Okay, no new beta yet ... However, I've prepared a funny screenshot for you. It shows my latest work on Kyodai : Environment-mapped Bump-mapping It looks so great ! Well, the screenshot shows a game that is rather unplayable, but I'm working on making easier-to-watch graphics for the final version. Implementing bump-mapping was much harder than expected (Microsoft, I hate you !), but I'm glad I did it. Don't worry, it will be optional, because it causes a severe performance hit, and it's only available on G400 cards. Apart from that, I've reimplemented the good old MCI routines for playing Midi music. As you may know, the DirectMusic engine doesn't correctly play the pitch-bend calls in Miguel's musics, and I was unable to find information on how to fix the problem. Expect a third (and final ?) beta version by the end of the month. The final version will still be late, yes. But it will be worth the wait.

Wow, 12 days without an update... This has to be one of the longest silences ever on my site ! I even got a few mails from readers who suffered from news-withdrawal... ))  Well, basically, I was really busy. First, in real life, I've got two funerals (relatively distant family), a really cute cat (we still can't find a name for her... So, for now we're calling her "Le Chat" -- the cat), and the first two seasons of Babylon 5 on video. As a DS9 fan, I've been longing to watch this series for a long time. Now I've seen a selection of the best episodes from these seasons and I must say that I've fallen in love with this "competitor" of DS9, especially the episodes The Coming of Shadows and The Long, Twilight Struggle. Season 3 should be released around March 8 in France, I can't wait to buy it...  Now, in computer life... Kyodai is very playable and suffers from very few bugs, but unfortunately, when Z-Buffer is enabled, 3D still refuses to work on my i740 machine. Not only that, but I received and installed a G400 card, and it suffers from the same problem. But when I use its updated drivers, the bug disappears ! So I reinstalled the default drivers and tried to fix the bug myself... But I can't seem to find it. As the Beta 1 version (using WDirectX) works perfectly with these drivers, I'm thinking (again !) of switching back to WDirectX. But maybe not completely, maybe I'll do a "mix" between DelphiX (for 2D, audio and network) and WDirectX (for 3D). I even thought of trying QuadrupleD again (it's another Japanese component for DirectX, only available in English, but it gives good results, and it even has a fast Immediate Mode library based on the Retained Mode structure...), but I found out that it had the same driver problem on some specific samples (namely the Primitives sample that uses 3D to emulate 2D Alpha blending and rotation, for those who tried it). It's really a pity that DelphiX has such a strange bug, because apart from that, it's a fantastic component. I even posted a message in (poor) Japanese on Hori's forum, but I haven't got an answer yet. Sob.  So, basically, I'll probably spend the next few days trying to mix WDirectX and DelphiX together to get good results. If it doesn't work, I'll stick to DelphiX. Indeed I've found a temporary workaround for the driver bug, by making sure that if Z-Buffer is disabled, all the games remain playable without visual artifacts. This workaround will probably remain in the final version, anyway, because disabling Z-Buffer gives really fast results. Oh, by the way... I'm really impressed by that G400 card. The speed difference with the TNT2 is not noticeable, and I just love the bump-mapping feature. Only so far I haven't managed to implement it in Kyodai, but I'll try again in the future. Bye !

Ah, good. Not too many complaints about the new beta, apparently... The only major problem seems to be the same as on my i740 machine : 3D doesn't appear at all with Z-Buffer activated, and sometimes doesn't appear without Z-Buffer either. All I can see is some horizontal lines. I thought it had something to do with the Z-Buffer, but since the problem is sometimes still there when I disable it, maybe I'm wrong... Does any 3D programmer there know what can cause this kind of visual glitch ? Thanks !  Oh, by the way ! Do you know how can somebody be happy when he discovers by chance his own software on sale in the main supermarket of his town ? You'll never guess. I found two copies of Mahjongg Master's French version today. I couldn't believe my eyes ! The only problem is that it's a *very* old version of Kyodai and I'm so ashamed of it !

The new Beta is finally online. Please read the "What's new" file to find out the known issues. The rest seems to run perfectly on my machine. I hope you'll like it. Please send a short report to tell me if the game's running fine on your machine, along with your video card type. Even if it works. Don't expect an answer, but I'll do my best to keep you posted about the future events. If everything goes well, the final version should be ready in a week or two, after I've selected the new graphics and layouts to add. Makes me think that I absolutely love those programs that explain the major version number change (v6.1 to v7.0, etc) by simply adding a background or two to the package ...  NB: DirectMusic is incorrectly supported in this beta version. Please answer "yes" when Kyodai asks you if you have a powerful machine, and only play MOD-type musics (not Miguel's musics). Otherwise you're likely to get an Access Violation. The bug will be fixed in the final version. Also, do not use the menus to switch between games. It causes some problems.

