play music to let any windows user with any soundcard hear the music in it's best form. The world map exists. The script detection and collision detection are both rewritten for speed and to work better. There are NPCs that speak without a separate script activator. I wrote a new editor which runs at 800x600 or 1024x768 vesa modes. There are now multikey routines installed. There is now a hideously powerful set of 110% pure QB graphics routines powering this(no PUT routines!), which get up to 80 FPS on my celron 550. This release leaves the others in the dust. Look foreward to a finished town, full of NPCs. Battles with tons of enemies. The routines for the battles with more than one on one are already in place, and Jeremy is already fighting up to three enemies at once! There is new music, and music which went unused before has a purpose now. The basic storyline is already being written, and the towns and subquests are well on their way. It is a damn good time to be a Powerusrs Gaming fan. It is an even better time to start supporting Quest for a King!
As you can tell, I'm very excited about the way the RPG is heading. I think more R&D has been done here than in all my other projects combined. I've really cut loose of the newbie RPG which this started as, and evolved it into a sublime piece of art. If it wasn't for the same artwork, you'd never be able to tell that all the RPGs came from the same codebase (they did! I've never done a complete rewrite! I've gone from 320x200 tilextile subroutine based script driven game which used primatives for graphics to the state of the QB art 320x240 fullscreen pixel by pixel movement and rendering, several built in scripting subsystems, music provided by QBrectMusic, and I still have some code from the original RPG!).

From the rant I gave you before I went silent, you know that I was searching for work then...well, I still am. Damnit! At least I'm getting interviews now, whereas before, I'd send in a resume and be summarily ignored...Job hunting is healthy though, and the layer of coding flab I've accumulated is now gone, and only my beer gut remains:-D . Played some of the 'competition' a few days ago, including titles from darkness etheral. I liked their stuff, especially the SOC3 demo, but since I'm not really in competiton with them (they have a bit of a head start in this whole QBRPG thing :)), I'm allowed to enjoy it. I saw quite a bit of mysterious song, which is a very good game, but it suffers from user lapse. It is fun and the difficulty stays relatively constant (it gets harder at a comfortable rate), then it expects the player to run around for hours leveling up to fight the end guys(though I could be mistaken about the point in the game I am at -- any comments on where the tower is in the timeline of Mysterious Song?). I wouldn't have a problem with this if it wasn't for the huge leap, and the other hook; there are no more weapons or armor in the towns, so my characters are becoming incredibly rich, but can't spend it on anything other than the occasional Inn room. Herbs and Ethers became relatively useless around the third town, so you're stuck with tons of money you can't spend on anything. I understand why Megaman Legends has so many little games to play and things to spend money on. It's because after you've decked yourself out in necca armor, and have finished the quest to find the sword of kickassity, suddenly, you find yourself wishing for something to spend your money on. It'a part of the goal system. Gaining a single level is a pretty boring goal. Buying a more powerful set of armor is good until you reach the end of the tech web, and if, such as in Mysterious Song, you can't hold more than 10 items, you can't even set yourself up for a good long dive into the abyss.

Anyway, expect a new, really cool demo soon. Most of the mechanics are in place, all I need to do is code two more scripts, and this game will be posted, even with the bugs, it's a damn good piece of work.


September 11th, 2001

The US twin towers and the Pentigon have been attacked by terrorists.
The weapons were hijacked 757s and 767s, which the terrorists rammed into the targets. The planes used were to be used for a transcontinental flight and had full fuel tanks, which provided an explosive payload.

The first attack hit Tower 2 of the World Trade Center, and the second one, 17 minutes later, hit Tower 1. After that the Towers completely collapsed. Afterwards (though the time between these two events may be skewed), the Pentigon, the US military headquarters was attacked in the same fashion. another building collapsed from collateral damage a few hours later. Several other buildings are unstable due to collateral damage from the shockwave when the buildings fell, and fires that are burning still.

The President has guaranteed that the perpetrators will be hunted down and punished. Several others have made similar sentiments. One frightening aspect of this is the presidents vow that a nation who harbors terrorists will be considered (and therefore punsihed) the same as the terrorist groups. This seems like a bold move, since this virtually guarantees that the US will soon be at war. This move is being supported by the American public, who are unfortunately very bloodthirsty. In my opinion, the US is not infallible, and has made mistakes which have cost the lives of many innocents in other countries, such as the nuclear bombings in Japan at the end of World War II. The US has never had to directly see the consequences of the wars it fights (unlike Europe, who lived and worked in the warzone during WWII), and this is the closest they will get. I am in no way condoning this, but in a democracy, every innocent life that the government extinguishes is on the head of every single person in that nation, but the US has never had to deal with it's crimes. England still had to live with Germany after the world wars, whereas only diplomats and travellers from the US had to deal with the Japanese who were devastated by the Nuclear weapons (Note also that the US is the only nation to use a nuclear weapon as an act of war, which really makes their fears of terrorist nuclear strikes and paranoia against other countries using theirs hypocritical).

The update in information about the game will come another day. Today is not that day.


August 20th, MMI

Just a short update. Nothing, really.

I put in a new top 50 thing at the side, and found out what was happening with the one with the dead image. Looks like they are just getting new hosting, so since I'm not on much anymore (working on game...Must work...), and it'll eventually come back.

Working on game, but more importantly, working on storyline and game universe. I have a lot of things planned for this game, and they just won't work without a well documented universe, otherwise everything will be just slightly out of place. :)

I'm fighting the urge to go with an easy battle system for this. Download Chronotrigger for Snes to understand what I'm attempting, and look at Dragonquest to see what I am not going to do. Everything there is just insane. I'll have to do some neat things to fix that...

That's about it. The next release will have proper documentation, but that's about it in terms of news that hasn't been covered. The next demo will rock. Trust me.

