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Roadmapped by steve (done)
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11 Nov 2015
[comment_44439]
megaman4ever
- The master of wizards, 2009
Yeah those were the days.
11 Nov 2015
[comment_44440]
megaman4ever
20 Nov 2015
[comment_44441]
The master of wizards
23 Nov 2015
[comment_44442]
steve
Thinking about getting an Apple Watch - any thoughts?
24 Nov 2015
[comment_44443]
megaman4ever
Well, I'd say that being content or even thrilled about consumer tech that's considered outdated is much better in a lot of ways than purchasing every new widget that comes out.
25 Nov 2015
[comment_44444]
The master of wizards
Not that I am ever going to buy them unless required.
25 Nov 2015
[comment_44445]
megaman4ever
Maybe one day I'll even be supportive of Apple in terms of investing in their products. The notion feels laughable now, but I guess you never know.
2 Dec 2015
[comment_44446]
Super_merlin
And looking back, yeah, wow. I was in fifth grade when I joined this site. This community really had a huge impact on my life back in the day. It's pretty awesome that a few of us are still around, even if only intermittently.
5 Dec 2015
[comment_44447]
steve
9 Dec 2015
[comment_44448]
megaman4ever
23 Dec 2015
[comment_44449]
steve
However, once the kids came along I suddenly found I had no time whatsoever for anything. So if the phone needed some attention, it just stayed like that. I also found that my particular phone was very slow getting into the camera which meant I missed shot after shot of the kids doing cute things. So I got iphone and haven't looked back.
Now, some of this is negated by the latest round of high end Android phones which may be even slicker and faster than an iphone. But I still think the iphone gives a more consistent experience, mine always stays responsive.
iphones are expensive, and when you look at the specs you wonder where the money is going but I think Apple focuses on the user experience rather than the pure specs. There may be a time when I move back to Android, but right now I'm happy with the Apple stuff I've got and I wouldn't mind a bit more :)
24 Dec 2015
[comment_44450]
megaman4ever
Young developers always seem to dislike SAD, requirements engineering and documentation, and turn up their nose at concepts like domain modellin or TDD. Even though these methods ultimately are there to help define the user experience.
Based on your description, looks like courses such as Software Design and Engineering will literally pay off!
Now that school is on break, there's finally time to tinker with my own projects! Perhaps a neural network design tool... I have a base ready for the logic, but unfortunately the package structure is not working quite as intended. The code compiles and runs, but Eclipse has problems figuring out the visibility quirks. If you're interested, check it out on GitHub!
27 Dec 2015
[comment_44451]
steve
Today was a very proud day for me. My daughter (aged 3.5) played one of my games for the first time. She's into the Disney princesses so of course the game of choice was Rapunzel's Escape. To my amazement she actually liked it and we had a great time with it. She even got her actual Rapunzel doll up to the screen, willing it to grow it's hair like the character in the game. Hard to believe it's getting on for 11 years ago that I wrote that game.
1 Jan 2016
[comment_44452]
megaman4ever
I wonder if in ten or twenty years someone will play the games I made as a wee lad back in 2002-2006... It still blows my mind that Steam actually has a bunch of games made with Game Maker nowadays.
20 Jan 2016
[comment_44453]
mr$
It's really weird to post here, so much has changed and I think this might be the first forum I ever frequented. (can't remember the password for my original mr#) I still want to be a game developer, though.
21 Jan 2016
[comment_44454]
megaman4ever

I wonder, can you figure the strategy out? ;)
Another thing that I'm wondering about is that this is actually a Flash game, as well as is Lemony Snicket. How come?
21 Jan 2016
[comment_44455]
megaman4ever
24 Apr 2016
[comment_44460]
megaman4ever
...Well, a quick update on how life is going at my end:
Third year of CS studies behind me, I'm starting to feel more and more like an adult. Taking a more professional approach in my networking, I managed to land a summer job at a company producing high-speed database solutions for the food industries.
I've finally had the opportunity to study interesting courses and my motivation was through the roof all year long. Some of the things I did include software architecture design, computer graphics (rendering), business related things, working on some projects, sharpening my English and Japanese skills, etc. Having a bunch of programming experience behind me and a decent grasp on the basics, I thought that it was about time for more advanced subjects. :)
I'm also astonished at the great strides of AlphaGo and the AI community as a whole. Many players were saying that it will take 5-10 years before computers beat humans in Go, and it just suddenly happened. Will this be the case with when we cross the boundary of AGI as well? Dangerous but interesting times ahead, perhaps.
