September 18 , 2000

BACK TO WORK ON PHASE 2; SOME URL SCREW-UPS; XOOM BLOWS GOATS

How about a romp among the denizens of the 80th floor?

   Well, I'm back -- to work, that is, on Project Totengraeber: Phase 2. I've got levels 1-30 finished now, plus all but one of the secret floors. Only eleven levels remain until completion of the project is realized. Awesome. Go on over to the new Phase 2 News and Info page to take a gander at fourteen new screen captures.

   I've gotten a few reports of bad URLs; 404 errors popping up in other words. Turns out that when I migrated things over from my old server, there was a discrepancy in the directory structure that went unfixed in many of the pages of this site. Fortunately, that's been corrected now. Also, please be patient with me with updates to this site. I've moved to a more rural area thanks to my new job, and out here, the phone lines are making site updates excruciatingly difficult. But I'll get to it.

   Finally, with the news that NBC has bought out free webspace provider Xoom.com, I've noticed a cataclysmic cascade failure of just about every Xoom site out there. I'm not sure if they're ever coming back online, but until such time as they do, there will probably be some files / sites linked to from here that no longer work. Please do not mail me about this. I can't do anything about it. Please check the URL in the status bar of your browser before mailing a bad-link complaint. If things stay bad long enough, I'll probably upload some of the files to my own server.

   That's all for now...enjoy your meal.

August 5, 2000

NEW COMPANY TO HOST THE BUNKER; MINOR DOWNTIME POSSIBLE

   Konnichi wa! Raise your hand if you thought I was in the morgue. Ah, I thought so.

   The truth is, I'm very much alive. Out of college and into the workplace. Becoming a more experienced web programmer by the day, I've decided to move my websites to a server with support for more advanced scripting languages and databases, including ASP, PHP, and mySQL. The move is expected to go down within the next few days, and might involve some minor downtime while changes are processed with both hosting companies and the InterNIC. If you experience trouble accessing this domain, you'll know why. The problems shouldn't continue for more than a day or two at most.

   For those who have been wondering just what the hell I have been doing for the past year, I've had a life to live -- what more can I say? I sure don't exist to live my life as the omnipresent sysop of a non-profit website. I already give away my level design strategies, game utilities and some great add-ons for free -- don't expect me to provide therapy as well. I'd love to, but I don't have the time to spare.

   On a lighter note, I'm planning to make a fresh start in the Wolfenstein community soon, and come back with some major re-engineering of The Bunker as you now know it. In the meantime, you get back to living your lives, and I'll get back to living mine. Deal?

November 11, 1999

THE BUNKER GOES INTO INDEFINITE STANDBY MODE

   Well, that's being a bit melodramatic I suppose, but things around here have been insanely busy lately...and I've got so much work to do, it's got me totally tied up. I graduate from college on the 21st of December, and I've got approximately 10 days to turn in beta 1 of a big application...while at the same time rendering a 720x486 Targa sequence of all the video I'll be using in our graduation tape, writing a story for somebody, building two made-to-order Wolfenstein engines, talking to my lawyer about some immigration procedures for my wife, digitizing and compositing a ton of video for a finished intro flick that I'll need for my project beta....you get the idea, no? :)

   Anyway, the point of all this is, I'd just like to inform everyone that I may be inaccessible (via e-mail) for the forseeable future, and I'll be unable to take any further requests for 1) game engines, 2) game levels, 3) game anything. I don't wish to make any further commitments that I might not be able to honor. On the flipside, many thanks go out to those who have written me mail in praise of Project Totengraeber. In short, I aim to please. :) Glad you liked the game! And to those of you who I haven't gotten back to in e-mail yet, I'm just insanely busy right now. You'll get your turn. ;)

   That's all for now and I'll be back eventually -- once this madness is over, I suspect -- with more updates! Oh yeah, and for all you Americans out there, if I don't see you: Happy Thanksgiving!

October 31, 1999

UPDATE TO PROJECT TOTENGRAEBER: PHASE 1 (v1.01)

   It's been brought to my attention that some of the players out there are using laptops or other scaled-down keyboards where a right shift key does not exist. This makes it impossible to enable debug commands in Project Totengraeber. Since I have been able to correct this problem without nullifying savegames from v1.0, I have implemented the change. You can grab the small (163 K) upgrade to PT here, or if you don't have the full Phase 1 yet, it's been updated to v1.01. Get the full version here. Sorry for the inconvenience!

