Macs Cannot Do...

Much as I love my Macs, there are certain things that the Macs just cannot do. As a Mac evangelist, I do tell people that I preach to about the sad fact. This is more like a list in case I need it. I don't do false advertisement.

• Can You See What I See? - Scholastics published many I Spy games for both Macs and Windows. The latest in the series, not necessarily from Scholastics, so far is available for Windoze only. Although my Son already has a few hidden object games, the I Spy series is still his favorite, especially in CYSWIS Seymour plays a bigger role. Or so it seems.
• Platypus 2 - I played Platypus 2 on a Windoze machine and really like all the extra weapons and the three-player mode. On the Mac with the original Platypus, I can get only so far so I hope that with three players against the computer, I may get further.
• Citrix - One option to connect to the office is to go to some web site and connect via a Citrix connection. Unfortunately, you need more than the Citrix client to work. Whatever behind the scene requires ActiveX and the site specifically declares that it does not support Macs. I verified by installing a Citrix client on my Mac and failed utterly. Oh well, might as well keep work and fun separated.
• Hap Hazard - My Son play many games at miniclips.com but some games, such as Hap Hazard, does not work on the Mac. Windoze with Internet Explorer only, supposedly. I even tried to use it on my lowly Win XP PC but there too it failed to run. Whatever. Luckily, so far Son has not asked about it any more.
• Cantonese data entry - The built-in Chinese keyboard method works fine, but I can only use its pinyin method. You need to know Mandarin in order to use pinyin. I know the Cantonese dialect better than Mandarin so this does not help me. On Windoze, I used to use UnionWay for Chinese data entry and it does support Cantonese. Lately I have almost no need for writing Chinese so, while it would be nice to be able to write with Cantonese sound, no major loss there.
  

On a good note, I distinctly recall Cartoon Network's videos of recently aired shows used to be unavailable to Macheads but I just checked and it worked fine. Maybe someone at CN realized that there is a sizable Mac audience out there to cater to.

Also, I used to wish Vietnamese keyboard method on the Mac could have more option. On my old PowerBook G4, there is only one choice, but I see that with Leopard, on the Wife's laptop, there are many choices, including VNI, with the diacritical marks at keys 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. It has been a while, but I think it's sắc, huyền, hỏi, ngã, nặng.

So, if you can live without certain Windoze apps or web sites, make the switch and enjoy computing without all that baggage Windoze brings!

The Story Behind Platypus

I liked the game Platypus so much I started to Google for more info about it. I learned that there was a sequel called, uh, Platypus II, for Windows only for now. Then there was also a Platypus for Sony's PlayStation Personal. Eventually, I came across the web site for Squashy Software, Anthony Flack's company. It was there that I learned about the story behind the game.

There are two stories of note on the Squashy Software web site. The first, also discussed elsewhere on the web, was that Anthony was an up-and-coming game developer. Along came software publisher iDigicon offering Anthony a lump sum for the game Platypus. Like many people starting out, Anthony didn't have much money at the time and took the offer, signing away all intellectual property rights that would be associated to the game. As yet another item in the traditional brick-and-mortar stores, the game didn't fare well at first. Then Mike Boeh obtained the rights to distribute the software from iDigicon, made some improvements to it, and re-released it online as shareware/demoware. The game was a big hit, but unfortunately, all Anthony Flack got out of it was the original sum iDigicon offered him (plus the completion bonus). Well, for a short while, through arrangement with Mike Boeh, Anthony was able to offer the game from the Squashy Software web site, but then iDigicon canceled the deal with Boeh and the action nixed the Squashy link as well. That was Feb 2006, something might be different by now because Boeh's web site, www.retro64.com, does offer Platypus for download, but Squashy Software doesn't.

Scott Adams of Dilbert fame once wrote that to be successful in business you would need to be a business person. He attributed his success in the cartoon syndication not so much because of his drawing skill, but rather from some other business angle. The world can be a complicated place sometimes. I identify with Anthony because I am not business-savvy. I like drawing cartoons and hope someday to make a living out of it. I dread ending up like young Anthony Flack of yesteryear, taken advantage by some lop-sided business deal that, at the time, was better than nothing.

The other point I find interesting is how having a backup offsite makes all the difference. While young Anthony was working on putting out Platypus, a fire in his building consumed everything he possessed except the clothes on his back. Luckily, he had a backup of the game stored outside the apartment. Wow. It is not only important to have backups, but the backup must be offsite, physically away from the original. Anthony had a hard time finding plasticine to continue making clay models, but at least he had the backup to continue the work.

Anthony Flack has been working on the next game, Cletus Clay, for a while. There is much anticipation in the indie game developer community, but Anthony doesn't have enough time to devote to it. Let's wait and see.

BTW, I learned today at http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=34737 that Michael Reitzenstein did the conversion for the Mac platform for Platypus.

Besides the story posted on www.squashysoftware.com, you can also get info about Anthony Flack from an interview he granted to Indie Game Developer's Podcast:

http://www.indiegamepod.com/2006/10/squashy-software-interview-part-i.html
http://www.indiegamepod.com/2006/11/squashy-software-interview-part-ii.html