*AND USE THE DAMN BOARDS!* Even if you just chat with freinds in it on completely different subjects, I hate to see the board go to waste...
Freaky link of crazy newssite I've been reading. I can't go back to that CNN crap after this site. On the other hand, CNN is owned by NBC or something wacky like that, which is owned by microsoft, so everything about M$ on CNN is false.... That's the kind of shit you read on this site, but it's all true. Scary shit if you think we're still free, even us people out of the US have something to fear from them.... :)

August 6th, MMI
You learn something every day, and I just learned that this site makes it into porn searches on google. I was checking out the stats for this site, and it looks like since the words on this site look like sex words, such as hardcore, so I'm in the search. It would be false advertising if the site wasn't called Powerusrs Gaming, and the words 'PVP Implementation' weren't in the description :)
There should be a new demo soon. I'm just finalizing some things, and the first country is almost finished! The list of changes this release is very long, and this release will have documentation, unlike the last one. Look for it in a bit.
Oh yes...people, get outside once in a while. Find a lake somewhere. It's summer. Only a few months from now, Winter will rear it's ugly head, and we'll be trapped inside again. People on the other side of the world, where it's winter, carry on.

July 31th, MMI
oops...seems that that whole rant on the QB45 purchace info I got was wrong. damn, is my face red. Ignore that.

July 30th, MMI
Gave the main page a facelift, and changed some things Tell me what you think about the new format. It's 100% notepad enhanced -- sorry, wordpad enhanced, since the site is now over 64k(of news, not of javascript nonsense). I've learned one thing if anything; HTML is easy! Man, I hate to say this, but people who have problems writing HTML code should try writing real code for a while -- or even worse, try writing some scripts under my game engine! Holy crap! Anyway, I was also getting some complaints about the number of dead images from outside links, so I'm hosting a majority of them now. I can't guarantee some will be alright, but the majority will be fine. The site should load faster too, as an added perk.
On the other hand, I know that nobody reads this site to read about the news about the site, so here's an update on the game.

The big news for the next release; The battle system is almost completely implemented! The controls are in place, as is the enemy AI, and all of the battle mechanisms. All that needs to be done now is the sprite handling code (so that it looks like the characters are moving, rather than standing still and not attacking while the battle rages) and the cool magic scripting code, which will make an infinite number of spells and attacks possible (the regular attack code is already implemented. While I don't know him, thanks go out to Seth Able Robinson for an algorithm I stole from him that made the combat a bit more fun (specifically, damage calculation code, which I pulled from the FAQ of LORD, which incidently is a shareware BBS door I have no money to pay for that I got hooked on off and on for quite some time (I have the best armor and weapons in the game!!!). I encourage any readers of this site to seek it out. It truly transcends the limits of ANSI graphics to come alive.), though I suppose people have stolen the algorithm *without* mentioning it, but I'm just a purist. I made more refinements to the console, including a new internal command that sends messages to it. Incidently, the console is now persistent, and closing the console will not destroy the messages already inside. I understand exactly why ID is so fond of them -- it's saved me many times already from bugs that would require a lot of work to fix.

I fixed an old bug that was actually reported as fixed in prblm9, but wasn't. It turns out that since QB supports recursion, it locks the variable that calls a routine, so that it can't be changed by a refrence to the name of the variable (ie. if you have a subroutine myfunc(x), and you called it using "myfunc foo", you'd have to change X, because if you changed foo, the change will be lost when you leave myfunc). All I did was copy the information I needed into a dummy variable, then called the routine using that to fix it. No problemo. The King Xan script finally cycles to the next phase now (where he jumps back and talks about how he can't stand the corpse). I completed some really cool work that will allow my roaming NPCs to work, and as an interesting aside, before this update, the King Xan script was not called by the King Xan sprite itself, but by a specially designated sprite, which was specifically set up to monitor for the press of the spacebar. Basically, the scripting engine is pure perfection at this point, but I will need to implement object position saves before I continue work on this. A key problem here is that if I modify scripts just before I leave a room, the scripts are reset the moment I leave. I think I'll do this economically by storing which maps have been saved, and if one has been saved, I load the objects into the room that way, otherwise, I'll load the objects from the data directory. This will allow the game to move along without the user having to worry about it, and will make savegame deletion (if for instance, you want to start over), a snap.
I'd like to say a few words on the recent QB45.COM purchace. If I'm not mistaken, marcade is the one who is set to aquire QB45.com. There is a problem here, in that marcade also owns the 'other' primary qb site on the web (I think it's called neozones or something like that -- I don't go to many QB sites anymore -- I do all my own coding, so QB45.com is plenty). The problem is that now marcade has a monopoly in QB sites with large resources and several subdomains! Generally, when a single entity has such a media monopoly, all the less popular works are eventually killed off, under the assumption that the viewers of the old site will eventually flock in droves to it's only competition (I'm not saying there's competition between QB45 and neozones, but I'm talking about a monopoly situation). Eventually, the reading public suffers, because the lack of cometition can often leave the monopolist in a slump. This scenario has been proven in recent years by PC Gamers near monopoly in Gaming publications. After killing off Future publishings (prophetic?) PC Games Magazine, Imagine had it's own PC Accelerator, which lasted about two years before Imagine closed that down and shoved all of PC Accelerators readers into PC Gamer subscriptions, thereby making more money, since for the same number of readers, they no longer had to maintain another magazine. There just like there are people who would undoubtedly tell me that there is another big website out there, there is one magazine left that isn't run by Imagine, but that would be CGW, which I dislike even more than PC Gamer(because they like to emphasize the "you suck ya nerd!" part of the equasion, where PCXL focused on some pretty funny and cool shit, where PC Gamer doesn't seem to have a tone, and is the editorial equivilant to a press release mirror on the web), and the magazine industry has lost a reader. I hope that QB45 and neozones (keeping in mind I'm terribly sorry if I have the wrong name here...) don't make the same fatal mistake under the leadership of marcade.

