Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Happy New year! I thought now would be a good time to make a comeback. Writing again was on the back of my mind for so many months.

I turned 21 three days back! I had a lovely birthday. Me and my friends made so many crazy but embarrassing videos, I'd rather not go into details.

I think my biggest joy in the past few days was that I was able to play an old video game again. The title should give you a hint.
Back in 7th standard to used to lurk in the CD-ROM section of Crossword trying to find a game which I would enjoy playing more than twice and which was also moderately priced. I came across "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?"
I used to play it on my then shiny PC which had Windows 98. And ever since the world switched over to XP, I've faced a series of failed attempts to play it again.
There are various versions of the same game. I'm talking about one where 'The Chief' is an African-American. I also like the pun names like Dinah Might.
So anyway, The game only works on Win95 or 98. Also on Classic Mac. But its not possible to play this on the newer Macs even with Rosetta unless you follow this method. But I found it too tedious just for one game.

So this is the procedure in XP -
1. Start>Run>msconfig. Disable all the startup tasks. Restart the machine. So, you can perform a clean install.
2. Change display settings to 800x600 and 16-bit colour.
3. Load in the cd (or image). In explorer, search for *.exe. You will get around 13 files. Change the compatibility for these individually to the following-

• Run in 256 colours
• Run in compatibility mode for Windows 95 or 98

4. Uninstall any current version of Quicktime. The newer versions are too advanced for the game to work on it.
5. Install the game and also Quicktime which comes along with the game.
6. Go to Control Panel>Quicktime (or Q32)>Video Settings. Change the setting in Optimization to Bitmap Drawing (BMP).

And voila! The game should work now.

Occasionally, I do have a problem where the game works fine except for some videos. But restarting or clearing all background tasks solves this.

Hello 2008!

My blogging hasn't been consistent in the past two months. One of my resolutions is to make this blog less personal and more insightful about other issues. This won't be a 'My Resolutions' post. Telling you my resolutions will be like me admitting all my faults and that's not a good way to start a new year post. So there.

In this break, I've completed my '15 movies in 3 days' gig. Unfortunately, not read a single book. I can't make up my mind on which one I want to read, there are just too many of them!

I also took a trip to Bombay. Saw my house probably for the last time before it's brought down. I met all by neighbours and some friends. It was very nostalgic. I do occasionally miss my life in Bombay. That feeling was reinforced in this trip. >_>

31st was way more fun than what I imagined. Met some friends at Kobe for sizzlers and then went to their house. I stayed up till 6! A lot of banter!

I really hope 2008 will bring a lot more joy. 2007 has mixed feelings from me.