Messages

The only advice/request I have is that the game should be based mainly on the books, and the most important thing to get right is Adams' unique humour. The old text adventure is another good source of inspiration, if not story and dialogue. Personally I thought that the movie was bad enough to make Mr. Adams roll in his grave (even though he co-wrote the screenplay and stuff) so I'd skip it entirely, but this is just a personal opinion. Even the design of Marvin bugs me enough to prefer the old, cheap looking bbc version of him. But enough of this rant, looking forward for the game.

PS: I'd pick option b in your main theme poll. The first one is a bit overwhelming, "loud" and monotonous to work even as background music. No offense intended.

Well tube, if CoS didn't have any redeeming qualities (we won't argue the definition here) no one would flock to it.

Nazism doesn't have any redeeming qualities (yes, I could have chosen my words better here but let's stick to these for now) but Hitler gathered and still gathers quite a following.

There's a lot of money and status to be made in the Scientology Party, but I would argue that it is more a political party with political aims than a religious group with 'religious' concerns.

It's a cult with political goals. The religion aspect might or might not play a part in the grand scheme of things, but their goals are pretty clear.

I still maintain that there's no reason for any of us to respect an organization that does not respect us.

[legal]

Just a quick hit-and-run:

In my opinion it's tantamount to terrorism.  Same anonymity, same tactics ...

Terrorism is rarely either anonymous or non-violent. Where exactly do you see the same tactics being utilized? I really can't see how these legal (even if a bit juvenile) protests could be likened to acts of terrorism.

To me it seems CoS is a cult that apparently has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Besides, why should anyone respect an organization that has no respect for them.

Hah, the Finnish language is scary. It sounds like you guys are pissed off all the time...

Maybe we are. I blame the long winters.

But I think humans made a giant leap toward becoming a civilised species when they learned how to trade.

We're not the only species to have learned how to trade. Other social animals mainly trade various gifts and "social services" for sex and/or protection, but the principle is the same.

1) Age group
X   26-31

2) Gender
X   Male

3) Occupation
X   Professional
X   Administration
X   Other:____________
We (I and my wife) run our own little start-up company, so all of the above. Or maybe "entrepreneur" would be the right thing to write on that last line?

4) Level of education
X   Secondary school

5) Status
X   Married

6) Ethnicity: Pale skin and light hair. Does "white" suffice?

7) What kind of movies do you like?
(Number in order of preference. 1 being the least and 5 being the most favourite)
5   Comedy
3   Action
4   Adventure
2   Sci-fi
1   Fantasy

8) What do you look for in a movie?
(Number in order of preference. 1 being the least and 5 being the most favourite)
5   Good Story
3   Good Visuals
2   Good Soundtrack

9) Do you often watch movies with:
X   Your Spouse

10) What is your opinion on sexual innuendo used in movies?
X   Okay

11) What is your opinion on a homosexuality-based story?
X   Bad
(Not bad as in "shouldn't be made", just not my favourite type of story in a movie.)

12) What is your view on full or partial nudity used in a movie?
X   Okay

13) What do you think of comedy based on awkward situations?
X   Bad

14) What do you think of movies containing crude or offensive language?
X   Okay

15) What do you think of movies dealing with political issues?
X   Okay

I really don't think there's an excuse to speeding.

Hear, hear. We have speed limits for a good reason. Not that I haven't ever driven too fast myself, but I've seen enough of what it can cause to never do it on purpose.

You might want to try Rosegarden. I hear it prints pro quality sheet music using an external software called lilypond. It's a Linux application, which might be a hassle for a Windows user. I also hear it compares pretty well to the commercial apps though, so if you've got some space on your hard drive (and a couple of hours) to spare, get something like Ubuntu Studio and try it out anyway before deciding.

Just for the record, since nobody has pointed it out: OGG is not lossless (it's in principle about as lossy as mp3 is), but it is open-source and free for commercial use (this is really one of the big reasons to use it out in the real world), and supposedly (AFAIK) has a better perceived quality to size ratio.

Yeah, maybe OneDollar confused Ogg Vorbis with the lossless Ogg Flac. Flac achieves a good compression ratio for a lossless codec, but it doesn't come close to mp3 or Ogg Vorbis. Of these lossy codecs, Vorbis invariably beats mp3 in listening tests at the bitrates we're interested in.

