Stray Dog Strut

I’ve been trying out Jolly Rover, a doggie themed pirate adventure from indie developer Brawsome. It was released on Steam in June, but since i’ve only recently updated to Snow Leopard, this is the first time I could run Steam on Mac OS X (I tried it under CrossOver before but it was slooow). Incidentally, the Mac support in Steam is not bad, i’ll give it a review sometime I think.

Unfortunately, if like me your Mac has an ATI X1600 graphics card (Macs from around 2006 I believe), you’ll experience graphical errors that make the game almost unplayable. According to the developer, this is due to a bug with PlayGround, the engine on which the game is developed, and the general bugginess of the X1600 cards themselves. One solution is to run the game under Windows using BootCamp. I would normally do that, but I managed to bugger up my Windows disc when I got my Mac back from the repair shop, so no Windows right now. Another alternative then, is to use Wine, and specifically in this case WineBottler by Mike Kronenberg.

I’ve already posted about this in the relevant thread on the Steam forums, but here it is again for those who need to know:

“It also works under Wine, for those of you who don’t have Windows installed via BootCamp.

I’m not a Wine guru myself, but I found a really easy way to get it working using WineBottler by Mike Kronenberg. It’s a free program that lets you compile windows programs into standalone Mac applications. It’s still in Beta but it’s a nice GUI based approach to working with Wine options.

At first, trying to install the game with WineBottler or CrossOver (another, commercial, approach to using Wine) the installer crashed with an error saying that isskin.dll could not be imported. I Googled the error and found I needed to install mfc42.dll. There’s a tool for Wine called WineTricks – a library of Microsoft dlls etc that you can install – and this is already included in the build of Wine that ships with WineBottler. I don’t know if it’s possible to do this sort of customisation with CrossOver however.

The nice thing about using WineBottler, is you can compile everything into a single app. All you need to do is install mfc42.dll when you install Jolly Rover and it works fine:

1) Select Create Custom Prefixes from the left hand menu
2) Choose the Windows install file for Jolly Rover that you downloaded from the JR website
3) In the WineTricks section, search for “mfc42″ and mark the checkbox next to it
4) Click install and choose where to save it

During the install, you will need to accept the T&C’s of the mfc42 installation (unless you ticked Silent Install) and click through a typical Windows installation wizard. Once installed, you will be asked what application should be run when the new prefix (think of it as the app you created) is run, so choose Jolly Rover from the options.

Note, you will need the X11 framework installed to use WineBottler as this wraps around the program to make it work in Mac OS X. Chances are you already have it if you’ve used Gimp etc. When you run the program, you will see the X11 icon in your Dock. Don’t close this as it’s needed. In fact, the game will run in the X11 window so this is the ‘game’ in a sense.

When running the game this way, I did find that it ran behind the Dock and menubar. To fix this, you can choose the Fullscreen option from the X11 preferences. However, once you exit the game, you will see a rather ugly greyness covering your screen. Scared the crap out of me as i’ve never seen it before, but it’s nothing to worry about.

Turns out this is because X11 is actually still running in fullscreen mode. Unfortunately, it disables the usual Finder commands like Command-Tab, so to toggle out of fullscreen mode, you can press Command-Option-A, or to close X11 completely Command-Q. You can also use Command-Option-Escape and Force Quit X11. In the preferences, there is an option to autoshow the menubar. If you tick this, you can close X11 from the menu when you mouse near the top of the screen. I’ve also noticed that running it this way, it runs in its original 800×600 resolution in the middle of the screen, rather than being scaled up like it is via Steam.

For those of you who don’t want the hassle of compiling an app with WineBottler (it’s really easy, honest), i’ve uploaded a compiled demo of Jolly Rover for you. I’ve ticked the option to make it a self-contained version, meaning it includes the Wine binaries, so you don’t need Wine installed.

Created on Mac OS X Snow Leopard so i’m not sure if it will run on Tiger, but I have a Tiger install handy that I can test on later (or just let me know). You can download it here. It’s larger than the size of the original installer download because it’s the demo game itself (and presumably because of the Wine files). I can’t really keep it up indefinitely, so maybe Brawsome will want to host the file or at least link to my post here?”

Expect a review of the game soon.

I’ve really been sinking my teeth into some great Indie games over the last couple of months. There’s some truly amazing things going on out there thanks to some really talented individuals. One of those little gems is The Dream Machine by Cockroach Incorporated, with its creators Erik Zaring and Anders Gustafsson at the helm.

The Dream Machine is a traditional point-and-click adventure game, hand-crafted using a combination of clay, 3D graphics, Photoshop wizardry and the all important creative flair. It follows the story of Victor Neff, a young man who’s just moved to a new city with his pregnant wife, Alicia. Awaking from a strange dream, the early part of the game sees Victor and Alicia settling in to their new apartment, surrounded by as yet unpacked moving boxes. It’s not long before you meet the other residents of the apartment building and discover a shocking secret that tugs at your curiosity in a way you can’t resist.

The game looks absolutely gorgeous. All the sets and the characters have been hand crafted from materials like clay and cardboard, giving the game a distinctive tactile feel. Everything in the game looks solid, like you can just reach out and touch it, instead of some digital 3D mirage. You can literally spend ages just poring over the incredible attention to detail. From the dust mites floating in the shafts of sunlight from the apartment windows, to the shadow of the fishes swimming around the island. Or from Victor’s Blade Runner-inspired shirt, to the peeling paint on the apartment’s radiators and the chipped tiles in the bathroom. The game is a joyous feast for the eyes. Watch closely and you will even see Victor blinking, such is the care and attention that has gone into creating this game.

