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Hey guys,

Sorry to have kept you waiting that long, I got food poisoning from McDonald's Chicken Nuggets.
But anyway, I'm still alive, so here's the next one.

Reading a few contest threads back I realized that there is not always a certain topic to which a musical piece is to be created, but there were many different tasks. So, I came up with the following:

I have created something myself (a small 1'20"-tune) and your task basically is to "answer" it.

There are no real limitations besides that. You can come up with anything you want, as long as it's a clear reply. For your entry's own sake, it would probably be wise to tell me how you interpreted and answered the tune, be it via PM, e-mail or by simply zipping your entry and adding a text file.

Examples:
- Someone replies to the tune itself, without connecting it to anything in any game and adds a text file that describes his thoughts concerning both my and his tune.
- Some other one thinks about where in a game my tune could be placed and what might come next. As he is to lazy to do all this zipping stuff, he just sends an e-mail to blodvarg@gmail.com that (naturally) contains these thoughts.
- A third one is inspired by the tune to create a sound effect (yes, that's also possible). It will of course be harder for him to explain how he came up with this effect and why this was because of my tune, but that's not a concern, I'm sure I can handle that.
- Some stupid could send me a PM how extraordinary well my tune was, hoping to win himself with this. I will then post this text here for everybody to read it, declare the author as terrorist and then write a letter to the White House.

Of course, you won't score less if you don't quite hit what I thought when creating the tune. As long as I can follow your interpretation, it is correct. And, what is an advantage for every entry, because you are not asked to make something to a specific topic, you can of course stick to your own style.

So, enough words. Here's the tune: http://de.geocities.com/another_maggot2002/ej_svar.zip

It is included as Ogg Vorbis and GS Midi. As I use foobar as player, every audio format is accepted.

I hope the task is not too exotic, if so, feel free to tell me.

Have fun, and sorry for the delay.
- Blodvarg

I think I may have misread this... *reads again*
No, I've actually won! Woah! Thanks! I actually don't know what else to write--I didn't, like, expect this.

I didn't have access to the internet since Friday, therefore my late reply, sorry for that. Been out with friends, saw Bauhaus yesterday in Cologne, that sort of thing. Sorry for that.

I think I might already have something for the next contest. I'll just have to think over it again, I think I'm gonna post it tomorrow then.

I actually just rang my girlfriend to tell her I've won and the two of us went crazy.

Until now this is the best week ever for me.
- Blodvarg

Well, that DOES give Nikolas time to fix the 404 error.
Right, Nikolas?

Oh, get the hint already.
- Blodvarg

I keep it simple yet secure. I use one term as base for all of my passwords, and each password is a variation of this term. I used to use senseless but correct sentences back when I was twelve, but I like the way I do it now better.

I guess nobody would want to hack me, yeah. But you can't stick to opinions like these when it comes to matters like privacy. For example, if anybody hacked my account in one of the forums I'm in and posted illegal material, I as owner of the account would be responsible for this content, no matter if everyone else on the forums knew it wasn't really me who posted.

A friend of mine has encrypted his partitions with a password which is either 664 or 646 characters long, I can't remember right now.

That's, like, nuts.
- Blodvarg

Wow. So there I am, reading this thread while listening to an old Pearl Jam album ("Ten", 1990 or so).
I recognized some of the stories from other forums where I've actually seen the development. But even I as a total newbie to this community do have an impression now of the tightly bound brotherhood of AGS pioneers. The texts themselves create a certain impression--I almost feel like I was part of it all "back then" and long for those times. Then I remember having registered here this month and actually feel guilty for breaking in.

Even with my first postings and the answers to them there was the feeling of having joined an overall superb community. Where people are treated like people and not like, well, faceless forum accounts. This is amazing and a very important part of forum etiquette.

I figured this forum would be a cool one when doing the registering quiz (Great idea! I love it!) but this is just... overwhelming.

