Smoke on the water

Smoke on the water, originally uploaded by Steve_Gregory.

I think this is one of my most popular images, ever!

AppleCrypt Mods

AppleCrypt Mods

is now officially DEAD !!

I'm sorry folks, but I'm pretty sure you all figured this out for yourselves by now! My time simply isn't available anymore, we've now got two little ones that see to that! Something had to give and the little free-time I get now is usually spent with my photography hobby & flickr.

I'd like to personally thank Gumby for everything this guys done for me and AppleCrypt Mods. I'm sure I would have given up long ago if it wasn't for this great guy! I would also like to thank Monoman that came to our rescue after File Front deleted 80+ GB of mods from our old server!

Without these two guys - AppleCrypt Mods would never have lasted as long as it did! Trust me, it's often been hard work and I've wanted to end it a couple of times. So, a massive thank you to you two - always appreciated :-)

FWIW, you can still access the old website here. This contains all the links to everything I got around to re-uploading (after the File Front incident!).

Of course, I would also like to thank you guys reading this! It's always been wonderful to hear back from everyone that ever found a mod or single player map enjoyable. What a great feeling knowing that you've helped the Mac gaming world! ;o)

So, to recap... don't forget to click the link above! All the mods and maps available here should still download and work dandy. Also, please continue to check this blog now and then - I'll use it too post my amateur photography!

So, on behalf of Strider ~ AppleCrypt Mods,

I say a big-bang-thank-you too everyone and a sad goodbye.

Llano Railroad Museum

Llano Railroad Museum, originally uploaded by Steve-Gregory.

More from my Flickr stream! :)

Desert Life

Desert life, originally uploaded by Steve-Gregory.

I am particularly proud of this image and I simply wanted to share it on Flickr. Simple as that :)

(BF1942) 1861: The American Civil War

Hello everyone & welcome to the only AppleCrypt Mods webpage that you should bookmark. I will have the old URL "applecryptmods.co.uk" for a few more months but the domain name should expire around September '09. I cannot afford to keep buying this...

Anyhow, here is the new webpage of AppleCrypt Mods! If you've read the short piece I wrote on my (old) homepage then you'll know I'm going to make all posts right here on blogspot as it's easier and less time consuming - for me! So keep coming back here :-)

Okay, here is a mod for Battlefield 1942 called The American Civil War. I've included the info within the zip file and it works with three maps in single player / coop mode. They are : Battle of the Crater, Battle of the Wilderness and Fort Fisher (I liked this one the best!).

Remember to read the Mac docs that i've added into the zip.

Download link here. Click all the images below for bigger versions, but you knew that already. Right? ;p

Muscle Cars

Pontiac Trans Am, originally uploaded by Steve-Gregory.

To celebrate Independence Day weekend we visited the Stars & Stripes American car show at Tatton Park, Cheshire. You don't need to be an American or even someone physically in America to celebrate the break from British rule! Just have a love of everything that makes this country so great. Today it is their incredible history of motorcars.

Almost every type of muscle car was on show along with trucks, rigs, RVs, bikes and more. However, the cars from the 70s interested me the most though I do like the current modern cars from Ford, Dodge and Chevrolet. Whereas the ones from the 50s really capture my Moms imagination and my Dad seemed to love those HUGE rigs and the pickup trucks.

Perhaps growing up in the 70s and 80s watching TV shows like Starsky & Hutch, The A-Team and Dukes of Hazzard is probably the main reason for my early love of the distinct American style. Funnily enough, a General Lee was present at the show. Whether this was one of the official cars is another thing but it was so cool to see it up close!

I managed to get many shots of all my favourite models by Ford, Dodge, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Plymouth, Chrysler, Mercury and Buick. However, at the time of writing this, I've not yet had the chance to go through all the images in Aperture but they'll be on my Flickr web page soon enough!

I have to say, there was some incredible cars on show. If only I could afford myself a Charger, Mustang or a Trans Am...sigh!