July 14, MMI
Updateless at powerusrs Gaming......
This is only because of the amount of work I've been doing lately. I've reinvented the wheel many times in the last few weeks...
I optimized the graphics routines, and I've created a new piece of code that plays midis using directx 7.1, and the latter hasn't been debugged fully. The shared libs are fairly big, so I want to get that out of the way as a one time download, rather than uploading it constantly.
I started writing the script for the main events of the full game. I consider it a literary masterpiece. Others may not have the same opinion. The next demo may very well have all the key gameplay elements (except combat, alas) implemented already, after that, it's a matter of smaller touches like better art, more NPCs and scripts, and other cool stuff that will make this game more than just another freeware throwaway. Heres hoping for a silver future for this game!
On a final note, I was considering changing the layout of the site, but I realized that the 50k of news articles would be really slow to load if it was paired with more HTML code. I may make an archive, or I may just keep these pages the same.........
June 18th, MMI
I'm Freeeeeeeeee!
Not really, now, instead of the relatively easy world of school, with it's 2 month summer holiday and it's two weeks of christmas/new years, I'm entering the world of money, and greed, and all that other good stuff that makes society work. That's right, I'm not going to deny it, without greed and money, the majority of the population would do just enough work to get along. Why do any better? There are some people who have deluded themselves into thinking that money is the root of all evil, but last time I checked, apathy is worse than greed simply because a nation of full of apathetic people are more likely to get in trouble somehow. The problem with things like communism (I'm sure I'm getting the definitiion of communism wrong here, but that's where everybody does their jobs, and everybody gets an equal slice of the pie, and the idea is that nobody will ever be homeless or destitute or hungry, isn't it? I could be wrong here... If there's a different definition, post it on the board.) is that people need something to motivate them, and after the 'I am helping the nation' thing is over with, You are still stuck in the ultimate dead end job, with no room for advancement without just doing more work for the same money. It's the reason why people go to college. Face it, very few people go to college to become enlightened, most just go for a better job opportunity. In the meantime, they may become enlightened, but don't fool yourself into thinking that the world would be a better place with free food, free education, free housing, and everything else. There just aren't that many enlightened people in the world. I'm not one of them, I'll give up my work that I could easily sell for free, but only because I'm certain that I can make more money by pursuing a better carreer. If I was forced to work for free all my life, and I was given only the bear minimum to survive, I'd do as little as possible on the job, and I sure as hell wouldn't work overtime, since it would be for free. It might work for a while, but after 20 or 30 years of working for free just to survive, with no room for growth, even the most convinced people would become apathetic to their jobs.
I'm thinking that the above should have been in the rants section, but it *is* kind of short. I'm going to be writing a new Violence in Gaming rant sooner or later, but increasing the scope to show how the whole concept of censoring an entire industry just to 'protect' the absolute minority (kids, who seem to be robbed of their rights all the time in the name of 'protection') is unethical, both from the point of view that censorship is fucking shitty (that should be the new catchphrase of the anti-censorship movement :D) and from the point of view that the right for parents to raise their kids the way they want to (my parents were rather lax when it came to censoring the media, and I'm only better because of it, since I have learned how to decide for myself what is gratuitous) is being taken away because a few parents would rather the entire world cater to their views, rather than be extra vigilant to achieve their lofty goals of providing a padded world for their children.
Okay, that was a bit long too...
You can tell I'm already recovering from exams when I write a long update like this one... Now, Updates to the site have been almost non existant, but I replaced all the pages on the freeyellow site with a redirector to this site. I have a feeling that a LOT of my visitors were never able to see the new Powerusrs Gaming because some of the pages were just links to old pages. Now, those pages bring up the new site (this one) with frames and everything. I'd like to hurt the people on search engines who link to my pages induvidually, rather than linking to the main site. Most people never see the rest of the site because of this, and it's a pain in the ass. Especially Google. I know they are a pretty good search engine, but I wish that they could use something to set the frames for some sites before loading the actual site.
Could somebody tell me why frames are taboo? I've seen about a million 'frames suck' messages all over the place, but I can't see any sites saying "here's why". Personally, I hate it when I see a site where I have to scroll back to the top of a page before I can navigate... Of course, I also don't like sites that split articles up into little pieces. It's especially annoying as a person who only has 30 hours of internet a month, as I like to load a bunch of huge articles in seperate browser windows so I can read them off-line, but that's pretty damn hard with 255 seperate pages to download, each with a banner ad and a popup window...
Oh yeah. While I remember. I've got a request for people who link to my site. Could you just tell me when you do? I'm not telling you to ask for permission or anything, I'd just like to know, because I could link to whatever site you have, and we both benefit. You don't really need to, but it would be nice. Just post something on the message board.
Speaking of the message board -- DO ME A FAVOUR AND POST FOR GOD SAKES! I have never seen *any* message board as slow as mine are! Just pop in to say hi, or comment on the game (it's cool when people do that, but It happens only rarely) or the site...
The game hasn't even been opened in the past week. I hope to have the new demo up as soon as I get the time to finish it, but I just haven't had the time. Between the Quake II games (expect a full review soon), and the Serious Sam demo (When will PC Gamer realize that all good game developers start the same way, making games in their basements, and stop making it seem amazing? ID started with Commander Keen, Epic started with Jill of the Jungle, Microprose has been making games forever now, and *they all started making game for the love of it, not to make money*... Every month they seem to have a new favourite made by a small timer (like me :D), and act like it's an impossible task, when it's obviously not.), I've burned more hours playing games in the past week than in the whole timespan beforehand. This is what I was afraid of happening. I don't see much more gaming happening until the demo is released. I've made it far, but not so far that I can take a break.
That's it for what is probably the longest update in the past 6 months :)
Comment about it on the board or something...please?
June 13th, MMI
My last update from school...
It should really be called my last frivilous update; for now, I will only update on serious news, not just to say how the projects are progressing (in fact, even this will be cut short since I have an exam in exactly 10 minutes), and I'll only be able to write HTML when I'm off-line, so the days of testing a piece of HTML simply by trial and error for a few hours are gone -- until I get a cable modem!
I'm planning on working on the game as soon as I finish this exam and apply for a job in town, and I'd love to have a new demo out by the end of the month.
...See Ya!
June 8th, MMI
Well, today is my birthday. For my gift, I ask that you tell 10 people about Powerusrs Gaming. I'm a big hits whore, so anything that lets me get more hits (hitting reload a thousand times doesn't count!) is considered a good thing for me :)
I've just finished an entire week of cisco exams, and the one I did today was the final one this week, so I'm finished the hard exam, and the rest are raw memorization of a mere 5 months of material (wheras the Cisco exams cover over 2 years of networking material, making it a much harder, though more rewarding class), so I've actually got free time again and a non 'stress machine' attitude, so I should get more done soon.
I'm trying to get a job now, so I'm updating my resume as I write this. Hard stuff there, I have no idea how to write a resume for a skills oriented person like me (I've never worked before, except for free, but I'm fairly skilled at everyting I do, hence PowerUsrs Gaming, and not RegularUsrs Gaming :), but it's hard trying to explain what I *can* do without making it sound somewhat like hyperbole. Example: I *can* fix virtually any problem with a computer. Unless there is physical damage to the boards, I can somehow pull it off. I *can* fix virtually any windows problem without losing user data(not too hard usually, sometimes it takes a reinstall *over* the original installation, but the result is the same)...
I need this weekend to recuperate from the week more than any other week this year. Five, count em' Five, quizes in Cisco this week, plus a test in programming, plus studying every night for X number of hours, plus programming for the community project, plus working on the game, plus updating this site, plus it's my birthday this week(today, in fact!), so it's more than a little bit stressful. The other tests I have are English, which is blatant memorization of useless facts, math, which is blatant use of useless equasions, but using relatively useful skills, and programming, which is something that is almost second nature to me lately, given enough coffee. The stress is off. I can lay down and rest now. Good.
Yes, and sorry for the paragraph long rant on my week. :)
June 2nd, MMI