You rock, forum members.
- Blodvarg

Oh, okay. Dunno, I don't actually have much time at the moment to play or make any game, which is a shame. But, it's about school. This summer I'll have my "Abitur" (which is comparable to the British "a-levels") and then I can concentrate on AGS again.

The times, they are a-changin'.
- Blodvarg

[EDIT]Am I the only one not able to download Eggie's entry? It somehow redirects to this here thread again whenever I click the link.[/EDIT]

Yes, we have this CCTV stuff here in Germany, too.
Some people who caught the signal found out that the people behind the monitors like to zoom into windows of nearby appartments. And what's even more shocking, everyone knew--except the people.

So, everyone: It's not about just some private data that is collected via the internet (and yes, it IS collected!) but about more. This ICQ Inc. stuff is just a part of the whole process (and no, this is not a conspiracy theory, I'm just saying there is a general movement towards this particular direction), but it's a part where one can do something to show that one does notice what those people do with one's data. And that this is not okay.

The problem is, there is no "in-between" this time. None at all. So it's about choosing one's side also.

Things are always so complicated.
- Blodvarg

Ok. Some people seem to think that there are actually PEOPLE sitting in front of the ICQ Servers manually reading through every single file, message or whatever that floats through. Of course, this is not the case.
If you were searching for a file with certain words in it, wouldn't you use the search function rather than looking through every file? Get serious, okay?

Now. Let's take an example that is not as "unlikely" as the others apparently seem to be. We do have the RIAA. We do have people who are sick of paying ridiculously expensive prices for CDs. Now, there's a great way to get those people. Let's have the RIAA ask ICQ Inc. to search through their log files for names of popular p2p engines. I'm sure you all agree if I say that the RIAA (despite their talk) have enough money to buy all those logs. And--voilá, we have a use of these "new" TOS.

Then, the typical copyright thingy that naturally comes with this. You already talked about that.

And, really, we are moving into a "1984" direction. And it's even more alarming that some of you are just like "No, I'm not going to read this stuff, it can't be that bad anyways." Sorry, but I do care about my rights as a human being. And therefore, I won't just watch things like that happening.

That's all.
- Blodvarg

Like I said--I use Jabber. It's much better anyways, as it encrypts anything you'll post/send there with GnuPG, 128bit. That's, like, impressive. Yeah.

And personal information is a big deal, Vict0r. I'd like my life with a little privacy, s'il vous plaît. Ever read "1984" or "Brave New World"? We're moving into this direction. Take the RIAA. Take Kasperspy Labs. Take, like, everything that's proprietary. Oh, yeah, and take Microsoft.

Stay secure.
- Blodvarg

To be honest, I never got to play Lands of Lore. So, I can't say anything about it.
If it's too close, I could do something else though. Not a big problem.

Peace.
- Blodvarg

Greetings.

I'm not sure how many people here have read the Terms of Service that ICQ Inc. have changed. There's a new paragraph there that says:

"You agree that by posting any material or information anywhere on the ICQ Services and Information you surrender your copyright and any other proprietary right in the posted material or information. You further agree that ICQ Inc. is entitled to use at its own discretion any of the posted material or information in any manner it deems fit, including, but not limited to, publishing the material or distributing it."

As AOL bought ICQ Inc., this is also valid for AIM. As Microsoft is moving into the same direction, it won't be a big surprise to me if the MSN Messenger changes their TOS in a similar way sometime. I consider this inacceptable and have changed to Jabber ( http://www.jabber.org ), a free alternative which seems to be much better anyways, thus the deleted ICQ# in my profile.
My Jabber identification is blodvarg@jabber.ccc.de--I post it here for there is no place for it in the profile information of the AGS forums.

Sorry if anybody considers this spam, but I found it neccesary to inform you of all this, even if it is not the most recent topic. I'm sure you as game creators have a major interest in your copyright, thus this thread.

