MaximumHoyt

A few of my friends have been discussing archiving their files "in the Cloud" and other options. Using one of the "free" services is always an option, but there are limits on space for free and adding storage capacity can be expensive. Of course, archiving and data storage are very important to most business and there is a huger market for providing those services. While these solutions are overkill for the home, they can provide good examples of how it should be done. If your personal data is important enough to archive, it is important to insure that the backup will always be available and be free of corruption. Therefore, you should: 1. Have multiple copies of your data 2. Keep copies in multiple safe locations 3. Always test your backups The kind of data you want to archive can help in the decision of how best to archive it. For example, family photos would be data that would suggest multiple backups for protection against loss, but not on media that ...

I just came upon innoextract today. I have many of the wonderful games from GOG.com, some of which have native Linux Clients. Before now, I've had to use PlayOnLinux or Crossover to install these for use with WINE, then add the Linux client. InnoSetup as a way to create an installer to install the games on Windows.  Daniel Scharrer has created innoextract to allow the unpacking of those archives on a non-Windows platform. The website provides information on using innoextract , but this information from the page is very useful: GOG.com Installers GOG.com installers with a 2.x.x version number on the download page or in the filename use InnoSetup 5.5.0 and cannot be extracted by innoextract 1.2 and older. Older installers use InnoSetup 5.2.3 and usually have no version in the filename. Some GOG.com multi-part installers with version 2.1.x or higher use RAR archives (renamed to .bin) to store the game data. These files are not part of the InnoSetup installer and require...

Halo: Combat Evolved is a first-person shooter produced by Bungie for Microsoft. The game runs well under WINE, but it won't install unless you first put mfc42.dll in C:\Windows\System32 . I used Codeweaver's Crossover to install the game. Before the actual installation begins, make sure you have copies  mfc42.dll to  C:\Windows\System32 or the game will not install. Once done, you can install the updates, Patch-108  (the no-cd patch) and Patch-110  (removes and replaces Game-Spy servers plus several fixes). And finally, install msxml6 , the Microsoft XML Parser  to have the game display text. You can also download a full set of saved games . This allows you to play and level rather than forcing you to work your way through each mission. There's a nice tutorial by Benjamin7 at HaloWaypoint that details a generic WINE install and provides a nice startup script . He also provides install instructions for creating custom maps. The source for man...

Linux Version (The WINE version is here .) Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is an interesting first-person shooter. Trying to capitalize on their success with the online part of Return to Castle Wolfenstien, they developed an online component for RtCW and farmed out the single-player mode. Turns out, the SP mode sucked , so they ditched that and gave away the online game. The Game's PAK files remained proprietary (as always) and they released the source code for the game engine. The original release had a Linux version as well as Mac and Windows version and can still be downloaded from SplashDamage . The problem with the Linux version is that Linux changed sound subsystems (OSS, ALSA, PULSEAUDIO) and the sound component of the game is no longer compatible with a modern Linux. Never fear, several kind souls have updated the Linux binaries in two versions: ET-Legacy which tries to keep true to the original game and ETXreal, which modified the format for the game's maps and ...

Unreal is the first in a series of first-person shooters released by EPIC in 1998, It was followed by an add-on named Return to Na-Pali . The two games were combined into "Unreal Gold" and modified to run on the more modern Unreal Tournament game engine. The Windows version of the game is available from GOG for US$9.99 and is free of any Digital Rights Management restrictions. For my money, this is the best place to obtain the game. All four games in the series are available, often at a discount when purchased together. There are Linux installers available from Loki, but these are getting old and difficult to use . The game installs and plays well using PlayOnLinux  or Codeweaver's Crossover, both of which are a handy way of installing games when a native Linux game engine is not available or no longer works and using WINE and specially crafted installation scripts which not only select the best version of WINE to use, but also install any Windows apps that the ...

Quake3 Arena is a multiplayer online first-person shooter released in 1999. There is a Quake3 HOWTO written by Jonathan Bergknoff that should be your first stop for a general overview. It should be your first stop because even though dated, it provides useful details on how to launch mods and fix problems. There is also an interesting Wikipedia page for Quake3. It is quite amazing to me that this game was released way back in 1999 as the third installment to ID's Quake series. I've played it ever since the release; it has quite a following. Since id Software released the source code for the Quake3 game engine licensed under the GPL, there have been several projects that have attempted to make not only a better playing game, but a better looking game. You need a valid key to play Quake3, so if you don't already own the game, purchase the Windows version of the game from STEAM or Amazon to obtain the key code. There are several different game engines and...

There is a Quake2 HOWTO written by Bob Zimbinsky that should be your first stop. It should be your first stop because even though dated, it provides useful details on how to launch mods and fix problems. There is also an interesting Wikipedia page for Quake2. It is quite amazing to me that this game was released way back in 1997 as the second installment to ID's Quake series. I've played it ever since the release; it has quite a following. Since id Software released the source code for the Quake2 game engine, there have been several projects that have attempted to make not only a better playing game, but a better looking game. The game itself can be purchased from Amazon, GOG, eBay, or STEAM. There is no special code or password to unlock, run or install the game. In addition to the win32 game engine supplied with the original release as well as the GOG and STEAM releases, there are several different game engines and hi-res packs to choose from. What I'm prese...