Sorry, the beta is still late...!! But it's nearly ready, really ! I've been working a lot on it this week-end, and managed to implement some cool new features, as well as improving the overall interface, performance, loading time and fixing a few bugs left. Now, globally, the only remaining bug should be the fact that you can't play in fullscreen mode (sorry for you Voodoo1 and Voodoo2 owners...). So, the beta will be coming next week. But rather on monday than on saturday, don't worry ! (NB : after the fullscreen bug is fixed, the overall product will probably be ready for the final version )

Tired, tired ... Sorry, the beta is a bit late now... I'll do my best to release it this week-end. I'm doing my best to polish it as much as possible. Unfortunately, you can forget the Fullscreen support in it. My Voodoo 1 card still doesn't work (it doesn't send any data to the monitor... If anyone has an idea... I have the latest drivers for it), and I can't test why it gives me an access violation. Also, I can't do remote debugging because it's available only on Delphi 4.0 C/S version (I "only" have the Professional version). Which means I can't find out why the 3D version doesn't work on my i740 machine (I think the problem is related to the Z-Buffer). But there are some good news anyway. Slider looks mostly like the 10.21 version, as well as Hashira (except the score points, they don't appear when you remove a column). I've accelerated the launch speed and, even better, there's not any more latency when switching from the Game Selector to the game itself and vice-versa. All in all, a lot of improvements have been made today. But I'm still not completely satisfied with the results. You'll be able to make your own opinion in a few days ! See you !

Kyodai Beta 2 is nearly ready. I just need to fix a few bugs that prevent the program from running in fullscreen mode. I've managed to implement DirectSound MOD playing at last. Will have to do the same for sound effects. This morning I received a really nice gift from a registered user of Kyodai : a SB Live and 64mb of Ram for my secondary machine, and a TNT2 Xentor for my main machine. Wow ! Now I don't need any more Ram for my secondary machine, and it was indeed the Ram that made it crash so often. As for the TNT2, it didn't work either... So I got mad, tried with my first TNT2 again, didn't work as well. Got mad again, removed the TNT2 violently, started to clean stupidly my AGP port with a screwdriver (!), reinserted the TNT2 card and guess what ? It worked ! I had already cleaned my AGP port before, but I guess it's just a matter of luck. So, I won't remove that card before long ... I'm a bit disappointed though, because the performance in Solitaire isn't better than for the Voodoo 3 (105 fps in a normal situation). But it works in 32-bit mode and OpenGL runs much faster, so bye bye Voodoo 3 ! I've got a fascinating life, haven't I ?

Eheh. Hashira finished and playable. Slider finished and playable. Everything is now converted to 3D !! There are still a few graphic glitches in these 3D versions (the Next tiles don't appear yet, etc.), but they will be fixed as soon as possible... Oh, by the way ! Slider looks better now than in v10.21 (that grid was a bit awful), and Hashira looks just as good. It'll soon be time to celebrate, 'cause the new Beta is coming !  PS : Sorry to everyone who sent an e-mail and didn't get an answer yet !! I'm keeping a copy of all my e-mails, but currently I'm REALLY busy on Kyodai and other things, and it's a pain to control everything. Please please please don't write to me for now ! I've got approximately 70 recent e-mails left to answer :-(

Hi ! Seven minutes of samples from Miguel Samiez's Original Soundtrack album for Kyodai Mahjongg are now online ! You can listen to them here. Hurry up, you'll love them ! You'll also find there an extract from the next music I'll add to Kyodai, The Sad Song, one of the best pieces of music Miguel has ever written. I've also reset the poll for Miguel, so please vote again and tell us your opinion now that you can listen to the samples !  What's up for Kyodai ? Well, I've been working more than ever on it these last days. I've removed most of the bugs that had appeared when switching to DelphiX. I've rewritten the Game Selector from scratch to fit it in the game window. It also has a few cool animations. I'm hoping to add a scrolltext (for all Atari ST lovers like me ). The executable size is 200kb smaller (don't ask me why, I don't even know for sure ! ), I've added a new animation in 2D Solitaire, Ghost (now it's up to you to guess what it does ), which required to rewrite a part of the 2D engine, allowing me to fix at the same time a minor bug that had been... bugging me since version 8.0 (phew), etc... And it's not finished yet !! Now I'll try to focus on adding that scrolltext, improving the DirectDraw/Direct3D integration in both the Game Selector and the game itself, and finally add 3D to Clicks, Slider and Hashira. Oh, by the way, now all games work perfectly in 2D mode. Stay tuned, I think I may consider releasing a new beta version this week or early next week...

I've slightly changed the layout of the site's main page. I hope it's more readable now ! Also, the Download of the Millennium contest at ZDNet is now over. Thank you everyone, I ended up in the first half of the contestants. Actually at position #25, not #1, but the whole ZDNet library was competiting and I consider this an excellent result. So I'm pretty happy !