On the one hand, I do enjoy problem solving, so I could put the frustration aside sometimes and concentrate on the problem (although, I wanted to throw the machine out the window yesterday).  However, problem solving was not my goal here. Since I'm on vacation right now, I want to play games, not fix computer problems. Like everything else in the desktop computer market, the complexity has risen to the point where an average computer user must treat their computer like a mystical black box. You might as well throw a big fat "No Serviceable Components Inside" sticker on the side of the case. Unless it's something simple, like a unplugged monitor or a mis-aligned video card, then I would expect most people to throw their hands up in frustration and start filing through their list of contacts looking for the local computer geek.

You don't need to understand everything about everything,  you need to comprehend just enough so that you can effectively peel back a layer or two and fix your problem, or at least diagnose it. Of course, if it were that easy, I would be playing Bionic Commando right now. The hard part is dealing with all of these hardware and software layers, and trying to find that mystical needle in the haystack.

I would like to see a better solution to the problem of diagnosing a system crash. It's a hard problem, and one that cannot be fixed without first changing the system, and reducing the number of layers or at least fixing those layers to know stack. The problem is that layers provide a certain kind of freedom to hardware and software engineers. It allows them to ignore a lot of the inner workings of a system, and concentrate more on what they want to build, be it a game or a piece of tax software, so as much as I feel like getting rid of them right now, those layers are here to stay. However, we do not need all of those layers in all circumstances, and some people have customized their desktop configurations so that only the necessary layers are used when performing a task. These customizations are very high level, the user typically does not have a lot of control over the low level pieces of the operating system (unless you're using Linux, but if your goal is to play games, then you're not using Linux anyway). I don't think these kind of profiles are a good idea either, since that creates an even bigger nightmare while testing or debugging a failing product, and much of the configuration is beyond the understanding of a typical user or support personnel.

What the desktop needs is a specialized mode, which essentially brings some of the benefits of a console to the PC arena. This mode must be supported by the operating system, and consist of a limited but complete set of layers, so that game programmers can continue to write great games. That's it; nothing else should be included. By reducing the number of layers, and provide appropriate diagnostic tools for reporting on hardware configurations or problems, game development companies can target much more typical configurations while testing, and support personnel could diagnose problems faster.

Products like DirectX for Microsoft Windows were designed to solve that problem, but over time the development platform began to stray with the introduction of more layers and thus more complexity. Games which utilize DirectX are nice, but simply providing DirectX is not a complete solution, since there are so many services still running on the system, which have nothing to do with the game or the game development framework. These services can cause problems, add complexity, and serve to hide the real culprit, until we arrive at the situation I am dealing with today.

I knew the PS3 Slim didn't have great compatibility with PS2 software before making the purchase, so I'm not blaming them, but I am choosing to think out loud. How is it that the creator of the Ps2 platform cannot produce a 100% functioning software emulator? Why can't they continue to work on it behind the scenes, and then release it as a separate product? I believe they are doing this, which is probably one of the reasons why they took it out of the PS3. The other reason is that the PS2 is still selling well which is helping to defray the high cost of the PS3. Once they retire the cash-cow which is the PS2 console, I would expect the emulator to appear on the market again in some form or another.

1. The game would freeze in seemingly random locations - a reboot was required to fix it
2.  Eventually my desktop froze as well at one point, which seemed to indicate it wasn't the game
3. I tried three different video card driver versions: AMD Catalyst 10.6, 10.5, 104
4. I tried a brand new video card, using a different chip set (nVidia), then subsequently returned it to the store
5. I tried posting to the Bionic Command message board with a DirectX dump (useless, apparently the game is too old)
6. I made sure my fans were running at peak efficiency
7. I cried (only a little)

Until it occurred to me, that it could be Steam causing the crash. So, I took Steam off-line, as it is not possible to play Bionic Commando without it (when purchased through the Steam network). Low and behold, it was a miracle. No freezes. For your reference, here are a few of my vital stats in case someone from Steam wonders by:

Windows 7 64-bit Professional
Intel Core2 Quad CPU with 4 GB of RAM
ATI Radeon 3850 with 500 MB of VRAM
Steam API v009; built June 30, 2010 14:43:46

Here's the system information Steam gathered.