October 30, 1999

PROJECT TOTENGRAEBER: PHASE 1 IS NOW AVAILABLE!

   Sing choruses of joy, ye who have long waited for the release of Project Totengraeber, otherwise known as BJ3 in my series of ongoing Wolfenstein add-on development. Phase 1 of the project (essentially the first half of the game) is NOW AVAILABLE from my Project page. It's a 1.26 MB download that contains the stand-alone game, complete with documentation. Download and unzip to any directory (preferably a new one) and type TOTEN to play. Be sure to read the docs for all the info. Enjoy the game, and let me know what you think! I'll be working on finishing Phase 2 in the meantime...should have that done soon! But now, I'm going to bed. :) It's 4:49 a.m. and I just put the finishing touches on Phase 1, so I think I've deserved a respite. Sawasdee!

October 28, 1999

PROJECT TOTENGRAEBER: PHASE 1 AVAILABLE THIS WEEKEND!

   Having decided that time was passing me by too quickly, I have decided to release the first half of Project Totengraeber this weekend. Project Totengraeber: Phase 1 consists of the final engine modifications, graphics, and sound effects, and the first half of the game's levels (amounting to 27 floors). Remember to keep your savegames, and when Phase 2 becomes available shortly, you can download a small levels upgrade and pick up right where you left off. The complete Project Totengraeber: Final will also be released with Phase 2, which will be the complete game in one package.

   To tide you over until Friday evening, when Phase 1 will be finished and uploaded, you can take a look at 12 fresh screenshots in the Project section. These are the first screenshots to showcase the new VGAGRAPH art and a few new wall textures and sprites as well.

October 16, 1999

WELCOME TO WWW.WOLF3DBUNKER.COM!

   My domain name was finally transferred over to my new server, and at last all files are up and running. Welcome to the Bunker, on its new web server! Not only do I have more than twice as much storage space as before, I am now no longer on Geocities -- which in itself can be considered a bonus. In addition, I've noticed much better performance from sustained file transfers off this server. Those of you who have been having problems downloading or unzipping files from my site should no longer experience difficulties. Geocities was apparently cutting off some file transfers before their completion, resulting in corrupted zipfiles. Sorry for the inconvenience! If anyone still has any trouble with any files from my site, please let me know and I will check into it.

Sneak Preview Totengraeber screenshot.

   During the move, I made a small update to the site. The first thing you should notice is the new look of the navigation bar; it uses Javascript rollovers to behave more like the actual Wolfenstein main menu. There are also a couple new downloads in the Add-ons section, namely some episodes by Ken O'Brien (really good stuff there), and the venerable Operation: Panzerschiff, currently my #1 favorite Wolfenstein add-on of all time. Also, from this point forward, new add-ons will have a little "new" icon blinking next to them so you can pick them out easier.

   And speaking of add-ons, I will soon be uploading a new batch of screenshots from Project Totengraeber, considering that the game looks significantly different now. :) As of today, the project entered Final Beta 1 stage -- everything is done except for 50% of the levels (gee, is that all?). To tide you over until my next update, when I'll have a bunch of new Totengraeber screens, there's a little "teaser" shot to the left. There's lots more new stuff besides that status bar too. But you'll have to wait 'till the official release to see it!

October 12, 1999

A NEW HOME FOR THE BUNKER

   Having decided that the Wolfenstein Bunker is too big of a thing to waste with a Geocities URL, I've moved to a new server (a fast one, I might add) and registered a domain name for my site. In a matter of days, the URL to access the Bunker will be http://www.wolf3dbunker.com. The site will no longer be available at its current address, but one of the usual "Update Your Bookmarks" pages will be on this space for an indefinite period, since I still own this account and also use it for other purposes anyway. Thanks to all my visitors and the people who have e-mailed me for your support and help with everything Wolfenstein!

   And for those who are chomping at the bit for more news on my project, yes, I am working -- I spent the entirety of last weekend indoors just working on it. Which could be deemed a bit....odd, but I never tried to insinuate that I was normal. :) Anyway, I've replaced just about every blasted entry in the VGAGRAPH file, even added a new status bar and wicked-awesome title screen that even I am amazed at. And I have a really big source code development in store. I don't know if I can pull it off. If I can't, I'm certainly not going to hold up the project until I finish -- that would be dumb. If it works, cool. If not, there's still plenty else to enjoy about the game. Oh, and no -- I'm not releasing any more information about my source code/features/etc. If I had people working with me on this, I'd make 'em sign a nondisclosure agreement!