Finally, I also went through with the decision of quitting competitive gaming. My hands have hurt from sessions of excessive gameplay recently, and overall the feelings I get from tournaments these days are nostalgic rather than exciting. When faced with the choice of becoming #1 in whatever hot game of the year, or becoming #1 in developing applications that border the boundaries of human development, I think that it's clear that some sort of change was needed. I still enjoy board games though, especially in the play-by-mail format.
I would think that this is a fairly common transitional phase to go through for young adults in the modern age. Therefore, if the folks here have any comments, I'd be more than happy to hear them. :)
Guess that's it for now.
Signing off,
megaman4ever/mmKALLL
26 Apr 2016
[comment_44461]
megaman4ever
30 Apr 2016
[comment_44462]
megaman4ever
Went thought my old suggestions to see if I could find some of the old projects online; no dice, considering I used expiring links since they were alphas.
On a side note, I did stumble on a comment reminiscing the old good days. It's a thing of the past by now, but back in the day of 2010 we had that brief month of over 1000 comments each week (along with roughly a dozen suggestions)! It was insane, and of course I and many more read every single one. It still blows my mind when I think about that.
I wonder how things were in 2006 and 2007 when the SDB was new and fancy? Not that it still isn't one of my favourite web systems. :)
23 Jun 2016
[comment_44463]
Hobbes
How is everyone?
23 Jun 2016
[comment_44464]
Koncerna
26 Jun 2016
[comment_44465]
megaman4ever
The series is as great as ever :)
27 Jun 2016
[comment_44466]
Super_merlin
28 Jun 2016
[comment_44467]
merlin1234
30 Jun 2016
[comment_44468]
megaman4ever
What are you studying / teaching?
9 Jul 2016
[comment_44469]
Super_merlin
10 Jul 2016
[comment_44470]
megaman4ever
22 Aug 2016
[comment_44471]
CoolCharles207
♪ ninja edit: omg, i haven't made a ninja edit in ages
24 Aug 2016
[comment_44472]
♪
I'm really glad you're all still around here; my exciting news is that I just moved to seattle, and am a week and a bit into working as a software engineer at Amazon!
I've also been biking and camping like crazy,which is incredibly fun.
13 Sep 2016
[comment_44474]
megaman4ever
There are several options; downloading Adobe's Shockwave site, downloading the game's .dcr, and then running it locally might be your best bet. Using Merlin Open to play custom maps (found from the Downloads page) is another option; it comes with all you need.
Unfortunately games like MR Evolution and Created most likely won't work like that, as they need to access the website.
♪, wow, it's been like, a year???!!??!?
Congratulations, being able to work at Amazon sounds awesome! Seems like you landed a big one. :)
As for myself, I came back from a month-long vacation in Japan. The trip was so fantastic that my current feelings regarding the same old Finland are quite mixed. I'll try to get some photos online at some point, but this week I'm loaded with both work and studies; it's going to be pretty busy, to say the least.
Everyone, if you still enjoy games, go play Undertale. It's overrated and overhyped, and many people have many opinions about it, yet it feels underrated and is an incredible game under the hood.
21 Sep 2016
[comment_44477]
NeyBar
However, if we will recommend games, then I must recommend Dominions 4. It is a very detailed strategy game and has enough content to keep one entertained for many hours. It also includes multiplayer.
I also recommend not believing my review and seeing for yourself if you like it because the game is not cheap.
25 Sep 2016
[comment_44481]
megaman4ever
However, that price tag is definitely a bit high. I think I'll stick to the loads and loads of fantastic free games (like MR??!?) until they run out :)
25 Sep 2016
[comment_44485]
steve
My second and final child is now 2 years old so we are "out of the baby zone". This is the first chance I've had to look at the site since he was born, the last time I did any work on the site was 2 years ago.
I am hoping (and for now it's only a hope, not a plan) that I will gradually start to able to do some things here again. It will never be fully back to the good old days because I have a full time job and family etc etc. But I am hoping to be able to do something...
