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The OS is Linux based, but that's not important for a developer. As you saw, the 3rd party application platform is based on a custom Java VM, which is for security and stability reasons. Unlike some other phone systems like SymbianOS, running native code won't be an option, which is what prevents ScummVM or AGS being easily ported.

It's still a good platform for games though.

It's a mobile operating system and development platform, not a single phone. Which is better than it being a phone if it can get enough marketshare. It seems like a very developer friendly system. It is based on Java though, like a lot of mobile platforms. C/C++ things like AGS and ScummVM don't compile at all well on a Java machine.

The only part of AGS that uses .net is the editor, so no, it doesn't make a difference for running games. Only CJ could comment on how hard it'd be to do a .net version of the engine but it doesn't seem likely.

Camtasia has always worked with AGS although the framerate isn't necessarily good or synced to AGS. Fraps was designed to record 3D games, and it didn't previously work with AGS for me, but if you run your game in AGS 3.0's Direct 3D mode, it probably will. Fraps records each frame off the card so it's perfect quality and framerate.

If you use Fraps you'll need to know how to recompress the videos that it outputs because it does no compression on its own.

Also, I'm not being a hypocrite, what I meant by not being on the side of the pirates was I don't buy into "music must be free" or "I'm taking a stand on music prices!" ideology of stealing. I'm a cheap lazy thief...

Admitting you do it while denouncing it as thieving just makes you an honest hypocrite I don't think what you do should be called that though, or even that it's a negative thing, seeing as you're someone that spends a reasonable amount on media you like.

Obtaining something you don't agree about the price of for free anyway implies you are greedy, rather than having a potent ideological standpoint

I can understand this, if it's assumed that the person gives up paying for creative products entirely. But I think enjoying a wide variety of things for free while supporting some of the creators as best you can is a reasonable approach to take if you think distribution methods have changed things so that a lower price, wider selection model is a better thing for both artists and society in general. It's not perfect, but as things are it's impossible to spread your budget out properly.

My life is richer for piracy, and artists are not losing out. I wouldn't be so negative about people that pirate in order to broaden their horizons. If you pirate in order to pay less, on the whole, to artists, then you are indeed a leech (much better term than thief in this context, imo, it doesn't so much have the implication of taking someone's property.)

Luckily I think most people want to support artists they like. Perhaps I have too much faith in them.

You want to do a digital comic. You mean in the typical webcomic vector style? A tablet would probably serve you better in that case, although even a mouse would do alright if you're not going to be doing mountains of strips.

A scanner is good if you can draw comic art well already. If you want to base off photos I'd say just get a cheap digital camera... developing and scanning photos is going to get expensive.

Different methods get different results, but a tablet is probably overall a more useful thing if you don't draw a lot with traditional materials.

It takes several days for flea treatments to work. It usually took a few weeks for them to totally disappear for me, although you're going at it pretty hardcore from the sounds of it.

The stuff that targets their reproduction seems pretty effective though, I expect they'll go away eventually.

You have the option to transfer the already owned games to a friend's account. Valve explicitly encouraged that to persuade people to buy the bundle.

I don't think reselling would be illegal... but with all the spare copies of HL2 and Ep1 around now you'd be hard pressed to find a buyer.

http://turbosquid.com is possibly the biggest if you want to buy them. That's been around for ages. http://www.3drt.com/3dm/3dm.htm has more fantasy game type stuff. Of course you could also pay someone to make them Even if it's on a deadline it could look better than a mixture of pre made things.

It has become a "faux pas" because it has always indicated of a lack of effort. The few people that rip artwork usually aren't putting the work into the rest of the game either, so it's a big turn off. I don't think it would be difficult to atone for this though, and people have pointed to some games that rip and don't suck. It's not a mortal sin.

Combining things from very different games to good effect isn't easy. Most of the time I feel that the greater technical quality of ripped artwork isn't worth the bother because the characters don't match the game or the backgrounds don't evoke the right mood and dictate the puzzles. Someone with some good design sense can overcome that too. If you rip I would recommend some heavy editing of the originals to suit your purposes.

As for the legal issues, who cares? Certainly not the artists that work in the game developers, nor the money men until you cause a visible problem for them.

