New Age Soldier

Make PC Game Cartridges

2021-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

Gaming consoles like the Nintendo Switch and Sony Playstation Vita/TV are newer cartridge based media systems. There cartridges are pretty close in size to a normal SD card. I thought it would be fun to explore the possibilities of making our own game cartridges for the PC.

Important Notes

Cheap MicroSD and SD cards typically have slow read/write speeds. So if you’re plan on making one for older games, go ahead and use cheap ones. For more demanding games, use more expensive cards. Do not purchase unknown name cheap cards from Amazon or Ebay as they can be fakes.

Capacity	
SD: Up to 2 GB
SDHC: over 2 GB to 32 GB
SDXC: over 32 GB to 2 TB
SDUC: over 2 TB to 128 TB

Read mechanism	
Standard: 12.5 MB/s
High-speed: 25 MB/s
UHS-I: 50 MB/s or 104 MB/s
UHS-II: 156 MB/s full-duplex, or 312 MB/s half-duplex
UHS-III: 312 MB/s full-duplex, or 624 MB/s full-duplex
Express: ≥ 985 MB/s full-duplex

Resources

Windows PC with MicroSD or SD Card Reader
VMWare ThinApp, Cameyo Packager or DOSBox.
MicroSD card or SD Card for game storage media. Note the above speeds and sizes.
Autorun_Win10 app for making game media cartridges launch the executable or batch file upon insertion.

Instructions

Download and run the Autorun_Win10 app on our Windows PC.
Format your storage media device (ex: Our SD Card) to be FAT32 or NTFS. Note that FAT32 has a restriction of file sizes over 4GB. I recommend NTFS.
You will use Cameyo Packager or VMWare ThinApp to create a packaged (containorized) version of your game. If it’s an older DOS game, you can use scripts to auto launch DOSBox with your game in a .bat (batch) file.
Place your containorized game with any required files onto your storage media device, and create a new file in the root of the drive called Autorun.inf. This will make our game automatically launch when you insert the game into our Windows computer.
This is optional, but you may want to go into your Settings > Devices > Autoplay and change the dropdown boxes to Take no action to prevent a file explorer window from opening upon insertion.

Autorun.inf Structure

[autorun] 
open=Filename.exe 
icon=Filename.ico

Gaming Boxes

You can make boxes for your cartridges to display on a shelf for safe storage. Here’s a full size DVD case with a MicroSD card holder or you can buy Nintendo Switch replacement boxes and put 3D printed MicroSD card holders in them.

EverQuest Single Player

2020-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

Ever since I was young I wanted to play a single player version of EverQuest. Well today, I did just that, and I’m going to show you how you can too!

Benefits

Remove corpse retrieving
Remove experience loss upon death
Remove unmemorize spells upon death
Higher HP/MANA/STA regen
Soul bind anywhere
Reduce NPC running away at low HP
Higher hit chance
Remove NPC bonuses
Reduce stun chance
Other minor adjustments

Steps

Install EQEmu - This is our EverQuest server.
Open eqemu_server.pl file, type in setup_loginserver, then type in setup_bots, then type in database, then type in check_bot_db_updates. Bots and local login server are now setup.
Install MySQL WorkBench. First, click Edit > Preferences… > SQL Editor > (scroll down) Uncheck Safe Updates. Restart MySQL WorkBench. Double click on the first entry. Username is root, password is eqemu (lowercase). Click on the Schemas tab. Right click on PEQ > Set as Default Schema. Here is the SQL Statements you would want to run. Click the yellow lightning bolt above to run the update statements.
Download and install EverQuest RoF2 client. Open your EverQuest game folder, make a shortcut of EQGame.exe onto your desktop. Right click on EQGame.exe > Properties > add patchme to the end of your Target.
Open your EQEmu folder, run t_start_server_with_login_server.bat. This will launch several windows. Keep these open, as this is your game server. Hopefully there is no red text in any of these windows. If you have any issues, please consult the EQEmu project website or their Discord channel.
Run the EQGame.exe shortcut you made on your desktop. Type in an account username and password you want to use, this will automatically create the account in the database. Create your character and jump into the game!

Consult the bot commands list in the EQEmu wiki if you want to use bots. But, with the DB updates we made, you should be able to solo play EverQuest!

Xbox 360 and PS3 (1080p + all games) Remote Play Streaming

2019-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

Required Hardware

0 latency HDMI input device (Elgato Cam Link, HD60S, etc.)
GIMX cable
Xbox360 - Wired Xbox 360 controller for authentication purposes
PS3 - HDCP stripping tool

Instructions

If you made the GIMX dummy cable, you’ll have to write the PS3 or Xbox360 firmware to the board depending on which console you wish to remote into.
Open Steam and add a non-steam game. Select the Elgato Game Capture software.
Setup the GMX Launcher software with the input of your PC’s internal network IP and the output to GMX cable. On your remote device (laptop, GPDWin, etc.) use input hardware device, output host PC’s internal network IP.
Be sure to have your controller plugged in (GPDWin Xbox controller switched on) prior to launching the GIMX Launcher software.
Launch the GIMX host PC software first, then the client software after. Leave the command windows open as this is your live client/host connection. If you close them, it will break the connection.