Keep your eyes peeled on my Flick page for the images!
http://www.flickr.com/applecrypt

My work on Schmap.com

Akershus Fortress, Olso, Norway, originally uploaded by Steve-Gregory.

I should have blogged this ages ago!

I recently had one of my photos picked to appear on the Schmap website as part of their Oslo guide. Click here for the web link :-)

As you can imagine I'm very proud!!!

Texon

Texon, originally uploaded by Steve-Gregory.

A ghost town on highway 67, west of San Angelo. I do like the dark & moody image this scene creates. I've more shots of Texon to come..

Texon was indeed a creepy place to visit and a true insight into something long since dead. This is real old time western America that's left untouched for all to witness.

ZX Spectrum

I've just read a tweet about a new website for ZX Spectrum enthusiasts. If, like me, you come from the days of tape loading 8-bit gaming from the early 80s then this will be most welcome - especially if you're at work and need a break! ;-)

Click this link in Safari for lots of ZX Spectrum goodies to play. The image above is from Chuckie Egg 2, one of my all-time favorite games. Any ZX fans out there???

Customize Your Gameplay With Mods !

This is a really cool web page.

Especially when AppleCrypt Mods gets a mention! :-)

http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2007/07/mods/

A new Ghost Recon mod !

Calling all fans of this incredible game - there's a new mod out and it's totally Mac ready too. Yep, I've done nothing to "convert" it as it's already good to go!

Click here to read all about it from ModDB. Here's the official web page...

It's a shame AppleCrypt Mods isn't mentioned in their "Recommended Web Sites" link, but hey that's maybe my fault. Sorry I've been a little lacking lately on the updates to my site :/

Okay people, go grab this mod & enjoy!!

Flickr

Coming back from an awesome road trip vacation in America is always hard. Why does everything here in England now seem so .. crap and expensive!? And how come people seem rude and foul mouthed too? Hmm weird...

Anyhow, I've signed up with Flickr and I'm editing many of my road trip snaps and uploading them for all to see. I love photography and the keen amateur in me is making full use of this excellent website. I just wish my upload speeds where faster!

I'll still be using my web gallery at Apple's MobileMe, so now I am able to pollute two areas on the web all at the same time! lol. Please check me out @ Flickr and MobileMe. Also, I shall be blogging the entire month-long trip at my TravelCrypt website but this will take me AGES due to having other commitments. So keep yer eyes peeled on it!

For all those worried about the future of my Mac/fps/mods website, AppleCrypt Mods. Please don't be! It's not dead and I still have plans for future updates. Please remember that I'm a family man now (with another baby on the way!) so my Mac time is now sadly limited. But updates will come, again, keep yer eyes peeled on this site also!

For what it's worth, all my sites support RSS, making them easy for anyone to follow without having to manually check them out yourself. Go grab a copy of the freeware program 'NetNewsWire' and you'll soon see the benefits of RSS feeds :-)

I'm back !

Miss me? Whattya mean you didn't even know I was away? Sheesh.... Okay never mind then! (sob) Well, we're back from our month-long road trip vacation in mighty Texas.

We've had a fantastic time and got to see many awesome places and meet lots of nice people also. I'll give a run down of our ventures from my travel blog (link here) but don't expect this just yet as I've a zillion things to catch up on first!

Burger tip..

if you're in western Texas and you passing Langtry then you must visit the Langtry Depo. Quite literally the best-ever burgers plus you have a great view of the Rio Grande, Judge Roy Bean and some of the coolest ghost town builders ever! Okay, I'm odd..

Atlanta

Any NASCAR fans here?

Jeff Gordon to win at Atlanta today!

Here is a couple of cool RSS feeds:

feed #1

feed #2

And here's the 2009 Sprint Cup Series schedule <click me!>

Battlefields

This post is to simply let all the fans of Battlefield 1942, and all visitors to AppleCrypt Mods, that I'm about to post a wonderful (and very large) addition to our archive.

