Today I uploaded the latest version of my MultiInput game “Airship Assault” which resolves most known bugs. It is the first game that uses my MultiInput library in order to support many players playing the same game on onecomputer with multiple mice connected to the computer.

Major changes:

• Mouse sensitivity can now be changed ingame
• Game Launcher added, checks whether XNA Framework 3.0 and .NET Framework 2.0 are installed before launching the game
• Optimized game file package
• Music file not needed to play the game, if missing, the game will just launch without music
• Source code optimized in many parts

Download Airship Assault 1.1!

If you encounter errors when playing some Painkiller levels or starting a multiplayer game, and the error looks like the one below, there is an easy way of solving it.

[string "../Data/LScripts/Templates/ParticleFX/Environments/SnowEnvironm..."]:1: invalid control char near `char(1)’

[string "../Data/LScripts/Templates/Items/C1L3_korzenie.CItem"]:1: invalid control char near `char(1)’

[string "../Data/LScripts/Templates/Items/C1L3_uapka.CItem"]:1: invalid control char near `char(1)’

First of all, patch Painkiller to the latest version (1.64). If the patching doesn’t work because you don’t have registry entries, download my Painkiller registry entries here.

Then you have to download these template files for Painkiller and extract the archive using WinRAR or any other archiving program into the Painkiller directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\Painkiller). If it asks to replace files, select “yes to all”. Now your game should work perfectly!

While the work on the next version of Firefox, Firefox 3.5 is still going on, some developers are already showing some features of the following version, Firefox 3.6 codenamed “Namoroka”. You can download the nightly build at Mozilla’s website, but please be reminded that it’s a pre-alpha version and should be used only for testing purposes:

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-central/

Major new features:

• Support for private browsing (Firefox won’t store any information like history, cache, cookies, … on your computer when private browsing is enabled)
• Better browser cleaning (e.g. for cookies or history, you can now select time intervals)
• Tab previews when moving tabs inside the tab bar or from one Firefox window  to another
• Changing tabs with CTRL + TAB will create a half-transparent window showing previews of all tabs and allows the user to search the tabs

EDIT: New version 1.1 available!

Airship Assault is the first game that uses my MultiInput library in order to support many players playing the same game on one computer with multiple mice connected to the computer.

Airship Assault is a Moorhuhn-like (in English “Crazy Chicken”) shoot ‘em up multiplayer game for up to 6 players. But there is one special feature that makes this game different from all the others out there in the world: All players can play at the same time using only one single computer! Airship Assault can handle up to 6 mice connected using USB or PS2 to the computer and distinguish between the players.

Each crosshair in the game is controlled by one player. The goal is to shoot all incoming airships before they can leave the screen again. If a an airship manages to cross the screen, the players will lose one of their initially 20 lifes. After 20 seconds all players will level up; higher levels will cause more airships to spawn and they will fly faster.

One magazine can hold 10 shots, after a player fired them all he will have to reload by clicking the right mouse button. Killing an airship will give around 25 points depending on the speed of the airship, reloading will cost 100 points.

When all lifes are lost, the game is over. A new screen will show up showing statistics for every single player: Kills, Points and Accuracy.

Download Airship Assault here!

Screenshots

If you have any comments, bugs to report or features to request, feel free to comment either here or on the official Airship Assault website!

Google is currently working at a newer version of Google Chrome. Chrome 2.0 is still in the pre-beta phase, but you can already download and try it.

There are some major changes that make it worth to be used instead of the old version:

• Form autocomplete
• Full page zoom (press CTRL and scroll the mouse wheel)
• Autoscrolling by middleclicking the mouse
• Use different profiles (e.g. one for work and for for home with different bookmarks, …)
• Use Greasemonkey scripts (by adding “-enable-user-scripts” to the launch parameters)
• WebKit and JavaScript V8 engine updated

How to get the latest version:

• Download and install the old version of Google Chrome (if you don’t have it already)
• Download and run the Google Chrome Channel Changer
• Select “Dev” mode
  
• In Chrome, open the “About Google Chrome” dialog and click “Update Now”
• Restart Google Chrome

Now you have the latest version of Google Chrome installed! Have fun!

I created a C# class that allows you to use more than one mouse in your XNA game. Of course this is also working with normal Windows applications, but I specially prepared it to work with XNA. This gives you new possibilities for multiplayer games on a single computer! Currently, it’s only working for mice, but I will add keyboard support soon.

Download MultiInput.dll Version 0.1

I also created a game demonstrating how to use this class and what multiple mice can be used for. I think there are many games that could make use of more than one mouse to enable a cool multiplayer mode. Currently the game is in Alpha stage and doesn’t have many features. It supports up to 6 players (if that many mice are plugged in) who have to stop zeppelins from reaching the other side of the screen by shooting them down. Although there isn’t much to do except shooting the zeppelins, it’s quite funny already.

