Let the carnage begin..

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Ok, it’s late, but I can’t stop playing. I’m getting scared out of my socks at every turn, but it’s so much fun…

I need a new video card..
About a year and 1/2 ago when I was planning out my system specs, (fully expecting Doom 3 to release on schedule) I got the best bang-for-the-buck hardware I could find and proceeded to overclock the crap out of it. Now it’s a little over a year later, I’ve got Doom 3, and it’s good, but my graphics card needs a little help. Everything looks incredible with 4x AA/8x AF, but the framerates are horrible. To get it playable, but still run at 1024×768 I had to turn it all off. It still looks great mind you, I’m just being a perfectionist.

There’s a couple of reviews over at [H]ardOCP with good information on configs as well as what you’ll need to really see this game in all it’s glory. Thankfully Id designed their game to be playable on modern hardware. So, in a way.. it’s good that they waited this long to release it. However, only the absolute latest cards from NVidia seem to be able to get Doom 3 to the next level of graphics quality. Oh, and if you do decide to buy a hot new card, make sure you upgrade your PSU to compensate for the added power drain. Ok, ok.. enough writing.. time for some more gaming..

Copy protection sucks!

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Doom 3 is out!!!!! Hehe.. I know what I’m doing this weekend. 🙂 Well, maybe not the whole weekend… nah, who am I kidding!

DooM ]|[
It’s been a long time coming, but Doom 3 is finally here on store shelves. I picked up a copy and though the game definitely lives up to the DooM legacy, the software leaves something to be desired. The first problem I encountered was with the included Macrovision copy protection software.

Macrovision pop-up

There are several references to this issue online (such as this one, this one, or this one) as well as one reference to it on Activision’s support site that didn’t help. Ultimately I ended up getting the no-cd crack from game burn world. Of course this is only a temporary fix until Activision/Id come out with a real patch for the game. All this time in development, you’d think they’d have tested the copy protection software a little more rigorously.

Been a while..

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Well, as you can see I’ve been pretty slack on the web updates. But, there’s been a lot going on lately.. or something like that 🙂 In the months since my last post Nan and I have been to the mountains, then to Texas to visit family. There’s been lots going on at work too. All in all a busy time, but still loads of fun. If only there were more time!

iMac modding?
In between reminiscing with Mechwarrior 3/4 over the weekend, I got fed up with the slow speed of my DV iMac. For it’s time, (circa 1999) it was quite the good little Mac. As the years have gone by and the OS’s have been wiped out and replaced by newer and more CPU hungry ones, the little Mac that could has become the little Mac that barely could. I therefore decided to attempt to overclock it. There’s some information out there on just how to do this, but unless you’re skilled at microsoldering I’d say leave well enough alone. The components you’ll have to disconnect and reconfigure are only about 1mm x 1.5mm (about the size of a few grains of sugar) and must be handled with extreme care. (not to mention the right tools) read more..

Blueberry