It's time to drop shockwave. Actually it was time in 2002 but it's really definitely absolutely time now so any new games from me will be developed in JavaScript. So, I won't be looking to make any significant changes to Merlin's Revenge but rather start something new in js. JavaScript gives the best coverage without having to export or do anything fancy. If it runs on Firefox on Windows it will run anywhere. (No doubt that statement will be dis-proved over and over again lol.)
26 Sep 2016
[comment_44488]
NeyBar
27 Sep 2016
[comment_44493]
megaman4ever
Should http://themetalbox.com/ leave or stay in the Internet?
Those in favour of the exit often worry about other possible immigration problems. What would we do if there is a sudden abundancy in video game enthusiasts wishing to enter The Metal Box in order to play Merlin's Revenge?
In all seriousness, good to hear from you! Guess the baby zone is some serious business. :)
If you end up developing an open-source game in anything else than Lingo, let me know. I would love to join as a contributor and sharpen up my JS skills! Not to mention building up the contribution chart on GitHub! One can see the timing of my winter and summer vacations quite clearly from here, lol: https://github.com/mmKALLL/
As for Steam, I technically do have it, but very seldom play any games through it these days. Feel free to add me there; the nickname is "mmKALLL".
1 Oct 2016
[comment_44500]
NeyBar
9 Oct 2016
[comment_44505]
megaman4ever
9 Oct 2016
[comment_44506]
megaman4ever
Looks like I opened some sort of Pandora's box here, folks.
Behold, my very own game website in image form, painstakingly handcrafted with the newest of new HTML1:

Well, that's pretty cool.
There are several points of interest here, I think. Considering that the website was made in 2006 at the age of 12, perhaps a few years after the homepage boom, it's pretty cool.
First off, these days I would rather use Game Maker than C++ for creating games. It seems like a very popular choice for building simple JS-based things recently - most likely the transpiling would not be able to handle anything of MR's scale, but maybe in a year or two even that might be feasible with some optimization. Either way, I'm glad to have actually made a lot of cool games (and learnt Java, and later a dozen of languages) than have spent years figuring out C++. :)
Grab the demo, except it's actually fuller than the full version? Pay what you want? Successful advertising much?
MR Fangame Kit was great. I played the old-but-surprisingly-not-terrible summoning spell fangame and woah, it was actually pretty decent. I wonder what my game-making buddy back from elementary school is doing these days; maybe I'll send the guy a message.
As for Chase Game, I wish all of my projects would be quickly done because of no uncovered bugs... ;)
Unfortunately my promise of weekly updates did not last for long, but making games back then was definitely a blast.
Guess this reminded me of why I enjoy programming in the first place? That it might not matter what it is that I'm developing, as long as it's really awesome to do it?
Steve, thanks for the inspiration and numerous kind words to the whole community along the years. Hopefully my next webpage will be as full of enthusiasm as this one. :)
By the way, turns out that there is now a tool to make old Game Maker 6.1 games work on 64-bit Windows machines: http://help.yoyogames.com/attachments/token/lsj0pmbzqeu64hf/?name=GM_Convert_Game.zip
27 Oct 2016
[comment_44508]
NeyBar
9 Nov 2016
[comment_44510]
merlin1234
19 Dec 2016
[comment_44512]
Darren
My days is it weird to return to a childhood favourite and remember that everybody else's lives have moved on too...
Steve, congrats on kids! (perhaps slightly belated there)
It kind of seems like everybody's gone on to study techie things? Well, no exception here.
To join in with the update-fest: I'm not so focused on games and coding as I was back in the days when this place inspired me so much, but I've def carried on in the same kind of direction. Really enjoyed finally learning some programming while studying Engineering at uni (C++ - the teacher said that if we could learn that off the bat then we should get the knack of learning other languages as we need them). Just this summer graduated my masters degree in Information & Computer Engineering.
...and right now I'm kind of floating, having (for various complicated reasons) needed to take some time out. But applying for jobs in control engineering, so who knows I might have more to say in a while :P
Anyway that's me. Really cool to see some people still keeping this place active!
13 Feb 2017
[comment_44513]
Hobbes
Just figured I'd drop in and see how everyone was doing.
I'm doing pretty much the same thing as the last time I popped in, working when I can and helping take care of my niece when I can't.
