Starcraft Color Problem

[2010-08-12: It seems that perfect solution is found. Start reading article from bottom. :)]

I like Starcraft. Both playing and watching it. However, since I installed Windows 7, each time I run it, screen goes into weird color. Half of color palette just goes into cyan.

This is usually restricted to menus. Once game starts, everything looks fine (ok, water has artefacts too), but from time to time, whole game gets garbled. There is nothing to do other than exiting game.

I tried various settings on compatibility mode without real success. Setting compatibility mode to Windows XP (where game looks good) made things even worse since Starcraft started reporting that it cannot load a file (font\font.gid). Neither combination of settings got palette problem solved.

Unrelated googling threw me a solution. Just open Screen Resolution window and run Starcraft (with that window still open). Colors are as they should be.

I haven’t tested this on Vista yet, but if you have a same problem, it is worth a shot.

Why exactly this works - I have no idea.

[2009-03-06: Notice that you still need some compatibility settings. Here are ones that work for me in Windows 7. Disabling display scaling enables me to have higher DPI (120%) and still use my map (otherwise, place I select on map isn’t place where I end up). Without disabling desktop composition, I cannot even switch to game and without administrative rights you may stumble upon some problems if you are running from Program Files folder (write forbidden for normal users). Checking other stuff didn’t make anything better, so I left it off.]

[2009-06-09: With Windows 7 RC, things got worse. Even with every checkbox selected, Windows 95 compatibility mode and resolution screen open, I cannot reproduce proper screen every time. Sometimes it works properly, sometimes you can get it to work by pressing Alt+Tab repeatedly, and sometimes it is best to exit and enter again.]

[2009-08-28: This workaround works for final version of Windows 7. It does not work every time but success ratio is well over 50%.]

[2010-08-12: One annonymous commenter suggested solution that includes registry changes. All I can say is that it really works. I did test it only on Windows 7 (64-bit version) and it works perfectly. I do hope that it works on other versions (Vista also). I took liberty of packing those two hacks into one zip file. Do leave comment if you find it working (or not) on other versions.]

[2017-04-19: With patch 1.18, issue is finally resolved.

Google Sync

If you want to use Google Sync to synchronize your mobile phone with Google’s address book and calendar, you will probably have problem with fact that upon synchronization, your mobile phone’s content will be deleted (both contacts and calendar items).

I personally use my mobile phone (HP iPAQ 514) as most up-to-date storage of contacts so I had a big problem with that. However, I decided to give Google Sync a try. In whole process it cheated a little in order to preserve all contacts (and calendar items).

Please notice that while this whole procedure worked fine for me, you may not be that lucky. Perform backup!

Step 1

First we need to copy pim.vol file from root directory of your mobile phone. This is place where most of your PIM data is stored. Before coping that file, you may want to turn off and on your mobile phone in order to flush all data in cache. This file is write-cached to enhance performance and to avoid wear-and-tear of underlying flash. Save that file to SD card - we will need it again later.

Step 2

Synchronize with Google Sync. Instructions are at Google’s site and I will not repeat it here.

Step 3

Once synchronization is done, you will notice that your contacts are gone and replaced with those defined at Google’s side. Now it is good time to turn off your phone, turn it on again, and copy pim.vol (one your stored in step 1) over pim.vol in root directory. If you get a message that file is in use, wait a little and try again. Once file is copied, turn off your phone and turn it on again. At this point, you should have all your contacts back.

If you synchronize now, all your contacts will get recognized as new and transferred to Google. From this point on, your phone is synchronized.

Averatec-Intel Classic 2008 Season 2 - Finals

Well, GOM TV tournament is done for now. I will not say who won, but I will give you a link to first game. If you like Starcraft, you will like this final.

P.S. For those who like intense game play, here is one gem from the same tournament.

Goodbye Geode

I am big fan of Geode processor. It is cheap, has low power requirements and heating is negligent. My home server is PC Engine’s ALIX1D board - you guess it - based on Geode.

That board is slow and it only has 256 MB of memory, but also requires no cooling (complete silence) and if you consider that all devices are connected over wireless, speed is good enough for file sharing which is its primary purpose anyhow.

However, market is wanting more powerful processors and Geode is going to history. They do say that they will produce it while there is need, but any company that still uses them will start searching for a replacement. The end is imminent.

Since only requirement for my server is low noise (passive cooling and 2.5" HD), I already see replacement - MSI WindBOX.

Customer Care

More than ten years into Starcraft’s existence, Blizzard still cares.