Finally, I can update from home with the new server. Just updated with a couple new features (I missed that counter, so I made a new one!). I put in a new message board to replace the one that became the QB Registry, but I'm not sure whether it posts...I can't make it work yet...
The RPG recieved a substantial speed boost today, with a gargantuan 75 FPS on my PC! As a benchmark, before the upgrade, I was getting roughly 40 FPS before. GOOD STUFF!
I'll have a new demo up as soon as I finish a bit more of the content (yes, actual content -- FINALLY!), but I'm not sure what the poll will be about after this. Any suggestions? Post them in the message board.
May 31st, MMI
Changed servers again. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but I heard some bad things about crosswinds, and I didn't want to take the risk on another bad provider.
May 30th, MMI
Exams are hitting hard now. Two weeks to learn everything about four distinct courses. If there was ever a time where I?m stressed about exams, it?s the year I graduate. Thousands of dollars of money that isn?t mine is being poured into this, both by people I know (parents, etc?) and by people I could care less about (such as buisiness sponsors), and I can?t just graduate, I have to graduate well. I already have well over 90% in my math class, and a good mark in my other classes too, but obstacle over obstacle seem to be getting in the way, mostly psychological. The stress is not really a good thing when I have so many things to study for, and I still want to get time in for my game, which is getting less and less frequent. To make matters worse, I don?t think I?ll be having the happy go lucky workless holiday I?m used to, so the pressure keeps on mounting. For some strange reason, it?s only now, three weeks before graduation that I am getting the kind of boost I needed from the beginning to get my CCNA, and I?m hoping that I?ll be able to get it, but everything the test is about happens to be things I am not great at, such as the bland memorization of facts with no relevance to networking. It?s not a good time right now, but it?s better than failing, I suppose.
The Game is going well. I finally upgraded the map editor to allow for the full size maps that the engine was designed from the beginning to support. There is now a 170x170 map in the game (much better than the 32x19 map of the current demo), and I?ve begun to implement save games. The source is once again reaching the limits of QBs abilities to handle it?s size, but I am confident that I?ll be able to work around them long enough to get the battle system in place, at which point, the game source won?t need to be modified anymore. I implemented palette manipulation routines this weekend, thanks to an ingenious routine I wrote that extracted the system palette from the video card. That paticular routine was made largely using hit and miss, however, so it?s timing is arranged specifically for a p166 machine with a Matrox mystique 220 video card, so I just extracted the palette and put it in a file. The end result is a palette that can be manipulated with ease, for some cool spell effects, and more importantly, things like night (which won?t be set up to cycle, it will conveniently change from night to day whenever the plot demands it?Call it artistic license, but SOM2 taught me that dynamic sunlight can be annoying). I?m working on the first script of the game now, the one that preceeds the script that we?ve all become tired of seeing (King Xan! You are hurt!?), as well as on scripts that are designed to change the rooms easily (because of the new palette system, I can now fade to black ? Final Fantasy style).
The battle system is still being worked out, but this time, I?m going to get all of the mathematical equations ready BEFORE I set up the actual battle routines, so I don?t sit at my computer for a long time pondering how to tackle a problem I should have already fixed.
May 23rd, MMI
Very little progress lately. The major problem is that I want to finish the battle system first, and yet ANOTHER source for that got destroyed this weekend (sometimes, you just need to reformat...)
The timeframe for the next demo release is still in the air, I'm not sure how long it will take to implement the battle system. I may just code a half-ass battle engine for the next release, then work on the real thing at the same time...
Just so that everybody knows, the planned features for the battle system are as follows:
-Active battle system, like Chronotrigger or FF7
-On map battles, just like chronotrigger
-scripting system for spells and attacks, something I don't think has been done yet
-infinite different enemies
-a well thought out interface (probably stolen tho ;))
-large sprites
-more that I haven't thought of and will probably implement as I code
...and that's it!
Oh yeah, I'm on the dev team for a game, but there isn't anything there yet. go to http://fscommunity.sphosting.com to check the project out, and keep an eye on it. It could be big -- especially since I'm on the dev team ;)
May 16th, MMI
Powerusrs Gaming is now the site responsible for the QB Projects board! The idea is to have a place where people can freely post what they are working on so that everybody can benefit. Webmasters, please put a link to this site or at least the board somewhere on your site, so this can be successful, and developers, please post what you are doing in QB on the board, even if it isn't done, just so other people can know. Feel free to tell about finished projects as well, as the hope is that this will become a resource for people to come to to see what is out there (a catalog of every QB prog ever made would be cool.)
In regular news, I'm still working out some problems in the editor, and now I'm dealing with another fact (I really don't like how my editor doesn't have scrolling, so I'm stuck with a map only 2x bigger than the original, where the emgine is *capable* of at least 7 times that.
Yesterday, I looked at some directx stuff. I got some good ideas from that, but I'm not sure what will end up happening along those lines (I may end up doing some games in C and others in BASIC, but I'm probably not moving exclusively to C). I really like the idea of a fast 3d engine powering my next game (rather like a wolfenstien engine, not a Quake engine.), so I'm going to start investigating that -- AFTER I'm done my current game (I'm worked to the bone lately...)
The beta release date is still in the air. Depending on how quickly I can implement the battle system, it could be as early as a week or as late as two months (I doubt it though)
May 15th, MMI
I just fixed the top 50 banners on the side, and signed up for a new board (I'm not quite sure how that works... ProggerX's signup process is significantly different from most of the automated "you are a sheep, we're going to herd you" type corporate websites I'm used to signing up for, but I've seen the other forums he's hosted, and they are markedly better than the one I have, so I'm looking forward to having one)
The editor gained yet another step in the BUILD direction yesterday, with the introduction of the new sprite key. This unassuming thing, which I will proceed to make a big deal out of, will speed up development, since I can now place sprites from the editor, as opposed to having to manually edit the file myself.
I finally started on the first room for the real game. This is an exciting time for me, just because I can now learn about such things. I'll have a demo soon, but in the meantime, I shall keep working. I want to have something interesting (more interesting) for the next demo.
I think I'll be moving to a new webspace provider soon. I don't want to pay for the service, as I ger nothing (less than nothing, actually) out of the deal. I will have to wait and see what I can find...
May 14th, MMI
I might be on to an even grander landmark than I thought. I may be able to push the engine status up to beta before the next release. All I need to do is finish the battle system with scripting support, and pummel a few small bugs, and the engine will be in BETA stage!! After I reach the BETA stage, actual work (gasp!) on the game will begin. After this, I may change file formats or something, but the most important features are already implemented, so anything made with the engine after the next release will probably be fairly final. I'm starting the documents section, where I'm going to put tutorials and the like, and share what I've learned, even if the language I'm using isn't really mainstream (QuickBasic is just like C without pointer notation in your face and nicer debugging)...I'll update the survey as soon as I upload the new demo.

