Team 17 boss Martyn Brown says the developer is as frustrated as anyone about Worms' prolonged absence from Xbox Live Arcade, but he expects we'll see it very soon.

News - Team 17 boss explains Worms XBLA delay // Xbox 360 /// Eurogamer

Except the article doesn't really explain it. There's some sort of "Well it's tough to get through Xbox Live's certification process and Worms is a complex game" offered. But the thing is Worms isn't a complex game. You could make Worms with Flash if you were sufficiently inspired. And it's not like Team 17 is new to the world of TCR's for crying out loud.

I can vaguely see the point about XBLA titles are diversionary, not really something you spend hours in, but then again - is that true? I've spent entire evenings playing Poker, or Marble Blast Ultra. Heck, I've logged a lot of hours of Uno if you get right down to it. They are only quick diversions whey they are Paperboy.

Give me my Worms damnit! And then my Catan!

In other news I should get my copy of Crackdown tomorrow. If anybody wants to play some co-op let me know!

technorati tags:Worms, Xbox_360, LiveArcade

Blogged with Flock

Apparently now they air the Dresden Files after Battlestar Galactica - which makes much more sense to me. On the other hand BSG is 0 for 2 recently. Sunday's episode wasn't as bad as the one before that, but it wasn't good either. Hey, everyone gather 'round it's time for another episode of Maudlin Galactica! Ugh. The entire airlock plot was stupid and the whole thing felt like the writers were beating the audience with emotional 2 x 4's. "Cry Damnit! Cry! WHY WON'T YOU CRY?"

An unintended side effect of the move to Sunday nights is that it airs the night before Heroes, so it's much more likely that I might watch them both on the same night. This is not a comparison that makes BSG look good. Heroes has complex stories, solid characters, and a seasonal story arc that makes sense - all things that I thought made BSG stand out in its first season. But nowadays? BSG continues to become more Star Trek:TNG like with each passing episode. Seriously, if you missed the last two weeks episodes of BSG, what would you miss? Not a frakin' thing, that's what.

Heroes though . . . nobody can tell me they saw the end of that episode coming. Good, good stuff.

technorati tags:television, BattlestarGalactica, Heroes

This is primarily a post to myself for future Googling. It may help someone in the future, but it's not intended to be a fascinating read.

I talked Lee into getting an Airport Express because he needs to get his Xbox 360 on the internet. This was a bad move. It turns out an Airport Express doesn't bridge from wireless -> wired without being in WDS mode and Lee's router is too old to support WDS. While we were poking at it (over the phone - so I was at home) I decided to use the profiles feature on the Airport Express to try to configure mine like his. This was a worse move. I managed to put the AE in a mode where it was impossible to connect to it - requiring the old "Factory reset" trick - which trashed my saved profile. Grumble.

After some Googling about Lee and I were both convinced he needed to take his Airport Express back and get a Netgear or Linksys product. Now all I had to do was put mine back together. That turned out to be complicated and non-intuitive. If you do things wrong the Airport Express simply boots up into an unreachable alternate universe, forcing a hard reset of everything.

So, here's the working Jesternet configuration. DSL line comes into the DSL box. DSL box plugs into WAN port on the Airport Extreme (802.11g base station). Main switch plugs into LAN port on the Airport Extreme. Bunch of crap goes into the switch. At the other end of the house the Airport Express streams music to the family room and serves as a wireless repeater.

Settings for the Airport Extreme Base Station:

Airport tab: Name is set to Jesternet Base. Be sure to set the password for the box itself (via the Change Password button) Under Base station Options everything is cleared for "WAN Ethernet Port" Under AirPort Network the Name is set, Create a closed network is NOT checked. Click Change Wireless Security and set the security to WEP (can't use WPA with the Express or the Nintendo DS), enter a password. Set the encryption type to 128 bit WEP. The Channel is set to 10 and the Mode is 802.11b/g compatible (DS and PSP both need b) Under Wireless Options Multicast Rate is set to 1, and the Enable interference robustness flag is cleared.