Also, for the record NeyBar, I had no clue.
27 Feb 2017
[comment_44514]
♪
28 Feb 2017
[comment_44515]
Darren
Suggestion v much appreciated - though I have, in fact, now found myself a job. From the autumn I'll be a (graduate) 'mechatronics' engineer - helping to build/write software for big fancy maintenance robots that fix radioactive/superhot/otherwise dangerous scientific machines.
So, uh, woop woop!
2 Mar 2017
[comment_44516]
♪
That actually sounds a lot like the geophysics mechatronics job I did for my family as coops -- it once included making gamma detectors to put down a 200C pipe.
How's doing a grad program? I think I'd like to do one in computer vision in a few years
7 Mar 2017
[comment_44517]
Darren
(When you say grad program - do you mean grad degree at uni kind of thing?)
22 Mar 2017
[comment_44518]
steve
22 Mar 2017
[comment_44519]
steve
Not sure how much longer I can keep this site up for. It really needs to go https: but I don't have the time to look at it.
25 May 2017
[comment_44520]
NeyBar
11 Jun 2017
[comment_44521]
steve
Speaking of which, the kids are not babies any more so I'm starting to think i might be able to find some time to put into the site. I'm thinking of radically simplifying it and removing the old shockwave games. That technology has really run it's course by now. I'll work on a new JavaScript/php based game and I think its really important to establish a revenue stream up front this time, without that it's impossible to sustain the commitment of effort for myself and other contributors.
The game and site will need to be mobile and desktop friendly. I'm thinking of something based in the merlins revenge world but playable on a phone. I wont say too much more about that now. I'm still a long way from starting, just thinking for now but it's good to be doing that much at least :)
9 Jul 2017
[comment_44522]
Issaac
I truly appreciate the hours and money you dedicated to keeping this around for all those years.
19 Jul 2017
[comment_44523]
megaman4ever
As for making games, I'd totally be down for that. I don't think I posted these yet, but I participated in two game jams this year! Will be looking forward to Ludum Dare next week as well.
The games can be found from the following links:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/invasion
https://mmkalll.itch.io/badasher
Both games were made in just 48 hours, the first one in JS and the second one in C# using Unity. They both only take a few minutes to try, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on them. :)
They are also open source; I'm wondering if there are any places to look for code reviews on the JS game?
19 Jul 2017
[comment_44524]
megaman4ever
31 Jul 2017
[comment_44525]
steve
31 Jul 2017
[comment_44528]
steve
I couldn't play the other one just yet as I'm on my Linux box here and it looks like a Windows exe. Which confirms why JS is a good choice for maximum compatibility with minimum effort :)
4 Aug 2017
[comment_44529]
megaman4ever
JS does have its problems, but even for a small project like this I think it's worthwhile to bear those in exchange for the platform flexibility and ease of testing. Unity can export into a format running in browser with WebGL, but still requires the user to download a runtime environment! What a bummer.
The full screen mode was actually added automatically by itch.io! Looks like my 6 hour efforts with CSS on day one paid off, though; the game was nicely fitted in the center without any adjustment.
Something I was thinking about for a while was viewport resolution (it's 650x650 in this case), but I wasn't really targeting mobile so it seems like a good choice. Just wondering how it would be on a HD display, as proper scaling can be a lot of work to do.
4 Aug 2017
[comment_44530]
megaman4ever
4 Aug 2017
[comment_44531]
megaman4ever
13 Sep 2017
[comment_44532]
merlin1234
post! (10 months 4 days)
Wow I didn't realize it had already been this long, But as per the usual for me a passing thought of TMB turns into a month forgetting TMB.
Oh well, It seems everyone is doing well so I'll throw my own news into the pot;
I Recently moved further south in the states, and it's okay but I would still prefer my icy landscapes (Side note: not Alaska, I used to live in Maine)
Always a pleasure to stop by!
See you all again (er kinda see you?)
At some point >Year!
(probably)
27 Sep 2017
[comment_44533]
steve
15 Oct 2017
[comment_44534]
megaman4ever
If anyone needs a place to stay at while around Tokyo, let me know - although preferably at least two months ahead of time! :)
6 Nov 2017
[comment_44535]
steve
Just let us know if the smell gets too bad and we'll start looking for somewhere more permanent. See you Tuesday!