ICQ Inc. shall burn.
- Blodvarg

Yes, I agree--I love making evil-villain-tunes. I haven't got that much time though, I think I did this whole thing in one or two hours. But I so wanted to do this, I couldn't miss the opportunity.

http://rapidshare.de/files/12012693/evil_bbc-comp.zip.html

Now, I did not watch "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," but still. To have it fit together better I did both the lair and the villain-on-screen tune, thus the .zip (I gained, like, 30kb though!)--both loopable.

Again, I have to use an onboard-sound card, so the mixing probably is totally wrong, you're welcome to tear me to pieces or so. Onboard tends to suck, I know.

Naturally, every entry on this topic ought to be listened to with lights out, eyes closed etc.--you get my point.

Let evil reign.
- Blodvarg

PS: Please be so kind and change that thread title. "Tuna contest" makes me hungry. I think I'm gonna have breakfast now, or something similar.

Like I said, you've really earned this one.
I mean, the idea was very great, I'd never have come up with that; and what you made of it--awesome.

Really.

- Blodvarg

I love the fact that the winning tune was last-minute posted. Like, 90 minutes before Petteri's post. Could be out of some cheap Hollywood movie.

Congratulations, He-Man. I dig your tune--you've really earned this.

I also think Geoffkhan made the steel drums sound better than me (I didn't do anything with the velocity there, I somehow didn't manage that, it always sounded, like, weird), but thanks for that 2nd place anyways. I didn't dare to think I'd get this far.

Sorry, Petteri, but I don't know how I came up with that melody. I suppose it's just a bit more folky/medieval (maybe for pirates have not arrived in the 17th century there, from an educational point of view) than typical music of that time. But when I did the tune, I just put some random melody in there. It was as easy as that, really.

Great competition, guys. I loved it!

- Blodvarg

I didn't know if ogg was accepted, so I zipped it just in case.

Shrugging,
- Blodvarg

Somehow the mixing got lost, but anyways.

Blodvarg + S90 + PC = http://rapidshare.de/files/11584312/piratey.zip.html
I wanted that the tune be loopable, yet also being able to be played just once.

Cheers.
- Blodvarg

[EDIT]Um, just listened to Geoffkhan's entry. I hope mine doesn't sound like a copycat of his. If it does: sorry, it's actually not. :/[/EDIT]

I somehow hoped that ChangeRoom() would also be able to set the player's starting room. So, yes, that was exactly what I did wrong.
Thanks.

- Blodvarg

I got a 0xC0000005 in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x00447F39 (program pointer: -42, ACI v2.71.894, gtags(188,24)) when trying to test run my game.

Everything worked perfectly well until I had the following idea:
The title screen shows up after the introduction (kind of like MI). When first running the game, an "intro flag" is created in a seperate file (int, value 1). The purpose of this is that the intro sequence is shown only when running the game for the 1st time, after that, the title screen would show up directly. (Of course, there's a button for viewing the intro again.)

Now, here's what I did:
This code excerpt is from game_start():

    File *iflag = File.Open("intro.flg", eFileRead);
    if(iflag!=null) {
      if(iflag.ReadInt()) player.ChangeRoom(1, 0, 0);
      else mouse.Visible = false;
      iflag.Close();
    } else mouse.Visible = false;

As the default starting room of course is room 0 (the intro room), if there's an error or the var isn't set or something, I just need to turn the mouse visibility off.
Then, in the room script for room 0 I put the following directly after the EndCutscene() command:

  File *iflag = File.Open("intro.flg", eFileWrite);
  if(iflag!=null) {
    iflag.WriteInt(1);
    iflag.Close();
  }

I figured this should work fine, although it might not be the most efficient way of scripting this. It works fine when running the game for the first time, but when the flag is set to 1 and I re-run the game, the exeption posted above occurs.

Now, I'm not quite shure if this is really a bug or just some big scripting mistake by silly me. In both cases, I don't know how to fix this, so I'd be happy if anybody here could help me.

Thanks in advance.

- Blodvarg