Snakey

Snake. A game that has probably been done in a thousand different ways by thousands of people world-wide. It’s one of those phases in a computer programmer’s life, ranging from the first “Hello World!”-program to a full-fledged operating system.

And now even I have joined that group of people. Snakey (or whatever it’ll be called finally), will include both the classic snake game (as seen above), but also a more advanced game, which will be the main game. It’s based on the standard snake-type game, but with walls, teleporters arranged in different logic puzzles. Something that might turn out to be pretty fun!

More information on that as it approaches release.

// Marcus

The browser wars

As a long time Internet Explorer user and Microsoft follower (or as some would say, fanboy), making the transition away from it was hard. What could possibly be harder? Going back to IE again.

‘Cause let’s be honest – when it comes to web browsing, there are two types of browsers today. There’s Firefox, and then there’s everything else. Even though IE still retains its years long dominant position, Mozilla has somehow managed to turn the tables around and its market share is increasing by the hour. After having tried the second beta of IE8 however, I’m not so sure about the future. It’s good, it’s better, but will it be good enough?

And then we’ve got all these other browsers. Like Opera, Chrome and Safari. The minor players. I have decided to make a run-through of these (well, at least the bigger ones) during next week in order to establish, not the best one, but which ones that actually qualify as good options.

And with AirSound released, I’ve decided to once and for all actually finish Salvation. YEAH!

So that’s what you can expect for the coming week. Stay tuned!

// Marcus

AirSound beta released

And so, we are finally here. The first beta of the mediaplayer AirSound, developed by me and designed by Anders Forsberg at OnePlace Design & Graphics, has finally reached open beta.

Remember of course that this is a beta. Because of this, there might be bugs and it might not be as well developed as one of the major media players out there. But please send back any feedback that you have to me at tp640871@hotmail.com or leave a comment on this page!

NOTE! This edition of AirSound is not XP compatible (or quite frankly, not compatible with anything earlier than Vista.) An XP compatible update is coming later today or tomorrow! I apologize for the inconvinience.

Download AirSound on its page in the menu to the left!

Microsoft updates their Ultimate Extras package

After a long while, Microsoft has actually updated the Ultimate Extras (the special content available for us Vista Ultimate users). This time around, the giants up at Redmond have released three virtually identical Dreamscenes and a game.

The game – Microsoft Tinker – is a simple yet surprisingly addictive logic puzzle game. You control a robot who has to navigate obstacles through the (mostly) well-constructed levels. To make it more difficult, you only have a set number of moves to make (although you can increase that by picking up batteries that exists on some levels).

The game is available for free on Windows Update at the Ultimate Extras page.

Yes, yes, the game is fine, especially for a game bundled witht he OS. But seriously, is this really something Microsoft expects Vista or those-moving-to-Vista to be motivated by to get the Ultimate sku? In keeping with their current ad campaign, why not release these things to all (at least Premium) Vista users? Agreed, they can’t start breaking down the relatively small barriers between the different Vista editions, but it might be something to think about for Windows 7.

Windows Vista 2.0?

One of the big tech stories around is of course the new information leaked about Windows 7. I’ve started a new article series called the Windows 7 status report where you can find information about the new features and changes for the new Windows operating system set for late 2009 or early 2010. In it I also discuss whether or not this can be called a new major release or just a Windows Vista 2nd edition.

You can find the article here.

// Marcus

AirSound beta on friday

We’ve come a long way. The once small alpha build of my media player has evolved and reached open beta stage. On Friday (September 26th), AirSound beta 1 will be openly released here on this site.

Other things to expect here during the week will be a status report page on the coming Microsoft OS release (currently entitled Windows 7), as well as a short Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 sneak peek. The Live Messenger 9 Beta preview might also be coupled with a review of the rest of the upcoming Live package.

Not to mention Salvation… yes, it will come. I just need some time to get it done.

// Marcus

AirSound conquering the world of media

Aside from changing the blog name from Game development to Software development, work has really taken off on a collaborative project involving myself and the design studios over at OnePlace Design & Graphics. The project (formerly known as ÅbergTunes) is entitled AirSound and will (when it’s ready) be a fully featured media player.

A release date for the first beta has not yet been established, but I hope to have it ready within the coming weeks.

// Marcus

Software reviews

After having beta tested the upcoming update to the Windows Live Messenger platform (WLM 9.0), I decided to write a little preview about it here. A little preview finally became a big one and I decided to open up a review section, which you can find on the left of the page.

Read the Windows Live Messenger 9 (BETA) Review here.

Whatever happened to… Salvation?

For those of you who are wondering what has happened to Salvation, since I haven’t written anything about it for quite some time – don’t be alarmed. Yes, progress on that game has slowed down somewhat and the previous date will probably not be met. Sorry about that. The reason is that other titles have been given presedence and more newer titles will be as well (including a media player I will be presenting to you after the weekend).

But all is well that ends well. I promise that Salvation will be out shortly (and by that I mean in a couple of weeks. All the characters, as you can see above, have been drawn, the levels are almost finished and the movies are about halfway done.

What’s good about this is when Salvation is done I will have a powerful engine on which to build many other similar RPG games. And, as my source code is usually open source – so will you (with knowledge of C++ and a lot of time on your hands).

// Marcus

Computer update

Sadly, I’ve spent the entire day after school upgrading my computer to 4 GB of RAM and installing the 64-bit edition of Windows Vista, which has so far worked like a charm.

The level editor for LennyCopter is out shortly though, as well as a beta on my Media Player (codenamed ÅbergTunes). The level editor will at least be out this weekend. The media player probably some time next week.

// Marcus