I love simple games. Apparently, you do too!
As the 2011 Game Developer Conference takes place this week, it’s interesting to see a return to basics in game design lately.
It’s hard not to notice that the iTunes App Store has brought something back into vogue that used to be a standard in the Flash games department: very simple games.
As the creator of silly, simple Flash games in the past, I must say I enjoy the heck out of such games. Doodle Jump and Angry Birds are just two of the insanely popular “one button” hits that have taken the stage in recent years, but the onslaught continues. Heck, our own Aquarium Adventure has even been reborn on the iOS platform (albeit with a little less gore than past versions).
And if you haven’t played Tiny Wings by Andreas Illiger on your iOS device yet, you really should. So simple it’s beautiful.
It’s here: UltraEdit for OS X!
Anybody who’s followed Turdhead.com in the past few years knows that one of my biggest (OK, my only) gripes against OS X for Web and Flash development has been the lack of a full-featured text editor that works the way I, a Windows refugee, might expect. That’s not to say there aren’t some great editors out there (People swear by TextMate and BBEdit, after all, and Vi(m) has been around since the start), and after several years, I’ve even become content with my own choices (first jEdit, and then later, the ever-improving Komodo Edit, which I have to say I’ve learned to really like).
But last week, it finally happened: I’ve been reunited with my first love! UltraEdit, the text editor I began using in 1994 and missed sorely when I switched to the Mac in 2003, has finally joined me in my Mac development world. IDM Computer Solutions has obviously spent a lot of time developing and testing this release, and it shows: UltraEdit 2.01 looks and feels as if it’s been here all along: It’s a pure Mac app, and it includes all the power and extras one might expect from an editor now in its 16th revision on that other platform.
Granted, reacquainting myself with this old flame will be a learning experience, now that I’ve become comfortable with Komodo Edit over the years, but I look forward to re-learning its powerful simplicity. If you’ve never tried it, give it a spin. (And if you HAVE tried it, you’re going to love it… again!)
Fantastic job, and kudos to Ian and company at IDM! Good to have you back in my workflow.
On Apple and Adobe and all things related…
Shut up. Just… shut up.
Please, Internet, can’t we just talk about something else?
AT&T, You suck.
The only carrier licensed to sell the iPhone in the U.S. also seems to be the only carrier incompetent enough to screw it up.
iPhone 3.0 has MMS and tethering — two technologies people have been screaming about for months. But while other users around the world can enjoy them today (ok, June 16), they’re not available on AT&T.
Turns out AT&T could care less, though. They’ve already got the two-year contracts signed from the 2.0 launch, and don’t seem to want to make things easy for “official” users.
Did your jEdit break this week, too? Here’s the fix
After using and touting jEdit for all my programming needs this year, I was left high and dry this week after Apple’s latest Java update seemed to cripple the app’s launcher. I could still launch the editor using the jar file within the app bundle, but this wouldn’t allow auto-launching or drag-and-drop opening (and the interface looked like crap).
Thank goodness Doug Letterman of Render Fast came to the rescue with a couple of solutions (one of his own creation, and one from the Apple support forums).
So if you’ve been putting up with inferior editors and clamoring for a solution this week, too, relax: jEdit is back on OS X.
And for what it’s worth, the developers of jEdit assure us a new version is in the works that will correct the issue “out-of-the-box,” but for now, this solution should get you back in the game. Happy coding!