Internet tab: Connect Using is Ethernet. TCP/IP is configured manually - with stuff given from the ISP.

Network tab: Distribute IP addresses is checked. Airport Client computers share a single IP address (using DHCP and NAT) the address range is set to 172.16.1.1Everything else is cleared.

Port Mappings tab is set accordingly - I'll document those somewhere lesss public thanks :-)

Access Control tab is blank.

WDS tab: Enable this base station as a WDS main base station. Allow wireless clients on this base station is checked. The MAC address for the Airport Express is listed

For the Airport Express

Airport tab: Name is set to Family Room. Set password and Base Station Options just like the Extreme. Under the Airport Network select "Create a Wireless Network (Home Router)" - THIS IS THE KEY BIT. Even though this is a WDS client of the Base Station it is NOT set to be a client here. If you do it will go conjure up a magical IP address that isn't reachable from the LAN and need a hard reset. Set the name to Jesternet and set all the other options to match the Extreme - except the channel is set to 10 and the Multicast is set to 2.UPDATE 3/1/07 The channel should not be set to 11, it should be set to 10 (same as the base station) Music streaming doesn't work right otherwise.

Internet tab: Connect using AirPort(WDS). Configure using DHCP. Also allow wireless client computers is checked.

Network tab: Distribute IP addresses is cleared. This greys out everything else.

Port Mapping tab: Blank

Access Control tab: Blank

WDS tab: Enable this base station as a WDS remote base station. Allow wireless clients on this base station is checked. Click the "select" button and browse for Jesternet Base.

Music tab: Enable AirTunes on this base station is checked. iTunes Speaker Name is set to "Family Room".

Whew! Never mess this up again.

Not the most interesting point I realize, but an important historical archive :-)

technorati tags:AirportExpress, networking, computer

Following last week's release of Root Beer Tapper on Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft is releasing another arcade classic revolving around an unsung profession this Wednesday--Paperboy.

Paperboy gets tossed this week - Xbox 360 News at GameSpot

Look, Paperboy is a fine game, and I've got nothing against Root Beer Tapper. But this current batch of XBLA games has Worms in it. Real honest to god 2D worms with online multiplayer and all the Xbox Live frippery (voice chat, custom soundtracks).

I had to drive all over Virginia back in the day to get a copy of Worms for the original Playstation (Sony almost didn't approve the game for US release because they were pushing 3d so hard at the time.) The MAMBA Kings played the crap out of that for many months - I still have both the game AND the high score table and everyone's custom team on a memory card.

So I'm begging the Live folks - while I love me some old-school arcade action on the 360 put a hold on it for one week at get Worms out the door. Well actually two weeks - Settlers of Catan is also on the short list for release and I want that as well. Then you can go back to the old arcade things that I already have on MAME and/or a Playstation One compilation disc.

technorati tags:LiveAcade, Worms, gaming

Right thinking individuals know that one of the great things about Santa Cruz is 99 beers - where the have Young's Double Chocolate Stout on draft. But it's not always convenient to get to Santa Cruz and when you go somebody has to drive back over the hill. At the last Game Day Brian.NET brought a revelation - Young's Double Chocolate Stout is available in 4 packs of tall cans that come with the nitro widget for a creamy, stable head. (URMKHOG) And they actually carry this in the local Beverages & More!

I was surprised to realize that BevMo had it and it took a minute to figure out why I didn't know this before. I don't usually shop in the "Import Beer" aisle there for a couple of reasons. One is that it's the same aisle as the cold 12-packs of Bud Light and in a cursory glance it looks like it can be skipped. The other one is that the German section tends to be a bit . . . dusty. So I usually only shop the "Craft Beer" aisle which is where they keep the microbrews - the Deschutes, the Fat Tire, Blue Moon and so forth. But the British section seems to have several of these cans+nitro distributions. Good to know.

It's a little pricey - a four pack costs more than the other six packs I was grabbing (and if you like IPA's they have the Deschutes seasonal IPA (Inversion) on sale! Mmmmmm.) But it's a lot more convenient than driving to Santa Cruz!

technorati tags:beer