Diablo 1 Xbox Controller & Keyboard Mod

2019-06-20T00:00:00+00:00

When I was trying to play Diablo 1 on my GPD Win I thought there has to be a way to incorporate controller support, similar to the Playstation 1 port. I remembered that there was an open source reverse engineered project for Diablo 1 called Devilution, so I figured that would be a good starting place for this project. After forking the repo, I started by getting familiar with the code base and creating new functions for how I would imagine this system working.

Things like detecting nearby items, monsters, towners, etc and being able to interact with them. Or, moving the cursor through the inventory and skills tree system and selecting what item or skill I need. So I created 4 new files. plrctrls.cpp/.h and joystick.cpp/.h and marking my code with //JAKE to make adding this modification for other Diablo 1 mods easy.

If you would like to grab the source code or add it to your own Diablo 1 mod, check it out at https://github.com/erfg12/devilution

Here is the final product:

New Keyboard Setup

Spacebar - Attack nearby enemies, talk to towns people and merchants. Pickup & Drop items in inventory.
Enter - Pickup gold, potions & equipment from ground, open chests and doors that are nearby.
Arrow Keys and WASD Keys - Move character in that direction. Move cursor in inventory & speedbook.
X Key - Cast spell or use skill. Back out of menus.
Q Key - Use first health potion in belt.
E Key - Use first mana potion in belt.
Moved Speedbook key to H.

New Functions

Automap only moves when you hold down shift.
Towns people, items and objects show information when nearby.
Inventory snaps to grid system, use arrow/WASD keys to move around. Spacebar to pickup/drop items.
Speedbook spells have snap grid system, use arrow/WASD keys to move around. Spacebar to select spell.
Character info window level up attribute increase buttons now make cursor snap to them.
Xbox One & 360 controller support added.

Xbox Controller Button Layout

A Button: Attack nearby enemies, talk to towns people and merchants, confirm menu clicks.
B Button: Open inventory
X Button: Pickup gold, potions & equipment from ground, open chests and doors that are nearby.
Y Button: Cast spell or use skill. Back out of menus.
Back Button: Open automap.
Start Button: Open game menu.
Left Shoulder Button: Open the speed spell book.
Right Shoulder Button: Open character info window.
Direction Pad & Left Joystick: Move character.
Right Joystick: Move Cursor. Click for mouse left click.
Left Trigger: Use first health potion in belt.
Right Trigger: Use first mana potion in belt.

Windows 95, 98, XP, Vista And 7 Themes For Windows 10

2018-07-31T00:00:00+00:00

The zip packages on this page have assets and documents for theming a Windows 10 computer to look like an older operating system. Watch the YouTube video and read the documentation provided to get an understanding of how this process works. If at any time you want to undo the theme, uninstall Classic-Shell and run the Uninstall-Theme.bat file.

The demigod customizer program may give you errors or warnings when customizing some of the system tray icons, and this is an issue I have seen before.

Lots of changes have been made prior to the video. Please, open the README.md file with notepad or wordpad and follow the instructions provided.

Windows 9x, Vista & XP Theme Files, Code Repo

Want to change the boot screen? I made this pack to customize it!

Want an America Online themed web browser? I made a Chromium web browser look like AOL!

Play Original Xbox Games On Your XBox 360 Unofficial Hard Drive

2018-04-12T00:00:00+00:00

Lets say you purchased an unofficial xbox 360 hard drive and you want to play your original Xbox games on your Xbox 360. Well, you can’t without this program and a special partition file that allows you to create the data required for playing these games!

Download the Xplorer 360 Extreme2 program and Partition2.bin files.
Extract the program and bin file. I would recommend to your desktop for easy access.
Right click on Xplorer360 Extreme2.exe and click the option “Run as administrator”
Click on the Drive tab > Open > Harddrive or Memcard…
Click on the Drive tab > Restore Partition 2
Using this newly opened window, navigate to the Partition2.bin, select it and click the open button.
You will now see a progress bar, and once it is complete it will either say it has finished OR the program will crash! This is ok, as the program has finished it’s process.
Put the hard drive back in to your Xbox 360 console, turn it on, and play an Xbox original game. It might prompt you for a small 5mb patch. Go ahead and download/install the patch.

You are now ready to play Xbox original games on your Xbox 360!

EverQuest – PC Trainer

2018-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

Currently for EQEmu servers; Titanium, Mac, RoF, etc. game clients.

PROGRAM FEATURES

Teleport To Coordinates
Save and Load Teleport Coordinates
No Falling Damage
No Stuns
Show Buff/Debuff Times
Target Level & Class (even if anonymous)
Separate GPS Map System
Display Bank & Character Money
Display HP, Mana and XP Numerical Values
Follow Exactly Behind Any Target
Search NPCs in Zone And Teleport To Them
Ultravision For Any Race
Infinite under water breathing
Automated Bot Scripts
Multiple Game Process Hacking
Can use MQ2 (Macroquest 2) functions
100’s of Zone teleport coordinate files from server
and much more!