Get ready for the ultimate collection of every single player / coop map for Battlefield 1942 that has ever been made!!

We're talking around 2.3GB and I'm 99.9% positive that I've collected everything that's ever been released. That's everything, ever! From day one of the games release too today, Sunday February 22nd 2009. This is a fine collection indeed, an ultimate collection for one of the best Mac games.

I've uploaded all the files to our ftp server, which are split RAR's.  So grab yourself a copy of a freeware program like UnRARx or Stuffit Expander from MacUpdate.com). However, I'm juggling my limited time here, amongst working on the web page, doing housework and entertaining our baby girl!

So give me a few more hours to update AppleCrypt Mods with the new details! :-)

Virus worries ?

Okay, there seems to be a few Mac owners that are worrying themselves silly about trojans, worms and other virus infections.

The answer is don't.

Simply make sure you have your in-built firewall turned on along with the firewall that's configurable within your router's settings. That's the main done already!

Secondly, always make sure you run Apple's Software Update as often as possible. This can be set to run automatically at regular intervals.

Next, stay clear of dodgy websites like Pirate Bay and many others. If you want something - save up and buy it!  (or google for a freeware alternative).

Why take the chance that your stolen download, from a torrent server or other file sharing website, is the legit thing? The recent issues with people ripping off Apple's excellent iWork is proof of this but the sad thing is that it's such an affordable purchase! Hardly M$ Office or Photoshop and there are even FREE alternatives like Open Office.. No excuses!

In fact, never install something that you didn't personally download yourself from a legit site like MacUpdate.com or direct from the author's website!

It's all about common sense folks. You've already made the right choice by not buying a Windows based PC so why risk deliberately infecting your Mac?

IF you must install virus protection software then I'd personally advice that you do not consider Norton AntiVirus. It'll do a great job of slowing down your Mac and others have complained about conflicts and crashes. Intego's VirusBarrier is a better choice BUT even this slows down your Mac.

Interestingly, I scanned my hard drives recently and we're talking around 2 million files spread over 3TB's of disk space dating back from 2003.  Zero viruses found! Think about it...

However, I do recommend you try out the freeware program ClamAV as it's a cool little app that doesn't slow down your computer too much. Though please make sure that you read all the information associated with it first.

I have ClamAV installed now...

...of course, it also has found zero viruses! ;-)

Bottom line, if you're gonna be an idiot and download illegal software or visit dodgy porn sites then what do you expect is gonna happen to your lovely Apple Mac? Happy computing!

Trailer Park Boys

I've recently discovered this incredible new show on Paramount Comedy channel.

It's Canadian and based at a fictiona trailer park in Nova Scotia. It's kinda reminding me of the awesome show My Name is Earl but with the extra zaniness of an English made sitcom. This is a great show!

Apparently, it's been running since 2001 and the final season was made about a year ago. But, that's UK television for you. Late, as always!

Of course, someone will tell me it's been running for years on another channel... So I shall get out from this box and say a big thank you to the Paramount channel for airing this show. Also, I have set my cable box to record every episode! :-)

For more information, see the official homepage and click onto channel 132 if you're also on Virgin Media's cable.

Glest

Here's a great game that's recently been updated, it's called Glest and it's a wonderful 3D RTS game - that's totally FREE!

There, I knew the word 'free' would get your attention!

Play against your fellow Mac gamers online or in a single player that is similar to Myth or Dungeon Siege.

You can take full control of either two factions; tech which are mainly warriors and mechanical devices or magic which are mages able to summon up other creatures.

The graphics are lovely and Glest plays quite similar to many other RTS favorites, like the Warcraft series for example.  However, it's quite sad that I am really bad at this game - lol - but I still loved it! For more info, click here for the Glest homepage.

For the Macintosh download - click here!

For information on other excellent games that are also free, please visit my website AppleCrypt Mods :-)

Hard Drives

A quick question for the hardware techies out there!