This isn't much help, but I love my semi-open AKG K-301 headphones. They must be at least 10 years old and there's only slight wear and tear despite heavy use. They're still sold in various web stores for about the same price they retailed for back when I bought them, although I guess AKG hasn't had them in their line-up for years. I hear the newer-but-already-out-of-production K-301 Xtra produces too much bass for mortal ears, so don't mix them up. Or maybe your friend would like it that way.

The real reason I posted was this: If possible, always go to a local music store and ask to try out the phones. Even if you're planning to buy them from some web store. My finicky ears would never forgive me if I bought audio equipment blindly (or deafly in this case). Some of us prefer well rounded and natural sound, others like to be pummeled with tons of bass and close-to-ultrasound tweeter action. It always comes down to preference in the end. Unless we're talking about studio use, in which case one should always go for the former I guess.

Definitely my kinda fun. You have talent, lady. I've seen people tripping on shrooms, but never before have I heard of shrooms tripping on acid.

Is there anything you can do to fix the empty RSS feed?

Here's an ogg vorbis version of MoodyBlues' song for those who don't want to install iTunes. Please listen to the original if possible, as this was not recorded using the windows default soundfont. Or whatever iTunes uses.

Moody, tell me if you want this removed.

I love both entries, and the unfinished tune by PixelPerfect sounded like an excellent start.

The best part is, if you look closely long enough, you can really see the sheep (or it's time to make an appointment to my eye doctor).

Better call the doctor already. Although If you're seeing things, laying off the alcohol might help.

You already got your answer, but I'll pipe in anyway. The midi actually sounds quite different on my system. I'm using software midi synthesis (TiMidity) and a free soundfont called SGM on a laptop running linux. Too bad AGS linux doesn't support midi.

If you intented to hide the menu you have succeeded
Black text on dark blue background is not a very good idea...

I can see it fine, but this is a valid point. Contrast is important.

Renal, where do you see Arial? The main text seems to be Tahoma (thankfully, Arial is an awful choice for web design work). The only problem is, non-windows users won't have either of those fonts if they don't install the MS core fonts package themselves. You can and should provide a fallback font in case your first choice doesn't exist on the system by specifying multiple fonts separated by commas in the css rule. Usually a general font style/name like serif or sans-serif is a good fallback to have as the last choice.

Also a couple of comments on the code after checking with validator.w3.org: You shouldn't use short or self-closing tags (tags ending with />) with HTML 4.01 transitional. Only 4.01 strict and newer standards allow them, and even with 4.01 strict some browsers will fail to intepret them right. You've also got a few missing =-characters in your alt attributes (alt"..." instead of alt="..."). Validates fine after fixing those.

"My Name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die"

Ahh, classic.

A great little game with some good lines and nice puzzle design. I look forward to your next project.

Spoiler

A few people have mentioned that the brick which must be clicked to reveal the hidden compartment with the scroll in it, is too much of a pixel hunt.  I figured that having the "Looking at: X" in the top right of the screen would help with the pixel hunt and not make it too difficult.  Given the feedback though, unless anyone thinks I should keep it the way it is, I'll update the wall graphic slightly to include a dotted outline around the hidden compartment - aiding in the pixel hunt.

[close]

Spoiler

It's true that invisible objects are not puzzles, they're simply annoying. Although a dotted outline would probably be too obvious. I think it might be better if you just used a slightly different shade of the wall colour to bring out the tile, or maybe simply outline it like you did some of the other tiles but keep it separate from the other visibly tiled areas.

EDIT: I take that back. The new version looks just fine with the dashed outline.

[close]

If the writing is half as funny as in Wreck the Halls (and I'm sure it'll be even better), I'm going to love this. And five episodes for the price of one? Fantabulous!

...when I was trying to run keygens from warez sites and it wouldn't let me because they had trojans on them. I've never had a false positive.

Unless those were false positives. That could even be intentional, as I'd imagine a software company like Avira would dislike keygens enough to include something like the string "keygen" as a detection signature for a made up trojan or whatever.


Just in case someone wondered, that wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

Yeah, Avira AntiVir does the job relatively well without hogging your resources. I've installed it on a couple of my Windows using relatives' computers and they've had no virus related problems. As dkh said, the free version shows a largish pop-up ad every time the software updates it's virus definitions and I have seen one false alarm, but it's fine for a free program.

EDIT: Ah, yeah. Should've read your post properly before answering. Yes, I think those could very well be false warnings if AntiVir is the only software that detects them. Maybe you should install another antivirus package and try it out, or have you done that already? As I said, I have seen one false alarm myself.