Great visuals alone don’t make a game, and luckily no expense has been spared crafting the other elements of the game to a similarly high standard. The soundtrack to the game is outstanding. An elegant, understated score opens the game, suggesting both playfulness and intrigue in equal amounts, before giving way to only the sound of waves crashing on the beach of the deserted island where Victor starts the game. You can really feel the isolation. When Victor wakes up, you find yourself in the apartment where the soundtrack becomes darker, moody, foreboding, but not overly so. It encourages exploration while suggesting that you may not like what you find. The sound effects in the game are of a similarly professional quality, each distinctive and realistic, nothing feels out of place. My current studies have highlighted the importance of audio in bringing environments to life, and it shows here. Again, it’s all in the little details: Victor’s footsteps change depending on the surface he’s walking on, be it the soft thud of the floorboards in the bedroom, or the click-clack on the tiled kitchen floor. Cross the rug in the hallway and his footsteps become even more dulled. This is obsessive attention to detail, and the game really benefits. I should also mention that the developers have included a Hearing aid option for important sound effects, so this game is definitely deaf-friendly. There’s also a greyscale option to make the game more accessible to people with colour blindness.

I haven’t even described the gameplay yet, such is the lavish spectacle the environments alone place before you. As a relative newcomer to the adventure game genre, The Dream Machine is very newcomer friendly. The controls are standard point-and-click fare, with an unobtrusive inventory that pops down when you mouse near the top of the screen. You can drag and drop items from your inventory onto Victor or onto objects in the environment to interact with them. It’s simple but very intuitive. The early puzzles on show also make use of drag and drop, but again, whether it’s sorting through objects in a cardboard box, or piecing together a letter, the feeling is tactile and believable.

Where the gameplay really shines is the interaction with other characters. There’s a ton of dialogue options in the game if you want to explore them. You can race through conversations if you prefer, but the storyline in this game is one to be savoured. And it’s worth it:  The different personalities of the character’s really come across in the way they talk and draw you in. I could feel Victor’s uncertainty about their new life in the city, and I also learned a little of his hopes and dreams for the future. Similarly, conversations with Alicia were a joy rather than a necessity. The way she speaks to Victor – loving but at times like a mother entertaining a child –  is a recipe for comedy gold. Later on, when we find Alicia standing by the window in (what will be) the living room, you can tell she’s deep in thought, trying to understand her unsettling dream, and all before she utters a word. You soon meet other characters with their own stories to tell, and each is unique, memorable for their own little quirks. You really get a sense of being a part of the world of The Dream Machine.

Anders, one of the developers, was kind enough to invite me to take part in beta testing the game so i’ve seen a little more than is on show in the demo. The game has been in development for over a year already, but for a game still in beta, the production quality is very very high. Even parts of a game typically polished up late in the day, such as the main menu and splash screens, are really polished and work beautifully. I’m completely enraptured by this game, it’s easily one of my all time favourite games based solely on what i’ve seen so far. The first chapter has left me on a tantalising cliffhanger and I can’t wait to play the end result.

If this little preview has you tempted – I hope so! – you can play a demo of the game right now on the official website and sign up for the beta. The game runs in all web browsers supporting Flash 8 or later. You can also keep up with the game’s development on the blog where the developers have been more than forth-coming about their production process. I’ve already sent a few emails back and forth to Anders regarding the game and he really is a friendly and approachable guy so please pass on your thoughts. You can also join the Facebook group to keep up with current developments. They’ve recently been showing the game off at the Nordic Games Conference so expect more news soon.

…Apparently. Although it still sounds like “Vive La France”…*something German*… to me (I know, I know, of course it doesn’t, but that’s what I hear!). If you’re a bit lost, allow me to elaborate: Thanks to the almighty connectedness that is Twitter, i’ve been gifted with the knowledge that EA are allowing you to download the first three Command and Conquer real-time strategy games for FREE. I absolutely loved Command and Conquer in my youth, so this is news worth celebrating.

The post title is a line from the Hell March songs from the Red Alert series of Command and Conquer games (there’s been 3 Hell March songs). There’s been a whole debate on what the guy says in the early part of the song (Everything from “Eat my pants” to various obscenities). It sounds and is presumed to be Russian since the games focus on their rise to power, (hence why it can’t be what it sounds like to me). However, in the Press > FAQ section of his website, the original composer is quoted as saying it’s the line above.

I first heard the Hell March 2 song in Red Alert 2, my favourite of the series. However, typical of the way I’ve dipped in and out of franchises over the years, I haven’t actually played all of the games. I’ve got the original Command and Conquer on PC and PSX, and Red Alert 2 and Tiberian Sun on PC. I played them in that order though so Tiberian Sun didn’t get much attention since it felt like a step backwards graphically (Which it was, since it came before RA2!). So this is my chance to try the original Red Alert and also give Tiberian Sun a proper playtest, and maybe see if I can install the expansion “Firestorm” with my cd version. I’ve briefly played C&C Generals at a friends and liked it a lot but never added it, or it’s expansion, to my collection. I completely stayed away from C&C Renegade because I didn’t see the point of another FPS, and I haven’t tried Tiberium Wars at all. I *had* the new Red Alert 3 game in the summer, still sealed in it’s metal case, but being the generous/idiotic soul I am I gave it away in another gamer’s time of need.

Joy!