Gamesauce #2!

There's a new magazine in town for game developers, and its name is Gamesauce. The first issue had an interview with Trip Hawkins. I was fortunate enough to be interviewed for the second issue by Brenda Brathwaite and answered some of the more interesting questions I've been asked thus far.

There are some other great articles inside, such as Ensemble Studios' development transition from Age of Empires 1 to 2 (Age of Kings), a short interview with my friend Randy Pitchford, and an article with ideas about how to you can spend your time if your game has been canceled.

The people who put this magazine together are a great bunch. They have many, many years of experience in the industry and want the magazine to be only the highest quality. I worked with Jessica Tams and Jake Simpson, and they are both very kind and generous to include me here. Gamesauce is only for professional game developers and those in the game industry.

You can read the entire magazine right now.

Wordpress Hacked

My Wordpress install got hacked a week or more ago, and I couldn't work on figuring it out until tonight. Well, it looks like some hacker found out my wp-config.php file had some bad permissions set and he inserted some code in there that basically scanned every php file on my site and injected every php file with code that will redirect users to various malware sites.

It was easier for me to edit every php file rather than re-download all my plugins again (except the W3 Caching plugin - it has about 100 files). I also had to reinstall the theme because it was fully infected, too.

So, everyone, make sure you have proper permissions set on all your files or things like this can happen.

Dark Forces on Mac OS X

Three years ago I wrote a post about getting Dark Forces (DOS, 1995, LucasArts) running under Windows Vista. Well, I got it working under Mac OS X (I use Snow Leopard) easily.

Here are my updated directions for Mac OS X:

(1) Copy entire contents of the Dark Forces CD to a directory (ex. ~/Games/Dark). Keep the directory name to 8 letters or less.
(2) Download the latest Mac OS X version of DOSBox and install it.
(3) mount c ~/Games/Dark (or wherever you put the game on your hard drive)
(4) c:
(5) subst p: c:
(6) p:
(7) cd dark
(8) type either imuse or dark to run the sound config utility or the game

To go in/out of full-screen mode, press Option-Return. That's it - it works great!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention, for Mac users there is an awesome program named Boxer that will wrap your DOS games up in a simple app file and you just double-click to launch. It's really amazing. Check it out here.

Retro Gamer #75

This month, Retro Gamer in the UK published issue 75 (over 6 years) and did something they've never done before: they had a guest editor. And, you guessed it, that was me. It also has my name on the cover, so that kinda gives it away.

The cover of the magazine is Wolfenstein 3D (much like another issue several months before that was all about the making of Wolf 3D). I got to read/edit all the magazine content before they published it, and I made comments about several of the articles. The biggest part of the magazine I'm involved with is a 12-page interview with me. There are also industry notables who wrote some paragraphs about me, and readers wrote in about their favorite games of mine.

All in all, I was very happy with the result. Darran Jones did a tremendous job planning and executing this feature. Retro Gamer is sold in most major bookstores.

Retro Gamer put out a press release about this issue:

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
30 March 2010

Retro Gamer gains industry legend as guest Editor

John Romero and Imagine Publishing team up for special issue of the world's greatest retro games magazine, Retro Gamer, is proud to announce an exciting new collaboration with John Romero, co-founder of one of today's most important and popular genres - the first-person shooter.

On Wednesday 31 March, issue 75 of Retro Gamer goes on sale across the UK and the world with a special celebration issue featuring industry legend John Romero as guest Editor. As well as a host of special content picked by Romero, the issue is packed with comments, tributes and insights from those who have worked with him over the years, such as John Carmack and Dave Perry. The special issue also includes an exhaustive 12-page interview with the man himself, outlining his career, his thoughts on the industry today, and his intriguing current project.

Making his name at companies such as Origin Systems and Softdisk, Romero cut his programming teeth on the Apple II before moving into the PC market. Teaming up with fellow Softdisk workers John Carmack, Adrian Carmack and Tom Hall, he co-formed id Software. After finding success in the shareware scene with the Commander Keen games, id created Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake, and with them ushered in a new era of gaming that's still immensely popular today.

"I absolutely love Retro Gamer magazine because it covers all the game history that I love and remember fondly," said Romero. "Being allowed the chance to do a little writing for the magazine was an amazing opportunity and I hope you all enjoy it the way I did."

"John Romero is a genuine legend in the videogame industry," said Darran Jones, Editor of Retro Gamer, "and he has been behind some of the most influential games this industry has ever seen. It's been a real pleasure collaborating with him on this exciting project."