I've got an old Dual 2GHz Power Mac G5 from 2003 with a couple of internal SATA drives. Now, we're coming up to 6 years old here and I'm getting a little worried about these dying on me!

I'm seeing many different hard drives at places like Amazon and they're usually SATA2 versions. A little googling tells me I can use these inside my G5 but, is this true?

Is this a simple case of ripping out the old and slapping in the new using the current connections?

See, simple question! Thanks in advance :)

AppleCrypt Mods

I'm making this quick post for three real old games, Carmageddon, Duke Nukem 3D and Wolfenstein 3D.  Yep, that's right, AppleCrypt Mods even has mods and single player maps for these dinosaurs.  Actually, I take that back as these are three Mac classics!

Okay, this is a big mixture of stuff. Firstly, with Carmageddon you can expect various mods such as new cars, naughty billboards, power-ups, Spice Girls, Splat Pack enablers, Mac utilities and more!

Duke Nukem comes with some nifty Mac utilities, a couple of mods and a couple of total conversions too. I'm sure Duke fans will love this collection so much!

Finally, Wolfenstein 3D has many Mac utilities and lots & lots of single player maps for you to enjoy! I spent months making this collection, okay it's years old now but there's some awesome maps here folks!

Now dig out those old Macs and enjoy these golden oldies :-)  Here are the links :

Carmageddon | Duke Nukem 3D | Wolfenstein 3D

Remember, tell everyone with a Apple Mac and a love of fps gaming about AppleCrypt Mods!

Super Bowl XLIII

Must admit to being new to American football, but I've been watching our recording of yesterdays Super Bowl and I loved it! I still prefer Baseball and Nascar over the NFL but it's a start. Why are American sports so great? So much atmosphere and action - MORE! MORE !

The making of Doom !

I have just seen this RSS posting from Inside Mac Games about an article first released back in 1984. A behind the scenes look at the ID world and wondrous games we've played.  It's an enjoyable and historic read for all ID / Wolfenstein / Doom fans from the era!  [IMG]  [GAMASUTRA]

Question of the day!

Am I the only one here with Doom for the Atari Jaguar? :D

Zombies !

Being the biggest fan of zombie movies (and the games) for far too many years now, I was glad to find my Christmas presents hiding in the TV cupboard earlier today!  Four classics: Diary Of The Dead, The Zombie Diaries, Zombie Honeymoon and Zombie Strippers.  Ohhh yeah!!

Yep, they've been in here since Christmas day and I'd forgotten all about them..  So I think it's time to watch one today?  I've already enjoyed the Resident Evil Trilogy (brilliant!!) and now I've got four more to go.  What a darn good find  :D

A-Team !

Because I live on another planet, I've missed out on a wondrous fact - there's going to be a remake of the A-Team!!  My God this could be awesome or it could be terrible..

The A-Team was (is!) an awesome tv show. It had it all; action, guns, adventure, humor, characters, cars, explosions and more.  This was the perfect show - for the boys!   I think Mr. T would still make a great B.A. Baracus, even today, but as an alternative how about Ving Rhames?  Definitely a great choice imho.  I hope this does work, I'd hate my childhood memories ruined by a crappy remake!

Memories? What am I talking about, I've got every episode on DVD :-)

iLife '09

Ignoring the snoozefest that was Macworld '09 I was personally happy to see the new iLife details. For me, only iMovie and iWeb hold any interest. I'd normally include iPhoto too, but I've upgraded to the awesome Aperture 2. So I don't care!

iMovie is a great application to break into humble video editing, I've learned and gained confidence with last years version. I'm happy to see improvements like precision editing, smoothing a shaky frames, maps, themes and better drag & drop. Not forgetting animated titles, new transitions, and cinema-quality video effects. OMG I cannot wait to install this!

iWeb drives my two websites, AppleCrypt and the new TravelCrypt. Nice names, eh?  Apple appears to have added lots of sharing type content with support of RSS, YouTube, iSight and Facebook. Due to having a real life I don't really take any interest in YouTube, but I might actually log back into my old Facebook account as this could come in handy. I'm going to be very interested in what other features and improvements Apple have incorporated into iWeb, this is a great program that I use almost daily.