Later.
May 6th, MMI
I'm close to a new landmark, just like all my demos are, but I'm not sure if I'm going to release it yet. I've been toying with the idea of ripping the graphics and scripts from a game for snes, then just using that data to show off the engine, so that the story of the RPG isn't given away before the game is finished. I can see it now ; Copyright infringement RPG... I'm not quite sure what kind of trouble I could get in for it, but since I'm only borrowing the sprites, and I'm not planning on using them in the final version (which is all original material), I think I could get away with it. Most RPG engine programmers seem to like doing that. Later!
May 2nd, MMI
Released a new demo. I may be moving to a new lib (created soley by myself) for doing pure integer math. The language I'm using converts all numbers into floating point (or so I'm told), so this should mean a moderate speed increase. Not much more to say, I'm anxious to get started. on more work on the RPG.
April 25th, MMI
I guess whoever was the 1000th visitor wasn't interested in my useless code...go figure. I wonder why?
I think there'll be a new demo within a few days. It will feature walking NPCs, and a new title screen (it doesn't look like it, but it's actually made under windows!!) I would have had it up today, but the disk I had it on crapped out before I could get it.
April 24th, MMI
And now for the very first "POWERUSRS CONTEST FOR USELESS STUFF"! From this point on, every 1000th visitor to the site who takes a screenshot of the event and sends it to jkfirth@canadamail.com will recieve a program from my deep programming vault. Yes, I'll be giving away some programs I've created, hopefully a useful or fun one, to anybody who sends in that screenshot! I said it was a contest for useless stuff...ooh aaah ... an exclusive download! For he first thousandth visitor, the prize will be a demo of my new Z plane renderer, for use in an upcoming game, and the next thousandth will recieve a cool (not really...) The RPG text viewer! This has been another "POWERUSRS CONTEST FOR USELESS STUFF!"
April 22nd, MMI
Just added a top 50 thing on the side. just vote if you like the site. I'm probably not going to get many hits from it, but I figure that I should give it a try.
The game is nowhere closer to a new release than last time I updated, I'm 300 miles from my computer for the weekend, so I think I can be forgiven though.
April 19th, MMI
Updates are going to slow down at this point, but the actual work seems to be speeding up. I'm heading into the hardest part so far, the chronotrigger style battle system. I've decided on a brunsheim (I think that's the name of it) line algorithm to move the players around when they hit each other, because I don't want them to walk vertically then horizontally when all they need to do is move diagonally. I think I will put the same command into the scripting engine. I think that until I fix the problem for good, I'll just remove the edge detection for the PVP camera. The next release probably isn't going to happen anytime soon, since there is some important work to do. I fixed the collision detection, which is now working better than ever before. Have fun!
April 11th, MMI
This is insane! I've uploaded another demo today, and it has one feature that I think you will like; I put in a pseudo transparant dialog box, and changed the text color to white. Download it and tell me what you think. I think it looks a lot more professional than the black on bright blue, but that's just me. I've got a handle on the cdetect and edge-of-map scrolling problems now, all I need to do is fix them. The version name/number won't change again until I fix that. I also uploaded a screenshot to the RPG page to combat the boring look of this page. It's a bit big (I didn't realize how big it was at home, where I run 1024x768, but at school, where I run 800x600, it's size became aparant), but looks a bit nicer than the spartan THE RPG at the top of the page alone. The README file has one small error this release -- I fixed the script error, but I forgot to compile that one, so this is exactly one point release behind. Hopefully, I'll have sorted out NPC scripts, the CDETECT problem, and the map before the next release -- It's beginning to annoy me.
April 10th, MMI
In a once in a lifetime event, somehow 2 demos got released on the same day!!! It looks like the optimizations I did for the new demo fixed the problem, so I no longer need to worry about compatibility!!! Hot damn! That is sweet! Enjoy the new demo! It's faster *AND* more reliable!

