Shock & Awe

Today I installed Mac OS X 10.3.8 onto my iMac (G4). The fan is quieter (for less CPU-intensive tasks) and the system appears a little more responsive and smoother than the previous update, which is always welcome. As is best practice I performed backup-to-DVD duties and repaired permissions (a legacy of OS X’s Unix heritage) both before and after (there were changes following the update). Forums report that there are issues for some G5 users - excessive fan activity.

Owners of Macally iShock USB game controllers should remove the driver (if installed). The driver is incompatible with 10.3.8 and causes rapid loss of HDD space. According to Brad Oliver iShock is Plug and Play configurable anyway. I've ordered an iShock II for my huge time suck of a hobby MAME.

Aaron Giles has turned his considerable coding skill towards reworking sound cores in MAME. In the future QSound and multi channel speaker output will be supported. JBL feel the love.

System 16

An arcade game hobbyist since my teens, I'm following, with great interest, the development of MAME (a modular and portable driver oriented architecture). Programmer Aaron Giles, whose resume takes in the sights and sounds of LucasArts and Microsoft, continues to rewrite the Sega driver for MAME. His recent accomplishments warrant technical comparison with THX! Both projects are directed at the preservation of popular entertainment mediums (albeit MAME is a not-for-profit document).

I for one can't wait to replay Sega's Turbo Out Run, Space Harrier and Super Hang On with 100% accuracy in the near future. For further reading may I suggest System 16.

Proper Crimbo

Santa's little software helpers are ever industrious at this time of year! Aspyr's Brad Oliver is beta testing a new patch for Jedi Academy (1.01c). This will improve online game play and finesse the dynamic glow of lightsabers in the Mac port. Dark Forces is my favorite Star Wars licensed game and there's a new mod for Jedi Academy based on the classic FPS.

Those fine folks at Cupertino may be releasing Mac OS X 10.3.7 as soon as tonight. A revised version of OpenGL with updated ATI and nVIDIA graphics drivers is just one of the new attractions!

And Aaron Giles (of JPEGView fame) continues to rewrite the Sega System 16 driver for a future release of MAME.

Time to prepare a DVD-ROM archive for 2004.