DOWNLOADS

RedGuides.com

MMOBugs.com

Getting Your Dreamcast Online, Without A Broadband Adapter!

2018-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

Few people these days have dial up internet. Most everyone has ethernet cables with broadband, which leaves older technology behind. Even with the addition of the broadband adapter, you will not be able to play some games that require the dial up modem. Luckily there is a new developer out there to bring the Dreamcast back online with the use of a Raspberry Pi!

Required Materials

Raspberry Pi (used model A in example)
RJ-11 Phone Data/Voice Wire
330 Ohm Resistor
330 ohm 1/4W 5% Carbon Film Resistor
Heavy-Duty 9V Snap Connector
9v Battery
Soldering Iron and Solder
Wire Strippers
Kazade’s SD Card Image
Win32 Disk Imager
RJ-45 ethernet cable for your Raspberry Pi
Fax to USB modem adapter
Disc Juggler
Dreamcast Web Browser (US) (Europe)
Blank CD-R’s for burning. You will need a CD burner as well.

Setup Instructions

Take your RJ-11 Voice/Data cable and cut it open about 4-5 inches and cut the inside red wire. Use your wire strippers to strip the ends of this red wire. Solder the 1UF capacitor to one end of the red wire and solder the red 9v snap connector on to that same end. Now on the other end of the RJ-11 red cable you will solder both the other end of the 1UF capacitor and the 330 ohm 1/4w resistor. On the other end of the resistor you will solder the black 9v snap connector cable. Once finished, it should look like this.
Use Disc Juggler to burn your Planetweb or Dreamkey web browser CDI. Follow this video.
Use WIN32 Disk Imager to write Kazade’s SD card image to your SD card for your Raspberry Pi. Plug in your Raspberry Pi’s RJ-45 ethernet cable and your fax to USB modem with your new RJ-11 cable. You can plug in the Raspberry Pi’s power to turn it on.
Plug in your RJ-11 cable in to your Dreamcast, put in the Planetweb or Dreamkey burnt disc and turn it on. We will now be setting up the modem. Once you set up your modem, you are ready to play online! Follow Kazade’s thread on AssemblerGames.com to watch for upcoming updates.

Modem Settings

User Login: dream
Password: dreamcast
Dial Up Number: 555
DNS1: 0.0.0.0
DNS2: 0.0.0.0
Modem Init: AT&F0
Dial: Tone
Dial Area Code: Off
Blind Dial: On
Proxy: No

Clan Mod - The Jedi Knight Mod

2016-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

From my early days as a developer, I loved playing the Jedi Knight series. Specifically Academy and Outcast. When playing Jedi Outcast with my new founded clan RoAR (Rebels of Another Realm), we found it necessary to use a mod to help us grow closer and enforce rules. At that time we used Jedi Academy mod (not the second game) that was developed by TheChosenOne. A very well developed mod, few bugs, overall a nice piece of software. Later, we moved on to Slider’s JA+ mod. Once again a nice mod, but this one was riddled with 1 hit kill bugs, and glitches galor! I had to make a better mod!

This is a mod for Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy multiplayer, specifically for clan and server management. Developed to offer all the features a server or clan owner needs. Administrative in-game commands, map modification in-game commands, and game customization options. There is a plugin to alter some in-game functions, but any client can join a clan mod server without any required files. Removed all 1 hit kill glitch/bugs and fixed any known server crashing exploits. This mod is a massive collaboration with many other developer’s codes that created this wonderful project. This may include features you never knew existed. For example, 3 NEW game types that were built in to the game, but were removed before the game released!

Another fun feature is you can have NPC wars! Spawn a Desann army to fight the Kyle Katarn army! You can control them to follow you and become your body guards to fight off any attackers, or tell them to attack certain people or other NPCs. Spawn FXfiles and models in your map while you play and save them for future use! You can add chairs, tables, glasses and other dodads from the game. You can also spawn really great looking effects in your map like flames, lazers and ice cones. Create ride able vehicles such as rancors and speeder bikes. 5 levels of administration, new administration commands never seen before in other mods, advanced server ban options, clan authentication system, and full administration UI menus!

After a few months of development, and several tests, it was ready to release! I gave out the build to jk3files.com, and had several revisions. And finally, give the community the open source builds that it deserved to have in the first place.

Jedi Academy Mod

GitHub Repo

Jedi Outcast Mod

GitHub Repo

How to Minimize Discord on Startup

2016-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Here’s a batch file that will minimize Discord on startup. There is a small setup needed to do this though.

Start up Discord first, right click on the system tray icon and uncheck the “Run Discord when computer starts” option.
Unzip the DiscordMinimize.bat program and place it in your startup folder “%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup”.

Now when you restart your computer Discord will open and do its update/spin animation then when it goes in to its full chat window it will minimize.

HOW IT WORKS: It will use the default Discord startup commands and the batch file will detect when Discord launches then give it 10 seconds and kill the program. Effectively making it minimize back to the system tray.

(https://newagesoldier.b-cdn.net/downloads/DiscordMinimize.zip)[Download the DiscordMinimizer here.]