Uploaded a demo that was more compatible, but it is much slower. There are instructions in the help file on what to do if you could run the older RPG demos. Gotta go now. Bye!
April 9th, MMI
THE TILE EDITOR HAS RETURNED!
A small piece of news in itself, but it's been improved. Now, instead of having to remember each file number, you can simply drag the file you want to edit onto the editor if you are running windows 95, and start editing! I'll have the demo up in a while, but I'm not going to rush this release like I did to the April 1st release. Still working on the various cdetect problems.
For the next release, I need to put in the code to bind scripts to NPCs, I need to implement Z-sorting (fancy word for a not-so-fancy concept), fix my collision detection and apply it to NPC objects, make an algorithm so my teammates follow me (like in chronotrigger), finish NPC movement, and finally, alter my level editor to work with maps bigger than the resolution of the editor, 640x480 (the max size in my engine is 140x140, and since each tile is 20x20, that is much larger than 640x480)
Okay, so the german title might not be the best idea, Using that for the other names, however, is still a good idea. I'm back to referring to the game as 'my game' or 'the RPG', mostly because I never thought of pronounciation troubles when I first saw the word. I still want a name that A)isn't cliche (like 'Demons lair' or something like that), B)Is fairly easy to say and spell (Farbtontier isn't hard, but whenever I say or spell Mehrdeutigkeit, I need to come to the webpage to remember it.), and C)portrays the meaning I want to convey to some extent.
(big update eh? It's not over yet!)
I'm finally making the story again, there was a while there where I doubted that I'd *EVER* finish coding (it seems that way when you don't even have a working graphics engine), so now I can finally stop this whole 'eat sleep breathe programming' gung ho attitude for a while, and focus on smaller bugs and features which don't require days of work to start functioning (like the script system, which took about 5 minutes to get running after the prototype was up and running).
One pretty good thing I've found out is that I can use the full sprites now. Before, the top 5 pixels and the bottom pixel were not used because of the way I updated the video, and I fixed that. Soon, I'll have a demo which far exceeds the abilities of the PRBLM9 demo, which is what I've been working towards since I made the switch to pure PvP.
Oh yes, there is now a title screen. It isn't much, but it is better than nothing, which was what I had before. It's just some text and a song (all of the music has been hand-composed by myself, so tell me what you think). It is just a first step towards a 'nice' title screen.
Also implemented the -nosound. If you are running on a computer without a sound card, the next demo will let you run it without sound, then it won't stop like before.
Well, that was quite an update, see you next time!
April 6th, MMI
I think I am close to a new release. Soon, it seems that I'll have to have a custom script for demos (as opposed to the finished game), since I've started on the story. Chose the name for the game. Mehrdeutigkeit. It means ambiguity in german. The demos will still be referred to as their version names (which only correspond to what I am thinking about when I rename the file). Sometimes, using a seemingly random word that means something in another language is a better idea, and it makes the dialog seem less corny (Which sounds better? 'Shade beast', which is the literal translation of the word I used, 'Absolute elemental controller', which was what I was planning on using to translate, or 'Farbtontier'?).It's the difference between ICE GODDESS and SHIVA in final fantasy, and the difference between a "godly sword" and Excalibur(not so much, since Excallibur is a pretty famous sword). Don't worry about me making everything in another language, so far it's just one name of a person, one name for a species, and the name of a couple kingdoms which would sound cliche otherwise. Demo soon. Later!
I'd have had a demo today, but the movement commands needed something simple to fix them. The triple buffering routines are fantastic while the game is really running, but dialog boxes are done in a single buffered environment, so I have to change the page whenever text is used. Floor triggers are in the latest version, and so are movement commands in the scripting system. Bye.
April 5th, MMI
Put a few links up today. Somebody E-mailed me about windows 95 drivers for the S3 Virge, so I posted them with the article, and I finally linked to a duke nukem 3d map I uploaded...well, before this page became powerusrs gaming! (there was a TC I wanted to sign up for, and this was an example of my work, and hotmail was....suffering difficulties.) I wanted to make the whole addon in one part, but I've decided that it would be better to post the maps for now, then unify them after I'm done. The level is for duke nukem 3d, by the way. I had a fantastic Doom conversion, where I changed the map to better suit the gameplay of doom, but I lost it. Not really a problem, someday, I'm going to remake it (not until the game is done, however!) for as many games as I can...Unfortunately, I haven't seen a level editor that classified as 'fun' since Duke 3d.
April 4th, MMI
Okay...This update isn't really too big. I just wanted to upload the new demo, since I finally put in full scripting. I haven't started on 'button' type script execution (where you step on an activator to start a script), but if you wanted to, you could add another room with what I have included. I'm not sure when the next demo will be out.
Some people were expressing difficulty with my naming convention when they wanted to download the newest version. I put pseudo version numbers next to each download to show which is which. Enjoy!
April 3rd, MMI
Murphys law hit me so many times today and yesterday. I got more done on the engine yesterday than I did since I converted it to PvP, but that was *AFTER* I released it, and I got some answers to my collision detection problem, but the server deleted them! Mother****er! I'm not happy about that, and I'm anxious as hell, since somebody else aparantly found a bug, but now I don't know what it is, so it could be something either be 'You access an interrupt that causes computers to grow arms and legs and take over the world!!! Be afraid!!!', or as little as 'When I press space on the guy, he doesn't talk (for the last time! if it isn't implemented as a feature, IT'S NOT A BUG IF IT DOESN'T WORK!)'.
The little guy talks now. I re-integrated gameplay into the game, but the whole demo is probably not going to be released for a while. The wait won't be as long as last time, but it won't as short as the PRBLM6 the PRBLM9 switch either. The good thing is that the next demo may actually have the long awaited battle system, and will probably finally exceed the functionallity of the PRBLM9 demo by a factor of several times. The implemented script system already means that Anybody wanting to 'tell a story' using the engine can, as long as it only uses one map (I'm going to put a lot of routines in the scripting engine to make my life easier, and the game better, since I won't have to hardcode all this, but I haven't done it yet.)
Put up a new poll. I know that it seems wierd putting this up when I'm telling you what I'm doing, but if more than a few people want a feature, I'll start working on that.
April 2nd, MMI
I actually released it on time! I really wish that I had a little more time for some of the problems, but none of them are fatal. I'll continue working for now. It's on the RPG page.
I've decided after a few minutes of thought that you deserve to know this, since it caused controversy a while back. The new stats site I'm using will put put a small cookie on your system, but only so that if you return, it knows that you aren't a unique visitor. I'm not sure whether it really matters, as it doesn't put anything important in there, just that you were here, but it's just something I needed to mention.
March 30th, MMI
I did a little research, and found the new site that has all the newest savage drivers. It's posted at the bottom of the savage4 review. I also uploaded s3tweak, which is the tool you can use to change some features and even overclock your savage. I'm not responsible for what you do with it, and I'm not responsible for anything it does. Blame the guys at www.s3p.co.uk if you have trouble. Have fun anyway. Looks like there are new drivers to download since the whole fiasco began. I installed them, but I haven't played anything yet, so I'm not sure how they are.
Today I went on my 6 month marketing binge. Went to the nearest 'submit your URL to 6 bazillion sites' page and just went wild. I wish there was an easier way to do it (and a lot of sites frown upon the use of those programs). I'm going to try to get some more work done tomorrow. I realized last night that I can't update this page from home!!! I'm going to have to figure out how to fix that, or I can be in some serious trouble (I'm graduating in june, so I won't be able to upload anymore! I'd have to use another provider, and Freeyellow has been a damn good provider, and the only one who hasn't become ultra-paranoid lately. Have you seen what Tripod, Geocities, Angelfire et. al. have been doing? The single banner here is nothing compared to the repetitive clicking and middle pages they have!
March 29th, MMI
I just realized that the S3 website no longer supports their chips. Everybody who is looking for these things, I think I have them on my PC still, so bookmark this page and come back this weekend. I'll post the newest refrence drivers and S3Tweak for your amusement. Take note that the refrence drivers should work for all cards -- the GT, pro, pro+, and extreme. I was shocked to find that the s3 planet website is now abandoned too. I guess I'll do the 'right' thing and do what they did for now (I'm not sure why they wouldn't even post a 'yeah...we're all dead or something' message...) I don't have any savage 2000 or savage3d drivers though, so those people searching for s2k and s3d drivers are out of luck...I might find some later.