Long story short (didn't we already do this part?), I recovered most of the save game files, reinstalled the operating system (Windows 7, 64-bit), and installed all of those nasty dependencies. Now, I was ready to install the game. I gingerly placed my Dragon Age game disc in the DvD drive, ran the auto-installer, and... whammo! A big ol' data read error in my face. Now isn't that just great. Insolent hardware! I went through this process several times later (copying contents from the disc to the hard drive, disabling the Data Execution Prevention for the installer, etc.), and to make a long story short, had no success with the same error appearing in seemingly random locations during the install. However there is a silver lining, and I eventually did manage to get a fully functional installation. Would you like to know how?

SCRATCH HERE TO REVEAL SECRET

I simply copied the disc's contents from another machine's DvD drive (an iMac in this case) to my Windows 7 box. Ran the installer and it worked. No fuss, no muss. Except for all of the fuss and muss I mentioned above. Please feel free to send me money if you find this helpful.

While scripting batch files, you can also make use of ANSI escape sequences to control the cursor, display coloured or blinking text, etc. In case your interested, DOS requires an ANSI driver in order to translate these escape sequences. These escape sequences are non-intuitive and look something like this:

ESC[=5;7h

Ahh. Isn't it cute? Many people have been discreetly killed for creating less offensive syntax than that. In addition to the regular set of ASCII characters which can be used in creative and artistic ways to produce a recognizable picture, using the set of extended ASCII characters provides an easy way to draw connected lines within the grid of displayable characters. When creating your picture keep in mind the screen size, since this is dependent on the video mode (some video modes can display more rows and columns).

TheDRAW was written by Ian E. Davis and was last released in October of 1993. It is a program which allows you to paint a picture or create an animation using these special characters and ANSI attributes. It's not like painting individual pixels, you are limited by the set of characters available. However, this hasn't stopped ASCII artists from creating fantastic content. The most stunning examples I found were on Bulletin Board Systems. They were often themed according to design of the on-line system. Using TheDRAW, these pictures could be exported as ANSI-compliant or ASCII text files, or as header files to be used in other programming languages. There are a number of small tools available for translating these files into other formats used by other languages.

TheDRAW package is bundled with a utility called TheGrab which can take an screen shot of a running program. It's not your typical screen shot utility which takes snap shots of any graphics screen. This program works only for text mode screens and will output a file in ANSI, ASCII, COM, or TheDRAW format files. Be wary of using this memory resident utility under DOSBox 0.72 as it will crash and force you to end your session.

Last but not least, TheDRAW package is bundled with a utility for creating your own fonts to be used in TheDRAW paint program. This is without a doubt one of my favourite features and makes creating screens a breeze. There are many fonts available in the wide, wide world so have fun.

All of these features are thuroughly explained in the documentation and in-program help. Many of my programs took on a more professional and fun look because of this drawing tool; although I think I went overboard in some cases. I still find it the best tool available for doing this sort of work in DOS, although I'm sure many of you may prefer other software such as AcidDRAW.

I installed the above mod from 8bitdomain.com last night and everything went smoothly. The audio works, the composite video looks great, but the only problem I have is with the s-video output. It's a mess, but the picture is still recognizable. There is a lot of vertical line distortion (highly animated). I triple checked my installation and everything seems fine, but of course, there is obviously something wrong.I did a little research and some people hinted at a problem when both the composite and s-video signals were used together. I don't put a lot of stock in most of the comments on these message boards, but the problem they were describing loosely resembled the problem I am experiencing.

Originally, I put the shielding back on after the installation, but it was causing a lot of distortion and very bad feeback from the console switches when they were touched and even hovering my hand over the console. It seems the electrical fields were playing havoc with the TIA chip, which is now a lot closer to the shielding. The installation guide did not say to omit the shield (in fact it said to set it aside), but the pictures implied it, so I took it off and the composite signal was a lot better but still miserable for s-video.

Any ideas as to what the problem could be?