After playing spending my weekend at the LAN party at Madicon, I’ve been re-inspired to set up an Unreal Tournament 2004 server on Lupinia’s server. I was going to do it anyway, initially, but I don’t play it very often due to a lack of opponents (bots make good target practice, but they get boring after awhile).

The downside is that there doesn’t appear to be a shortcut around installing the game from the DVD, even if you’re only running it as a dedicated server. I tried a few options to make this work, but none of them did. The DVD image is 3.5gb, and while I may be able to compress that a bit, I probably can’t do it enough to make a major difference in the upload time.

So, if I go to the trouble of doing this, would anyone be interested in using it? I’d rather not do it if I’ll end up playing by myself, and I don’t particularly want to make it an advertised, public server. I just want some folks to play a fun game with

Wee, the first day of Madicon is over. I have to say, the con seems a lot more organized this year than any other year I’ve been to it (and this is my 5th), and the LAN room in particular kicks ass! It’s being run by a group from the Hampton Roads area, and they do this on a pretty regular basis.
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I forgot to mention this, but this weekend is Madicon, the local sci-fi/gaming con at JMU. I’m not staffing it this year, thankfully, but if I end up going to the LAN party there (depends on whether it sucks), I’ll be pretty much out of contact all day/night on Saturday.

So, now you know, and knowing is half the battle

Yes, after about two months of playing it (but only actually running the program three times in that span), I’ve finally joined the ranks of nerds who’ve beaten the game Portal. Go me.

Oh, and the cake is not a lie, you freaks, I received cake

Last week, I finally bought a new video card, and I’ve been very pleased with its performance. For the first time, one of my all-time favourite games, GTA: Vice City, runs smoothly, and runs well. So, I decided I wanted to start playing it again. My previous savegames didn’t load, but I had made a few modifications at the time, so I simply started a new game. Got to a stopping point I liked, saved the game, and quit. Tried to start it again later, and the saved game wouldn’t load. No error, no locking up, just loading into a blank screen and staying there.

Apparently, this is a somewhat common problem with a large array of causes

This pattern has repeated itself 5 times now, and the worthless GTA mod community stops giving a shit about each game a year after its launch, so no one bothered to decode the savegame format enough to repair it (though there are utilities to change the car spawn locations in your saved game).

I give up. I really love this game, but I’m getting really tired of putting hours of play into passing the same initial missions I’ve done a dozen times already, just to have to do it all again when the file flakes. This last time was particularly irritating, because I went to the trouble of not using any cheat codes (the only “official” cause of savegame corruption stated by Rockstar Games), something that makes the game almost unplayably difficult.

EDIT: And for some reason, my sound card is now stuck in 3D mode, even after exiting properly multiple times.

Does anyone who reads this play Battlefield 2142? Fox and I have been playing it quite a bit lately, and I was hoping to find some other friends to join us

My player name is KillerWolfy, his is F0xz0r

Wee, another Madicon. This was my fourth year in a row going to it, and while it seems blasphemous not to go (it’s less than two miles from my house), I probably wouldn’t have gone if it weren’t for the associated LAN party. That said, it was definitely a better experience than last year.
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Another year, another Madicon. Like last year, Fox and I will be hosting the LAN room at the con, and there shall be much LAN gaming! Considering that it’s being hosted by Fox and I, it’ll definitely be furry-friendly. So, if you like to play LAN games, come on down!

Madicon (www.madicon.org) is held at the Festival Student Center on JMU campus on March 9-11. The room we’re in will be well-secured at night, so you don’t have to worry about stuff walking away.

We’re still working on a games list, but it’s pretty much whatever folks want to play. There will definitely be Starcraft and Unreal Tournament (2004 and probably at least a few rounds of GOTY), and probably Half Life 2. Beyond that, the list is up for grabs, so bring whatever you want (and enough to share ;-P ).

Unfortunately, the one crash-space spot available at our house has already been filled. However, there are good hotels in the area for suprisingly low rates (in fact, every hotel in town except Budget Inn and Days Inn would be recommendable) if you’re coming from too far away to drive home.

We’d love to have more people here, so if you’re up for some LAN gaming, come on down!

Well, Madicon came and went, another badge to add to the collection. Looking at the whole con, I’d say it was average; not spectacular but not a total flop. However, from the LAN room, where Fox and I attempted to run computer gaming, it totally sucked.
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In my haste to get things ready for Megaplex, I almost forgot to mention Madicon, a local sci-fi/gaming convention held at JMU. It’s not really furry, but they have LAN gaming, and it’s a chance to see all my nerd friends. Fox and I will be running the LAN room this year, and I think it’ll be the best one ever. If you’re in the area, drop by and say hi! And bring a computer, if you want, the more the merrier Since my computer and I will be at the con all weekend, I’ll be off IM the whole time. I’ll probably invent a way for us to check email, but that’s about it. My phone will still be on the network, too, and I’ll be checking voicemail every night.

Fox is becoming quite the radio nerd, he’s had his license for two weeks and already far surpasses me in knowledge and number of contacts. We installed the mobile from the Rover in the Integra this week, and aside from some interferance issues with the other equipment in the car (the XM tuner loses signal if we key up on VHF), it’s working great and looks quite nice. Fox modified the dash and did the mounting, I wired it up and stuffed everything in the car, it was a lot harder than I expected.

We saw Eight Below last night, and only one word describes it: OMFGCUTEHUSKIESOFDOOM! The doggies were so cute! I highly recommend this movie to furs, babyfurs, females, and anyone who likes painfully-cute sled dogs. There were some sad parts, but it was really sweet. I want a husky!

Next weekend is Megaplex, I can’t wait. Hope to see you all there!