This is the beginning of a new policy; If a piece of hardware I've reviewed becomes abandoned, I will do my best to support it. It's only right that SOMEBODY put up these files! Hopefully http://www.s3graphics.com will be up soon,(that's the new graphics chip company. They are responsible for the Savage line now.) and I'll be able to just link to them.
Looks like the April 2nd deadline will be met, although the demo won't be as bulletproof as I would have liked. Some insignificant cdetect problems still exist, but I think that in the couple days I have left to work on it, they should be ironed out. You have never seen somebody as happy about being able to run into walls as I was :-). Anyway, most of the problems I was having with implementation details are taking care of themselves. I'm thinking that the next release is where I'll get back on track with actually *MAKING* the game, since the last few updates were only upgrades to the engine and intenals. As soon as the scripting engine is in place, I'll be ready to make the whole game...with the exception of the battle engine I keep putting off. I already have the internals ready for that, now it's just a matter of translating the text mode battle system into graphics. Piece of cake. Anyway, I'll release it soon. Oh yeah. You'll have to delete your old JRPG directory or rename if for the new demo. If you were playing with the sprite editor,(levels no longer work, and must be remade. There will be an import function in the editor someday) just copy the files into the DAT directory.
...of course I really shouldn't be telling this to you yet...
March 27th, MMI
Okay, I may miss that deadline...I'm working hard towards releasing a demo on April 1st...make that April 2nd. I don't want to be considered a practical joker if I don't release it! .. anyway, I'm working towards the deadline, but the cdetect problem is turning out to be more difficult than I had anticipated. I've grasped the problem, and I'm working on it, but it's an important feature. In other news, I played Avalon this weekend. I don't know why it gets put on magazine disks and such, the quality is rather pathetic considering the attention its getting. Maybe when I'm done this, I'll get put on CDs too? Probably not. True greatness (or even mediocrity, which would be a step up) is never noticed...
This is my prediction for the day -- The computer I'm on is on the verge of death. I can hear it howling. It's an ultra-high pitch wail coming from the unit. I'm guessing that the 24/7 nature of this machine may be catching up with it. No real problem with me, it's not my machine, but it will really suck if I have to start using one of the slow (actually, it's Windows "No framerate for you" NT that is doing it.) computers. It's rattling my fillings, and it's pretty annoying. If I turn out to be correct, I think I deserve a coke or something for being *THAT* good.
March 23rd, MMI
This last week has been a flash! Theres no real way to express the speed that time travels at when you are busy CONSTANTLY for a few days. hmmm....
I'm posting something here that I wrote to somebody, simply because it is so deep. Here it is:
The relentless hunger for knowledge is something I must deal with. I need to know how it works. I need to know how it ticks. Is this such a bad thing? It looks like programming makes us think deeper thoughts. We see the beach for the induvidual grains of sand instead of the expanse of brown land. Eventually, there is a leveling off, when everything makes sense, and you understand the connection between everything in the universe. When you realize that life is a byproduct of a combination of structured events, and meaning, something that eludes many, is actually something that comes from within, and doesn't need to be, or even shouldn't be given away. When understanding transcends knowlege, it is a spectacle to behold. When you can grasp something completely foreign without any difficulty, because you understand something completely different which explains the underlying structures of a problem...it is very good, however, many people become intimidated by this.
March 20th, MMI
Just changed the go.to/powerusr. If somebody doesn't like the new one, just post on the board and I'll set it back to the way it was before. I know some of you still get in using it.
March 19th, MMI
Okay, so I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I have decided to put music in the next release as a must, so I have started to compose it. After a few tense minutes (no, that sounds like crap -- oh wait! there it is!) I have about 30 seconds worth of music. The big challenge is getting away from the usual midi crap. I am making it 'wavetable synthesis freindly' in that it will sound much more realistic, but I also need to make sure it doesn't suck, and that it still sounds good, no matter what it is played on. In other news, I remodelled the site. The RPG and such are now under 'projects' at the side of the page, and all the other pages are under their respective labels.
Something that came up over the weekend, that I think you need to know, is my policy on censorship. Put plainly, I will never censor your ideas, or your language, since that would be hypocritical and just plain wrong. What I will censor is the sort of distasteful activities like the post that happened last week (somebody posted a picture that was pretty damn raunchy). The HTML enhanced board is a nice thing to have, but not a necessity. I will switch to a regular HTML disabled board in a heartbeat if that happens again for the relative safety of first-time readers. (Of course, some of my content may warp their fragile little minds, but that's different ;) )
March 15th, MMI
Debugging is hard work! I've got the character moving on the screen, but there are some strange anomolies happening now that I'm implementing collision detection (the thing that stops me from running into walls). Running into walls right now. I really want to have external scripting in the next version of the game, but that would push be back another week, and that's the best-case scenario! The graphics algorithm is the easiest to implement ever, and I get virtually free speed from this. Since it is so easy, and so free, I may eventually render all 240 bytes in one shot, just to get the whole speed thing out of the way. Interpeted (I am starting to believe that interpeted is equal to either the windows NT framerate /2, or the 9x framerate /10, whether I am right remains to be seen. It does mean that I could probably put this on a 486 and hit the interpeted framerate, and that ain't bad. Luckily, there are no more new algorithms, which is good for me, especially since the last few haven't really caught up yet. I'm still hoping to have a new demo by the end of the month, and until further notice, that's the goal. March break should give me the spare time I need to finish the demo.
March 1st,MMI
A new landmark version should be released within the month. I just got the graphics speed up to par, and all I need to do is recode the gameplay. The first non-interactive sequence is on the way too, and the new engine looks and plays better...even without gameplay! The new engine should make the battle engine even easier, so cross your fingers. I put 80 bit rendering in this version, and I'm contemplating 160 bit rendering eventually, so speed is no longer an issue. It runs on a 75 as well as it used to on my 400, and on the 400, I can get up to 50 FPS!!! I put in a real FPS meter (before, it only counted the frames, which didn't work too well) and a few more features. I finally cleaned up the source, which not only made the source and executable smaller, but made the whole program run a little faster! Anyway, back to coding!
Feburary 26th, MMI
Obviously, I've added some trinkets to the site. Please post at my board (even if it is just a 'hello') and definitely do the poll if you have played with the demo. I would like input on the priorities of you guys. Added a link to a page of somebody I know. There isn't much there right now, but after the spartan look of this page, it is a lot nicer asthetically.
Febuary 21st, MMI
Okay, work has been slow lately. I have decided to play some RPGs to make sure that I don't make something boring and repetitive. I had almost forgotten that RPGs are like 50 hour movies...My PVP implementation just keeps getting better, and I've started to move the editors out of the executable to save space and allow for better features in both the editor and the game. I made an editor for the new, huge maps, which has mouse support. The problem is that it runs in screen 12, which is only 16 color, so I have had to add a low-res mode for 256 colors just to discern between the tiles. Later I may add vesa, but it doesn't seem to like my video card, so I'll have to code my own algorithms. Later!
Febuary 8th, MMI
Working with math right now. Sprite rotation is achieved with R(sin(theta)) as I learned yesterday. I'm contemplating rewriting the engine to account for my new knowlege. Don't really want to yet, but the benefits are obvious...Oh yeah, one new optimization makes my new demos work poorly under windows NT. I'll see if it's really worth the lost speed to deoptimize it for winnt.
Febuary 5th, MMI
Decided that it would be far safer for little kids and grandmothers everywhere if I put the Scary rants (man, there not for the weak of heart) on a seperate page with a bigass warning on there. I may move reviews, articles, etc... on to their own pages too, just to make the site more interesting. I may add images at some point, but I like the spartan look of this page compared to other pages. It is a breath of fresh air to see a page ready to go in less than 30 seconds compared to slower pages...
One other thing. I must recommend the search engine at http://www.kvasir.no to anybody looking for a site like the old altavista (fast and all the sites WORK and are good). Just pick 'verden' as the language. It is really an amazing search engine. It brings me back to the days before altavista sold out.
Date Unknown, Febuary, MMI(MMI=2001)

