Thomas

I've managed to get DesktopDoom 2 running under Windows 8.1. DesktopDoom2.exe must be set to 256 colours in the compatibility options. That gets rid of the DirectDraw error. Right clicking on DesktopDoom2.scr and selecting Configure doesn't work. Instead you must go into Personalisation, Screensaver and select Configure. The configuration dialog appears underneath other windows too. I think Notepad.exe launching must have been some sort of test code I forgot to comment out.

All I've managed to find so far is latest binaries for DesktopDoom 2 and it doesn't work under Windows 8.1 for me. Trying to configure the wrapper screensaver doesn't do anything and "testing" it brings up Notepad which is odd. Even if it did work, the ZDoom derived executable brings quits with a DirectDraw error when I try running it. I think it should still work on Windows XP as I imagine that's the OS I was using at the time. Here's the download link: http://www.paroxysm.org/files/DesktopDoom2_18_08_2004-1.7z I would have burned some versions on to CDs back in the day, but it's likely I've thrown them out. I'll have a look over the weekend and borrow a DVD drive if I find anything that looks promising. The code is going to be very ugly and I'm not sure if it has much value. It would be quite simple project to re-implement cleanly with Doom engine designed for modern versions of Windows. All the screensaver wrapper needs to do is display a configuration dialog that allows you to select where the modified Doom executable is located, configure command-line parameters in some way to allow custom WADs to loaded, sound toggling, etc. The PrBoom based engine consisted of some very basic hacks. Likely all I did was force the game into fullscreen mode without the status bar and hacked in an exit call when input was detected. And I think it was keyboard input only too, so no mouse movement quitting.

I'm the author of DesktopDoom. IIRC the first version was a VB6 program that wrapped around an early version of PrBoom that I'd slightly modified. It wouldn't loop demos as the screensaver. This was about 15 years ago and there may have been a patched version that works. A few years later I made a version 2 that was based on ZDoom. This version had a crappy custom map that spawned deathmatch bots and would cycle through cameras in the level. It's more likely that I have this somewhere as I've had people request copies over the years. I'll have a look through my archives tomorrow and get back to you.

I couldn't find any previous thread regarding this and there was no reference to it on the Doom Wiki, so I'm assuming no one here knows about this. Anyway, I was just Googling Bruce A. Lewis and glDoom and discovered a new homepage for glDoom: http://gldoom.sourceforge.net/. Over a year ago Bruce Lewis recovered the source code to his glDoom port, updated it to compile on VC++ 2008 and uploaded it. There are some other minor changes too. I've updated the glDoom entry on the Doom Wiki to reflect this. Even though there are many 3D accelerated ports that are now superior to glDoom, I thought that some of you on here might be interested in this discovery. Edit: He made some additional changes in the SVN repository too: http://sourceforge.net/scm/?type=svn&group_id=314491

ArmouredBlood I'm happy to give you further advice and look over your questionnaire before you "re-launch" it. Just PM me! I work in the market research industry, so I know quite a bit about questionnaire design.

You aren't going to be able to easily make any kind of meaningful quantitative analysis with such open ended questions. Some of your questions are more qualitative than quantitative. For instance the questions "What is your favorite style of map to make?" and "What is your most common style of map to make?" are open to interpretation and are going to be difficult to put into codes. I suggest you offer some set options for these questions with an "other" option. Even with questions such as "What editor(s) do you use?" is open to interpretation. Some people are going to just list the Doom editing tools they use, while others may also list the text editors, image tools, etc they use. You really need to define EXACTLY what information you're looking for. Anyway, I think you really need to think re-think some of the questions you're asking if this is really a quantitative assignment. I also suggest you use a web based survey tool such as Survey Monkey to gather your data rather than having to manually copy it out responses in a thread into Excel or whatever you're going to use to analyse your data.

I ended up using a proxy, but all I wanted to do was check the changes in latest version of Skulltag. It does seem quite ridiculous banning users of one of Australia's largest ISPs - Internode must be at least the 3rd of 4th largest ISP in Australia.

Yes I'm with Internode and unfortunately they only offer static IP addresses on their business plans, so a whitelisting is only going to work until I reset my router.

Hmm... I get this 'lovely' message from the Skulltag forums. I find this quite obnoxious and considering I've never had an account on the Skulltag forums. Presume this is a ban on an IP range, rather than a specific IP. Might it not be wiser to put a nicer ban message if this is the case?

*adds to todo list* I'll also port my code over to ZDoom 96x or GZDoom. I'm not too keen on fiddling with the game logic. You could always create your own MAP30 which spawns whatever monsters you want. Just remove the boss things, throw down some MapSpot things and write an ACS script that uses SpawnSpot.

http://www.sendmefile.com/00081403 I'll find a more permanent place later and update the web site too.

http://www.nin.com/access/5-08/index.html

They could make the best cards ever OR the "super company" could slash R&D and hike prices right up because there would be no competition. Great idea.

A number of DirectX games have worked under WINE for years. WineX/Cedega can even run DirectX 9 games such as Far Cry.

Have you tried the fix on the DesktopDoom web site?