So... the new version of Spy vs Spy doesn't fare all that well.
Ah well, there's always the original to fall back on.
Archive for April of 2005
Spy vs Spy
April 30, 2005On ports and choosing which to use
April 21, 2005
I found out why I couldn't log into The Matrix Online. Monolith picked ports 10,000 and 11,000 as the ports MxO was to communicate on (as an aside, why not consecutive ports?). Unfortunately, some hatstand Brazilian decided to release a Trojan generator which apparently defaults to using port 11,000 and, as a consequence, that port is on the watched list for my firewall. Something about the way MxO is sending packets convinces KPF to block most of the packets the game expects - some get through; from poking around with Ethereal they seem to be one's not marked with the PSH flag - so I get a TCP_TIMEDOUT error when trying to log in.
Republic Commando
April 16, 2005
Finally got Republic Commando working. After - on the suggestions of Activision support (which is apparently staffed entirely by Scotsmen) - upgrading my video drivers, re-installing my sound drivers, shutting off the second monitor, dropping down to 4x AGP, fixing the refresh rate at 60Hz and downgrading my videos drivers to the version between the one I had before I upgraded to the latest, I spotted that the video display window was what was crashing. After I'd uninstalled some dodgy Matroska codec I'd used to try and play some clip someone had uploaded of the Daily Show it worked.
Balance Schmalance
April 11, 2005
I was going to reply on the CoH boards, but apparently cancelling your account locks you out even when you have a month left to go. Beats me how those who renew monthly are supposed to be involved in the community there.
Anyway, over at Cryptic Towers they're running into the age-old problem that given thousands of people hammering on your game, they'll eventually find the path of least resistance through the content. As usual, this is seen not as the players succeeding, but as the system failing; as if it's impossible for the players to get better at playing the game.
Anyway, over at Cryptic Towers they're running into the age-old problem that given thousands of people hammering on your game, they'll eventually find the path of least resistance through the content. As usual, this is seen not as the players succeeding, but as the system failing; as if it's impossible for the players to get better at playing the game.
Can you go back?
April 10, 2005
Due to moving old accounts from Microsoft's billing system to Turbine's for a brief period last week I had live subscriptions to Asheron's Call, Asheron's Call 2, City of Heroes and World of Warcraft. Now only the WoW one is still extant.
Signing up again to the AC and AC2 accounts and dropping them almost immediately does give a month's playtime (even in AC2 now Turbine have rescinded Microsoft's Mafia-like “you done wanna pay? you done gotta play!” immediate account cutoff anyway), so I thought I'd pop in and see how the old games are doing.
Signing up again to the AC and AC2 accounts and dropping them almost immediately does give a month's playtime (even in AC2 now Turbine have rescinded Microsoft's Mafia-like “you done wanna pay? you done gotta play!” immediate account cutoff anyway), so I thought I'd pop in and see how the old games are doing.