In another slow update, very little news. If you redownload prblm9, I've included ptype.exe, which illustrates my implementation of PvP. I already have it faster, but I need more time to figure out how to handle the UI. (I already have controls, but it doesn't handle collision detection or the scripts.) I also want to set it up so that large areas such as the castle are all one huge PvP map. (something not possible with the old engine) It seems that any slowness translates strangely into other systems. My 400 isn't much faster than a 150 with my current renderer. I hope that I can change my putd statement soon, because the video cards seem to be the determining factor. Sadly, I haven't included the source yet. On the other hand, the paralasis under windows is gone in the new version (alas, it is in dos AND windows now;)) I don't know when to tell you to expect a new version. I'm learning new programming techniques right now...Not even a new map yet!!! My first rant too....It is pretty offensive, especially because I feel strongly on some issues. If you are old, or sensitive, or don't like swears, or hate random bomb or death threats, or work for microsoft, or are bill gates' wife, or don't like references to sex... please don't read it.
...oh yeah, a section with papers on various concepts will be up soon. Whether I keep it up really depends on the magic number...(I'm not going to tell you which one...)
December 20th, 20xx
In the fastest update the site has ever seen, I have uploaded a new demo! Please mail comments to me. After you see the same game for long enough, you lose your objectivity. Enjoy (Next demo should include gameplay...the battle system is the next thing on the slate, then NPCs.)
December 19th, 20xx
HOHOHO! MEEEEERY CHRISTMAS! Actually I don't like this time of year too much, something bad always seems to happen. I killed my mobo at this time last year, give or take a few days but I got something for you. Feeling festive, I have uploaded a demo of the RPG!! Yes, you wore me down. Expect regular demos, but keep in mind that some things may change from version to version. You may find that your savegames no longer work, or something equally depressing...I know that this can be made to work, just tell me what you think! (Sorry, I just can't keep up this 'when it's done' attitude. I don't know how 3d realms does it)
November 9th, 20xx
Small update. The RPG is coming along nicely (though it doesn't have a battle engine yet) but no demo will be available until I have either finished it or come to a point where I might as well have. Investigating other languages recently. Most new basic implementations seem to be stupid. Most of them add unnessessary C and C++ features that are hard to code around. Qbasic continues to be the best. I wonder why MS didn't release a windows version that uses directdraw for graphics? Most of my other progects have ground to a halt for now (sorry doom movie fans, I actually have a new movie to upload so please don't kill me, just wait like you have) but stay with me... For those who didn't notice, the Quake beyond the ViRGE article has been updated with two wrappers. The Virge site I got the wrappers from in the first place lost all it's downloads so I have to get them on my own. Later (I won't update the news every time I update the site. If I did then updates would slow down.)