IS82.com

Anyone care to join me in a crazy game of Interstate Racing sometime? (aka IS82)

It's a Battlefield 1942 total conversion mod that completely and utterly changes the game into a mad, zany multiplay driving game. There's often little racing, just people messing about doing stunts and wacko driving tactics. As you can see from my screen shot - a fantastic laugh!

FWIW. I'll have IS82 for download at AppleCrypt Mods this coming weekend. It will be latest release plus lots of extra maps thrown in for good measure! If you cannot wait, check out IS82 now..

Lights Camera Action

We've just become the proud owners of a new camcorder, well, it's our first actually. It's a JVC GZ-MS100 model with SD ram cards rather than tapes, drives, discs or whatever. It's light, small and the battery lasts forever. Even better, we're getting "DVD" quality at 720x576. Sweet!

Hardly "HD", I know.. But my olde Power Mac G5 cannot supposedly handle the codec, due to being a PPC model rather than a spanky new Intel Mac (thanks Apple!).  Not bothered too much, probably couldn't afford an HD camcorder anyhow lol

The main purpose for it is recording our daughter as she grows up plus also our travels around the globe. Should come in handy for our American road trip later in the year.  Talking of road trips, check out my new travel blog - The TravelCrypt (nice name) ;-)

Happy New Year

Found this great image on the web! lol

Anyhow, happy new year for 2009 everyone !!!!!

Merry Christmas !!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very

Merry Christmas !!

funny face

I thought I would share this incredibly funny picture of our daughter, taken a good few months back.  I cannot believe she posed so well making this one of the best images! imho, of course ;-)

Duff Beer

I have to make this post! I've been meaning to for months but never seem to get around to it. Basically, a big thank you to the people behind Miller for finally bringing a twist-off cap beer to England. Sure, it's been out since around spring iirc but I finally found the time!

Why more companies don't do this is beyond me. Our times spent in North America where an eye opener as everything was twist-off. It's so much better, so my question is this: does anyone know of other beers in England with twist-off caps? :-)

A new BF1942 mod with Mac support!

Hey folks, here is a link to a new modification for Battlefield 1942. I'll no doubt want to mirror this at some point in the near future but, for once, there's not really much point.  The guys behind this great mod seem to fully support our Mac. They have Mac-specific client downloads from his site.

I'm always impressed when this happens. Perhaps because it happens so infrequent? My thanks to Bumble Bee & Co.

Urban Desert Combat needs the latest release of BF1942 to work. It requires that you've also got the classic mod 'Desert Combat' installed too. (and i think 'Desert Combat Final' too, although I've yet to verify this).

I'd like to thank Gumby for alerting me to news of this new mod. Click here for the Urban DC website and downloads. Enjoy modded BF1942 :-)

Winter's come early!

Today didn't start very well at all. Woke up a little earlier than usual as I knew the weather was going to be pretty bad. Shocked to see it had snowed throughout the night (it never usually snows in this part of England!). Cleared off the car and set off for another dreary day in work.

I never made it - spent a couple of hours going nowhere before turning around to come back home and even that took almost an hour! Yep, good 'ol merry England proves itself once more by grinding to a halt simply because of slippy roads (lots of accidents on various motorways).

One question - why didn't the local councils grit the roads over night? Scotland never fails and England never learns!!

So I came home after nearly 3 hours of idling in only the next town.  But still, every cloud has a silver lining and our dog was more than happy to find my coming home early. We went out for a walk in the snow - I love winter!  The picture, above, makes me laugh. Those poor little ducks seem to have lost their pond.

Tomorrow I think I'll get up even earlier...