Nice going. If you're going for speed I wouldn't dwell on things too much, this is great if it only takes an hour per BG.
If you want some quick tweak ideas, I'd say get out the 100% brush and give the main edges some more definition, and sharpen up the focal points like the sign, the houses, the castle, etc. I like the colours personally. The foreground is a good frame, but it's quite flat and the forest merges with it a bit. I think some directional light would help. Strong colours to contrast with the blue fogging at the back. The river reflection seems a bit bright considering the sky but that's no big deal.

I went the opposite way to evil just to be different, less saturation and closer hues if you want it dreary, obviously.

http://caverider.com/temp/tower3.jpg

You cut up paper into a load of cards, everyone draws cards for a bit, they get put back together and dealt. You play by going round in a circle putting down cards. Cards can have any effect you can imagine, or be simply amusing. Usually some sort of game rules evolve with the deck of cards (you would throw out the crappier ones now and then) but it's not to be taken seriously.

We have hundreds of them from AGS meets by now, but I'm not sure if they would be very funny to the people that didn't play, there are a lot of injokes on them.

The green posts show whatever post was linked to. Like that.

(Edit: and if you don't know what anyone is talking about, you're probably running IE, it won't show in that case)

If it is brought back it should be in a redesigned fashion, IMO. The interaction editor got in the way a little, if you're a scripter and was actually too limited to put together most games people make.

Game Maker has a drag and drop script constructor, which could serve as a model for a new interaction editor, perhaps. It basically has a set of icons organised in tabs (tabs for drawing, setting variables, conditionals) which you drop in.. The buttons map to the common script commands (and I suppose they actually generate a script behind the scenes).

It's fairly easy to understand and it's a good introduction to writing plain code because the logic is quite similar.

If any form of interaction editor is brought back it should be an optional thing, so experienced people never have to see it.

It's fine in all modern browsers, and IE too. Your inability to access it could be for any number of reasons.

I have some experience with it, but unfortunately I destroyed my DS in a food related accident. :|
I don't know if it's worth trying to trick Nintendo into repairing it.

Commenting is ok, but comments are deleted after a little while or the thread becomes impossible to read, and would be about 5x the size it already is.

People discussing how hot girls are or aren't gets cleaned up somewhat faster than other comments because it's kind of redundant. It happens every single time.

I wouldn't rule out that there are some good ones about, but as far as I've seen with the 4 non wacom tablets I've used and 3 wacom ones, even a low end Wacom beats anything else in the same price range. At a minimum I'd say don't go for anything with a battery in the pen, because that's given me no end of trouble with regular use, and it adds an annoying weight. Oh, and don't believe any DPI or pressure level specs between manufacturers, because it's had no bearing on the quality as far as I can tell. Also make sure it's easy to buy replacement pens if you're prone to losing things like me If you can try a lesser known tablet out beforehand or get a recommendation from someone that does a lot of painting then it might be worth the gamble.

You know he will need more info than that specs, what's happening code wise, what exactly is on screen, etc!

Illegal 3DS Max can be found anywhere else you find pirate software... look into torrents if you don't know what they are. We don't link to piracy sites on the forum.

Unis will have site licenses but they aren't usually legally able to give copies to students to use at home (although I don't know what deals Autodesk are doing these days). Policy at the ones I've seen was basically use the computers in school, or obtain your own copy, no questions asked.

It's worth buying a wacom over another kind of tablet. A5 is a very decent size. Given the choice between A5 and A4 I'd use A5 most days. They are pretty costly though - A6 is better for cash strapped beginners. Anyway, if you must get a high end A5 wacom, make sure you take advantage of the student discount, somewhere like here because it cuts £50 or so off the normal price. That's what I have and it's a very nice solid thing.

You can get an A5 Graphire but it won't be a great deal cheaper because it has no student discount usually.
A6 tablets are considerably cheaper at the low end. They're perfectly usable, no need to listen too closely your uni's recommendation if you can't afford it. You can get a student discount on the new Bamboo tablet. It's the bottom of the range but it's probably better than something the same price from another company, at £54 or so.

I do prefer A5 as I said, but if all you're going to be doing is some texture work for 3d art, there's no point.