1 Dec 2017
[comment_44536]
NeyBar
7 Dec 2017
[comment_44539]
steve
10 Dec 2017
[comment_44540]
megaman4ever
----
Actually checking out the comment, I would be in favor of not taking out the old games. If the website is getting a full revamp, at least preserving the existing form and games in some unmaintained "old" section would be nice to have. I do need to go out of my way to play them these days, but it made me sad when RandomThoughts.net decided to take down their Java Applet games for similar reasons, overcommitted to a huge revamp, and then died out to financial issues. They were similar to TMB in a lot of ways, and I would hate to see TMB share the same fate; either way, establishing a revenue stream is probably essential.
Overall, I like the "retro" feel of the website, although making the design responsve for various devices would of course be a good thing. (Weird how just 10 years have passed and it suddenly feels retro instead of cutting-edge...)
As for costs, I was wondering what are the downsides to this? https://letsencrypt.org/
It does advertise itself as free, and seems to be backed by lots of big names.
15 Dec 2017
[comment_44542]
lokey57
With that said, it'd be interesting to see a small rebirth, or even revamp of TheMetalBox and the games to adhere to modern technology and trends.
Also hi, I'm still alive. It's extremely surreal for me to find people still active and around, and the people that were kids back in the day (myself included, I was like... 13, 14 when I joined the site?) now as working adults and developers themselves. But the fact that people are still around is a pleasant thing.
24 Jan 2018
[comment_44548]
steve
I just need to do the minimum to raise security and comply with GDPR
2 May 2018
[comment_44549]
megaman4ever
9 Sep 2018
[comment_44551]
Hobbes
15 Sep 2018
[comment_44552]
merlin1234
28 Sep 2018
[comment_44553]
megaman4ever
Looking forward to the AI overlords transforming this world into a blissful paradise. I'm betting that there will be more time to check TMB after all of that is over. :)
6 Oct 2018
[comment_44554]
Darren
Actually just checking in with a bizarre story. At work the other week we were chatting about the fall of flash as a trusted plugin and one of the new guys was like "Hey does anyone remember shockwave?"
Anyway to cut to the chase it turns out I work with someone who also used to frequent this forum.
(He told me what his username waa but I didn't recognise it and then I forgot it.)
6 Oct 2018
[comment_44555]
Darren
16 Oct 2018
[comment_44556]
megaman4ever
4 Nov 2018
[comment_44558]
crazymerlinman321
28 Nov 2018
[comment_44560]
Super_merlin
It's great to see people still around! You all were such a hugely influential part of my childhood (though it still sounds weird to refer to my childhood as a thing quite in the past).
16 Jan 2019
[comment_44562]
Hobbes
Also, Darren that's amazing!
16 Jan 2019
[comment_44563]
Hobbes
2 Mar 2019
[comment_44564]
osel
TMB FOREVER!!!
19 Mar 2020
[comment_44571]
Hobbes
How is everyone doing these days?
Personally, I'm enjoying my self quarantine with some games I haven't played in a long time, especially MR now that I can play again!
14 Apr 2020
[comment_44575]
merlin1234
Also excited to be able to download MrOpen again and mess around with the old editor.
19 Apr 2020
[comment_44578]
steve
I don't have as much time back as I thought I would but it's great to be able to scrape a few hours together and slowly do some TMB/games type stuff.
19 Apr 2020
[comment_44581]
Super_merlin
And of course, I'm very eager to put in another run through of MR. It's been far too long!
19 Apr 2020
[comment_44583]
steve
11 Dec 2020
[comment_44592]
megaman4ever
Despite my historical record of loathing JavaScript, recently I'm learning more and more about TypeScript/React/Node. With types it's not so bad, and being able to share code/types/tests between frontend and backend is fantastic. VSCode makes coding feel like coding again.
Been enjoying a variety of board games too, got hooked on Go and Backgammon for a while. :)
How is everyone doing these days? Everything alright with the lockdowns and what not?
11 Dec 2020
[comment_44593]
megaman4ever
21 Feb 2021
[comment_44594]
Hobbes
Speaking of, did anyone else here originally play MR1 on Bonus?
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Rating: 5.00 in 10 votes
Status: rate | *In Roadmap*
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