Ramblings (Underdog Chamber)

Just noticed today that the Cuttle Cart 3 is shipping. I’m hoping to get this thing within the week, so I can work on it and get it ready for the show. It would be just too cool to have almost all the INTV games ready for play! Fingers really crossed on this one – I’ve already got the microSD cards ready to go (I bought them last week).

On a side note: The MMC card reader has shipped, so I should get that by Tuesday. I hope this will help with the Cuttle Cart 2 MMC card issues. If not… well, there better not be a ‘not’!

First off, the good news is that I’ve gotten most of the files moved over the the HD on my Apple IIgs. All I need is some time to re-write some of the menu software, and it is set to go. Oh, and of course, pick out some floppy software as well.

Bad stuff starts with the IIgs as well. My old Apple RGB monitor just bit the dust! I’ve got a backup monitor, but that is it then for RGB monitors. Guess I’ll have to start looking into some type of replacement. I just wish I had bought a 2nd Sight card years ago,.

Other bad news is that I’m having issues getting the Cuttle Cart II to work. More to the point, I can’t get the MMC cards (I’ve got two) to be recognized by my Mac or PC. Thus, I have no way of transferring software to the CC2. I’ve ordered another card reader (I’ve wanted one anyway), and am hoping this is the issue. I can’t see two cards dying at the same time. I won’t know till the reader shows up next week. If the replacement card reader doesn’t do the job, then I will be pulling the 7800 from the show (which I do not want to do)!

Till then, I’m focusing on the Apple IIgs, as I want to get another system on the ‘ready’ list. Just crossing my fingers on the MMC card reader!

On May 6th, the final testing was done for the Quake Mac LAN, and all went rather well. Quake performed like a charm, working rather well even on my slowest iMac. Thus the 6-player LAN is ready to go for the Underdog Chamber. This will include 5 iMacs and a Blue & White tower unit.
(Special thank to the folks who helped with this ‘load’ test – Erica, Greg, Rob, Todd, and Tom)

On the side, I also tried to run a network game of Bungie’s old Abuse. However, I don’t think this game really likes classic Mac OS 9, as it kept crashing the system way too much. Basically, if you ran anything before Abuse, then ran Abuse, it would lock up the entire network. This caused all machines to need a hard-boot. Because of this issue, Abuse is out of the show, for ever! Decent game, but I don’t need system crashes that this game produces. I’m guessing it works better under OS 7 or 8, but I’m not downgrading!

I did a Minotaur test again too though, which is also an even older game by Bungie. This game, however, works like a charm. No crashes and such, just a nice old classic game that is similar to Gauntlet – except the players are out to get each other! I may try to run this at the show, if anyone shows interest.

In video game news, I am still waiting for the installation instructions for the Intellivision video upgrade. I will have to admit that I am getting impatient. Argh! I do have good news in this area, if it hopefully ships in time. The Cuttle Cart III has just been released for the Intellivision. This will hopefully (if it gets to me in time) allow me to run all the INTV games at the show using just the Cuttle Cart III. Fingers crossed on this one!

Meanwhile, while I’m also waiting for the Atari 7800 video upgrade, I will be working on the Cuttle Cart II later this week (hopefully). I’ve had it for years, but only now am getting around to setting it up. Yeah, sometimes I let things sit on the side for too long (don’t we all to some extent).

Oh, my upgraded G7400 (thanks again René) is pretty much done, and should be shipped back to me real soon. I don’t see why this should not get to me before the show, so I can get it and other things ready for the G7400 / Odyssey2 area of the Underdog Chamber.

One last thing here too, I started work on the Apple IIgs. I was going to bring my original unit, but have decided to bring an old backup computer instead. Main reason for this is that the IIgs in mind has a built in HD, so it will take up less table space, and that is what I want. I just need to transfer some cool games over to its huge 20MB hard drive (yeah, amazing how much fit on these old drives, when software wasn’t so damn bloated)!

So, that is it for now. One thing I regret here, is that I totally forgot to take pictures of the Quake LAN in action. Had the camera there and all, and then forgot about it until after I had taken everything apart for my Sunday night D&D game. Oh well…

Today (Friday), before Sunday’s Quake final ‘full run’ test, I wired up the Mac LAN and fired it all up! No major hitches, and I even got Quake up and running on the LAN. Did what little testing I could by myself, but it looked very promising. No apparent lag, even on the slowest iMac. I did notice a possible ‘return’ issue with my best older iMac, but won’t be able to verify till Sunday. I hope this thing does not act up like it did three years ago, because repairing it would be more than it is worth. Only bad thing I noticed about the Quake LAN was that it is not the easiest thing to get going (Bungie’s Marathon is so much easier), but it is cool that players can leave/exit the game without having to stop the whole thing (which you have to do with Marathon)!

I also did a test Bungie’s Abuse too, again as best I could by myself. This program for some unknown reason kept crashing when run on the fastest Mac, thus I hosted the network game on my 2nd fastest older Mac. It ran fine then, but did exhibit some minor but annoying issues. I may just pull the plug on Abuse, or at the least, just run it for short times during the show.

So, at this time, with the impending ‘Full Test’ on Sunday, it looks like the original Quake will be the main event at the Underdog Chamber for ’07! Abuse will be a side game, and I may run a few games of Marathon (or even Minotaur) if some people request it (but I really want to focus on Quake this year – I don’t want to get stuck running the same darn thing every year). Now if only someone would donate six G4 Macs, and I could do Return To Castle Wolfenstien next year!

I’ve been working on getting the Macs ready for the final test run of Quake this coming weekend. I’ll be having some friends and my brother-in-law over for the test, so it should be a fun test, hopefully. I’ve gotten 4 of the iMacs ready (1 to go) and the Blue & White is ready as well. I also installed some extra software on the two iMacs I got recently, plus driver installation to support 2-button mice. This was needed, as Quake makes use of all the buttons, and the wheel button as well.

One other thing to note, I plan on doing a short test of Abuse as well. This should be fine, as it is a Bungie program, and they were great at making easy LAN programs. Just a matter of giving it a full run.

So, if all goes well this weekend, I will finally be able to add the Mac LAN to the ‘finalized’ list of things at the show for MGC ’07. (And yes, that is a LCD monitor in the picture below. First one for the show, as I’ve lost some older CRTs last year, and I’m sick of them taking up so much space).

Quake! – Mac LAN taking shape