Archive for September, 2005

For those that are having issues with this combination, including an error about “no drive suitable for Setup to store temporary files”, here’s what I did:

1. Create a new VM.
2. Create 2 hard drive images of 10GB.
3. Boot to Vista setup, and after you click the first “Install”, you can use Shift+F10 to get a console.
4. Run DiskPart and create/format a single large partition on each drive.
5. Exit and continue setup. Pick the first drive to install to, and you should be in business! (Note, you may need to reboot the setup once for the changes to “take”.)

Avast! It be a wee bit early, but as I’ll be off skirmishing on the morrow, I’m posting this now….

Jolly Talk Like A Pirate Day!

On a serious note…3 posts in one day? What’s the world coming to?

Fizzwizzle is a cross platform (Win/Lin/Mac) game using SDL, and a great demo is available for download. If you like it (and I’m sure you will), you can purchase the full version for only $20! It includes over 200 levels, and an amazing level editor that allows anyone to create new challenges for free. There are already tons of amazing new levels being posted at the Grubby Games forums.

In addition to the regular and advanced level sets, there are tons of great kid level puzzles that my 5 year old immediately fell in love with. When I end up buying it, it will be due in no small part to her pestering

The graphics, animations, and gameplay are all perfectly tuned, and it’s an amazing game from top to bottom; hard to believe it came from only two guys!

So my family and I were strolling through the mall the other day, and ended up spending some time in the games store there. The very wise owners had opted to open and lay out some of the games and puzzles that were on sale that week.

My daughter (only 5 mind you) became enamoured of this little set of plastic men w/ paddles and a little plastic raft. The object was to get all of the little guys into the boat, facing the same way, and not leaving any gaps.

After 15 minutes we really needed to head out, so we tried to pull the kid along with us. Well, she wouldn’t leave until she had completed the puzzle (and at this point, my wife and I had gotten more than a little intrigued ). Suffice it to say, we parted the store with 1 new Raging Rapids and a $10 hole in our pockets!

The box said a hint booklet was included, but ours was missing and it was the last copy at the store, so we bravely forged on without it. After about a week of everyone tinkering, it was pretty clear we weren’t going to get anywhere, so I went to ThinkFun’s website and requested a new booklet. You can order all kinds of replacement supplies there, but since mine was missing “out of the box”, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask for one via email.

I got a prompt reply from Rhonda at ThinkFun, who was more than happy to send out the hint booklet, and an updated catalog. EXCELLENT customer service, which is something I highly value!

In the week before the booklet came, I managed to get addicted to the online versions of their games River Crossing and Rush Hour. I HIGHLY recommend trying these out online, to see how fun they are, and I bet you’ll end up with a couple of orders under your belt as well

So the booklet arrived on Thursday, and I looked at the first hint. It basically tells you where 1 of the pieces needs to go. Based off that info, I was able to iterate more quickly through the possibilities and had the thing solved in a matter of minutes It felt like cheating a little, but since it was only a ‘hint’ and not the full solution, I think I’ll let it slide you can get a second hint if needed to solve the “facing the front of the boat” version, and then two additional hints for solving the alternate facing version.

All in all, I HIGHLY recommend Raging Rapids for the ghigh quality design, brainteasing fun, and the excellent customer service. In addition, I’ll be picking up Rush Hour and River Crossing when we hit the game store next!