I’m downloading the new Brad Sucks collection…

[Tags: music brad_sucks bradsucks copyright riaa riaa_sucks ]

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During the nine-hour plane ride from Amsterdam (after the 1.5 hr flight from Vienna) to Dallas, I figured out how to increase the amount of money you have in the game the Governor of Poker by flipping a bit in the save game file.

I did this because I’ve had a little trouble with the game. It’s a cute Texas hold’em game in which you progress through Texas based on your winnings. Quite possibly because of the oddities of my system, the game several times acted as if it had lost the save file. So, now I copy the save file after every game. But I also was annoyed at having lost the three or four days of “work” acquiring a lump o’ cash. (Please note that in this game, you play against the computer for purely fictitious money. Also, it’s a Windows game I’m running under VMware on my Mac.) So, I spent time on the plane figuring out which bytes in the save file encode the amount of money you have in the game.

So, here are some rough instructions on how to do this. Or, quite likely, totally screw up the game.

The save file is “GovernorOfPoker.sol,” which will be in something like: C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Desktop\E4VWWMXNC:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\TS2J3QVB\localhost. Make a copy of it and put it somewhere safe.

Did you remember to make a copy? You’re about to edit the save file, and a single wrong byte can trash it.

Get yourself a hex editor. PSPad is free and works well. Open up the save file in it. (Did you remember to make a copy first?)

Look for the word “money” towards the end of the file. The byte you want is 3 bytes after the end of that word. In the version I have, the key byte is #7959.[LATER: The file size changes as you play the game, so there’s no predicting which byte is at issue. Instead, go to the end of the file and look backwards for “money” or “m.o.n.e.y”, depending on how your hex editor displays it.] Change it to “A” and you’ll have something like $3,000 available. Change it to “F” and you’ll have over $100,000. But I haven’t experimented enough to know exactly what the rules are. There’s clearly another byte or two involved in recording the amount. So, you have have to do some experimenting.

Also, did you make a copy?

By the way, on the plane I also watched “Vantage Point,” which just gets more convoluted and less believable with each iteration, plus an hilarious episode of “Frasier” in which Daphne asks Niles to pretend to be her husband to discourage an old flame. [Tags: games governor_of_poker make_a_copy ]

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I really enjoyed BioShock, and think that it took computer games an evolutionary step forward (well, if evolution had a direction). I thus was prepped to like this postmortem on the design of the game. Very interesting, and quite frank. No mention, though, of the disappointing ending of the game.

The Slashdot discussion of the article is almost entirely about BioShock’s famously onerous DRM, which the postmortem article doesn’t mention.

(The postmortem points to a fabulous downloadable collection of art from the game.)

[Tags: bioshock games ]

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From an email from a friend comes a link to this fantastic Flash animation by Alan Becker, which becomes yet more enjoyable if you are at all familiar with the Flash editing environment. Click and sit back.

[Tags: animation ]

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Scott Kirsner has posted his ten favorite worst predictions about the movies, drawn from his just-published book. My favorite of his favorite: Jack Valenti’s. (I missed Scott on Science Friday…)

[Tags: movies scott_kirsner ]

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Fantastic Contraption is a free, simplified riff on the old Incredible Machine game. Your aim is to move a box into a zone by hooking together some wheels and sticks. It lacks the inventive motor elements of the older game (set the balloon to pop to lower the basket that has the mice that will cause the elephant to move onto the scale that flips the lighter that sets off the rocket, etc.), but its simplicity also works in its favor.

You may have a child that will love it. You might also. If not, there are bunches of other games on the site.

[Tags: games ]

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Brad Sucks is declaring his Music Video Cliché Contest to be a success. Hard to argue with the collected works…

[Tags: bradsucks music_videos humor ]

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Check out NaturalMotion’s show reel for Endorphin, software that models the human body without using motion capture devices. Given sufficiently fast processors and ample memory, it was just a matter of time before algorithms started out-doing putting tracing paper over matter.

[Tags: animation games ]

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Today’s English lesson: Are the people in this video geeks, nerds, or dorks?

Answer: They are geeks who are not ashamed of appearing dorky, if it will further their nerdy loves.

(Asbestos: I love this video. I think it ought to be shown right next to the Sesame Street song about how a bill becomes law.) [Tags: geeks nerds physics cern ]

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On Thursday, we saw Shakespeare & Company’s Othello, in Lenox, Ma. We go frequently to see that company’s productions, but this one was special. In fact, I didn’t want it to have an intermission. The play is too relentless. You know where it’s going (especially if, ahem, you re-read it the day before) and you just want it to get there, to be over, to let you go. It is a play with no distractions and no subplots. (This production wisely dropped the Clown who has a couple of scenes of witty-but-now-incomprehensible Elizabethan badinage.) The plot ticks, but its engine is Othello’s prodigious will. As soon as Iago suggests that Othello shouldn’t suspect Desdemona without proof, you know that “proof” will be forthcoming, and Othello will be unstoppable. Only an intermission stands in his way.

The first half of the play is Iago’s. Iago knows everyone better than they know themselves. Including the audience. Iago is the one who addresses us directly. We may not be on his side, but we are in his world. The second half is Othello’s. But at the end, the play belongs to the women. Desdemona sees clearly. And her maiden (Iago’s wife), Emilia, is a fierce teller of truths and the bravest person on the stage. For all the talk of heroism and military feats, the only truly heroic act Shakespeare shows us is Emilia’s.

I thought the acting surpassed Shakespeare & Co.’s usual high standard. Michael Hammond was a believable Iago. He took Iago’s hatred as a given. Hammond instead convinced us that his power was based on his ability to see into those he used. John Douglas Thompson’s Othello I found harder to appreciate because of the extremes to which his character is pushed: He’s a hard-won general and a charming teller of tales who rapidly is reduced to writhing on the floor. But the depth of his feeling for the woman he kills was apparent. Merritt Janson was a perfect Desdemona. Kristin Wold was a fearsome, riveting Emilia. LeRoy McClain added immeasurably to the play by giving us a sympathetic, rounded Cassio. This was a hell of a production.

And, boy, could that Shakespeare guy write!

Michael Hammond blogs about Iago, painting him as the consummate actor. He adds:

I am also inclined to suspect that by presenting a character so ingenious in his ability to inspire and manipulate others, Shakespeare was offering those who mistrusted or even hated the theatre their worst nightmare.

Given Iago’s understanding of how the world looks to each character, perhaps he’s also the consummate playwright.

Here’s the NY Times’ review. He liked JThompson’s performance a bit more than I did — although he makes a good case and is probably right — and he failed to glow enough over Hammond’s Iago. And here’s the WSJ’s review. [Tags: shakespeare othello ]

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