This past year marked the 20th anniversary of the Edenwaith website, which has diligently served as a repository for my software projects and random technical experiments. The first decade was dedicated to creating new software for the burgeoning Mac OS X market. Most of those initial apps have been retired now, but a couple of mainstays like Permanent Eraser, EdenList, and even EdenMath are still around.
There was not much in the way of traditional software development in 2021, primarily due to my job being quite busy for the first half of the year, so there was less time and energy to lend to side projects. However, there were a couple of software updates with AGI Studio and EdenList. After several years of contemplation, I have finally retired 33 RPM. Work on Permanent Eraser 3.0 has begun in earnest, but there is no defined timeframe for when it will be released. I did manage to write and complete my first short story in seven years (in addition to revising my current novel which I hope to have completed the second draft in 2022) with the Space Quest-themed Another Day, Another Buckazoid. There's also been some interesting research done with topics of color theory, serial drivers, and fonts, all which I hope to delve into further this year.
Software Updates
Prominent Blog Posts
While there were not many software updates, fourteen blog posts were written, and here are some of the more interesting ones from 2021. The article about the Logitech CyberMan had been in the works for quite awhile and became quite the deep dive into how serial mice work and trying to get it to work with modern computers.
- Agifier: Technical Details
- Cave Painting in King's Quest IV
- Using a PowerBook in 2021
- Another Day, Another Buckazoid
- Implementing NSServices for macOS
- Logitech Cyberman
2022
This year will likely focus on more game-related topics, and less on traditional software. However, I do now have an M1-equipped MacBook Pro and have more reason to update some Mac software to support the new Apple Silicon chips. The following are a number of topics I intend on researching and/or working on:
- More AGS Mac ports — looking at also including ARM support for the newer M1 Macs. Perhaps even learn how to do Mac ports for other game engines.
- Further research into color theory to improve the Agifier script
- Additional experimentation with the Logitech CyberMan and compatible games
- Write a Logitech CyberMan serial driver for the Mac
- Write a Mac audio player for either AGI Studio or GameAudioPlayer
- Research the issue where color Sierra AGI games had issues on newer color Macs of the 1990s
- Design fonts, particularly updating classic Sierra-style fonts using Glyphs and FontStruct
- If I complete my 2nd draft in good time, then will look into other game development for things like TWINE or the Playdate
- Continue work on Permanent Eraser 3.0