UPDATE: NEW VERSION AVAILABLE: Download Airship Assault here!

Download MultiInput Sample Game Alpha Version 0.1

Download and install the necessary XNA Framework 3.0 here

Each crosshair can be controlled by one mouse/player. The number in brackets on the bottom is the amout of shots you’ve left in your magazine. Leftclick to shoot, rightclick to reload. When a zeppelin reaches the other side, you will lose a life.

I tested the game only with USB mice, they’re working fine, but it should also work with PS2 mice. If you encounter any errors, please tell me!

Continue reading…

In the last week, I created WortopiaBot which is a hack or cheat for all kind of multiplayer boggle games like Wortopia or WEBoggle. You can just start the program and wait a few seconds, then it will have solved the game and submit all possible words to the respective game server. Using the right word database, the accuracy can be up to 100%.

Download WortopiaBot 1.0 Perfect Edition

Download WortopiaBot 1.0 Perfect Edition source code

There are 2 versions of this bot, one is called “Perfect Edition” because it always reaches 100% if the program can access the right database. Before I found out that the original Wortopia database is available under open-source license, I used other databases that reached only around 80%. Thus I also created a “Learning Edition” that checks the words from last round and adds them to the database, in addition to the removal of wrong words. If the Learning Edition plays enough games, it should optimize its database  to the same accuracy of the Perfect Edition.

The Learning Edition will be available for download from SourceForge soon.

Continue reading…

Are you annoyed of refreshing your game slots all the time when hosting a game in Warcraft 3? Then  you can use one of these awesome Auto Refresh tools who do the stuff for you! I know there are many tools like that out there in the Internet , but I had problems finding a good one, so I will upload it here.

Download Warcraft III Auto Refresh

Download Warcraft III Auto Refresh sourcecode for Visual Studio 2005

Download Warcraft III Auto Refresh sourcecode for Visual Studio 2008

How to use

Host a game in Battle.Net and start Autorefresh. Make sure you set it to the right port, usually 6112, but when you changed it ingame (like I did), you will also have to change it in the application. Inside the game, all slots will be filled by a player called “Autorefresh” every 15 seconds and thus refreshing the ports.

Thanks to Jason Ureta for creating this awesome application and even sharing the source code with us!

In the last tutorial, I explained how to find out your Warcraft 3 CD key. Now I show you how to change the CD key of an installed version of Warcraft 3.

PLEASE BACK UP YOUR WARCRAFT 3 REGISTRY BEFORE CONTINUING!!

You will need this Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne CD Key Changer package.

Extract the files from the archive and launch “cdkey.exe” for Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos and “FTkey.exe” for Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. In the Window, click “Change CD Key” and enter your new CD key. If you don’t see this button, please scroll down…

What can I do when the “Change CD-Key” button doesn’t show up?

The Warcraft 3 CD key is not stored in the Windows Registry as many other games do, it’s encrypted and saved somewhere in your “war3.mpq” file. In order to change the key, the application needs to know where your installation of Warcraft 3 actually is. When the button isn’t there, you don’t have the right registry entries.
In order to create the registry entries, please download Lescos Warcraft Toolkit. Open “LWT.exe”, go to the “Registry” tab and browse for your “Warcraft III.exe” file. Then click “Make entries”.
Restart the CD key changer tools, the link should be there now.

Did you loose your Warcraft III CD key but have still got an installed copy on your hard disc? Then I  gonna show you how to aquire your Warcraft 3 CD Key within a few seconds. It’s really easy!

First of all, download the Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne CD Key Grabber package.

Extract the file wc3_tft_CDKeyGrabber11800.exe from the RAR archieve and launch it. You will see a black and white window for around 5 seconds, then it will change to a black window that looks like this:

Now launch Warcraft 3 (Frozen Throne) and click on Local Area Network, as the program suggests. Now you can minimize Warcraft 3 by pressing either the Windows Key or ALT + TAB or just exit it. The CD key grabber will show your Reign of Chaos (and Frozen Throne) key in the fields that were blank before.

That’s it basically.

For the ones who are interested in the science behind that tool:

For Warcraft 3 it’s not as easy as for other games where you can just read out the Windows Registry. Warcraft 3 saves its key in the war3.mpg file which is kinda harder to access. You won’t be able to get the key from the file itself because it is encrypted in there. But in order to play online or LAN, Warcraft 3 sends a request either to the Battle.Net servers or to active LAN servers. This request also contains the CD key in order to get authorization from the server. The CD key Grabber tool launches a TCP listener that waits for the request from Warcraft 3. When going to the Local Area Network lobby, Warcraft 3 scans your LAN environment, detects the “server” hosted by the CD key Grabber and sends a request (usually done to get the game name and map). Now the application is able to get the key from that request and will display it.