There is new patch available. This one is version 1.161 and solves some issues in order to make Starcraft better on modern machines.

It is very surprising to see vendor that still cares about old customers. More than nine millions of them.

Races

I am of course speaking about Starcraft races. I am very lousy player with all of them so take this post as a advice to worst players out there.

Terran

Nice race with great defense possibilities. If you like turtleing they are great and once you reach 200/200 your army is most powerful thing there is.

Protoss

Really powerful race with great units for offensive play. Real problem is when you need to defend. There is not too much special abilities out there so there are not trouble to manage when you have a big army.

Zerg

Insects that reproduce really fast. Their abilities are something not seen in any other game so playing with them is a really good fun. Units tend to get very specialized in late game so you may have a problems with deducing proper ratio of them.

Which one do I use?

I haven’t decided yet. :)

Since all races are somewhat same (in regards with power, unit-wise they are totally different) once you get to know them, it all comes to personal preference. In that light, terran does not suit me - they are just too plain.

I played with zerg a lot and they definitely have nice air units but somehow I never use their special abilities to full extend so defence from terran army is a huge problem to me. Especially when terran goes around hunting my overlords and then attacking me with invisible wraiths. Although they are not meant for that, defense is (for me) much easier with them than attacking. But if you can attack early there is no force that can resist.

Protoss is my current favorite since it allows me great land and air army. Detectors are fragile as zerg’s but my economy is not hurting as much when I lose them. There are also invisible units there so harassing other players just comes naturally. With successful harassing, there comes a victory also.

[2010-02-15: I decided. I will be the Protoss. :)]

Great Archivement

What is my great archivement for today?

Few minutes ago I have beaten computer in Starcraft for the first time. I was playing Protoss, computer was playing Terran and map in question was Chupung-Ryeong.

Best Game There Is...

I do not play a lot. Occasional game now and then is enough to satisfy my need for gaming without taking too much time. When I look back to last 10+ years, I played mostly Duke Nukem 3D, Unreal Tournament and similar ones. I played few RTS games also, my favorite being Dune II and Warcraft II (it seems that there is something with those II’s). Space simulations like TIE Fighter or X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter were more than welcome to make use of my joystick.

Now

I don’t play any of those games now. It seems that they got just boring with time. I have always liked human opponent in a game so FPS gaming was first to go when my friends and myself started to work more and play less. Space simulations were next to go (along with RPG games not named here) since they just take too much time. RTS games just got boring after passing all levels and regularly beating computer in games.

I took a look at new games but since I am business laptop user they were either too ugly on my integrated graphics card or unplayable at all. And I am not big fan of graphic-intensive games - in my personal opinion game does not need to have great graphics to be a great game.

However once upon a time I installed GOM Player since I needed something small to replace my favorite BSplayer which went in spyware bundling ways. Player was really good, no spyware, no commercials except occasional commercial for something called GOMTV in his status bar.

It took me a while to take a look at that site and there was Starcraft Tournament at the moment. I did played that game way back when it was released and it didn’t hold any particular appeal to me but I took opportunity to take a look at it again. All those games were Korean but surprisingly there was also English commentary for them. I was hooked up. Games were great and commentary made them understanding to me. Since that time I am following all games eagerly waiting for next Sunday. Before that time only thing I never missed was F1 race. Now add Starcraft match to that.

Just watching?

After watching few games I tried playing it myself and I must confess that I really liked it. I flied through campaign, both from original and Brood War expansion. I do fight computer occasionally but that is way too hard at my level - I can just hope to survive first few attacks. Fortunately there are some friends that like that game also so I have opportunity to beat somebody from time to time. I do play with random players on battle.net also (although it is very hard to find good 1-on-1 map without never-ending minerals or 20 geysers around). At this time, my win score is 0 but I did play some nice games.

It is strange how I see that game (old 10 years) in different light, mostly thanks to Tasteless’ commentary of game that held no appeal to me before that. Whether this is just short-time crush or real long-term relationship only time will tell…

GOG.com

If you like to play old games you may want to check GOG.com site. That site gives you possibility of purchasing old games for very cheap price (5.99 or 9.99 at the moment). Not only that will give you a game but you will get to own the game within few seconds and all that without any DRM. Once you purchase game there, you do really own it.

They do not have big library currently although you can see it expanding every month but there are some gems like Fallout or Freespace serial. Even Unreal is available. For more of them, just go to site and browse around - you will be amazed how many “good old games” made it to list.