The origin of the 64 bit bug is quite the mystery, Someone would need microsoft’s copy of the code to say definitely where/when it got introduced. It was either lost in decompilation or introduced in 圆4 port/not present in x86 build.īased on public description of the bug (no ball collision), I guess that the bug was in TEdgeManager::TestGridBox I did not find it, decompiled game worked in 圆4 mode on the first try. Nevertheless it’s interesting that this all exists! This developer on the “64 bit bug”… Blizzard shut them down with a cease and desist. People who owned the game could import and use the resources of the original game. Look at the freecraft project independently creating a new portable engine for warcraft game files. On the one hand, what’s the likelihood anyone cares about this? But developers have faced legal challenges for less. I think it was in David Plummer’s video he said that not even microsoft was allowed to publish the code under it’s license. It doesn’t strictly imply that he or anyone else has microsoft’s blessing to use it. He even recompiled it under Linux and ran it on WSL / Windows in the Linux container in that blog post. Given it was blessed by a Microsoft manager, I would assume the code is okay to use. Scott Hanselman shared the de-compiled, and cleaned up version of Space Cadet: Could they have done it? Yes but it hit the “inverse square law” very fast and rewriting the project would have been a big project in its own right.ĭave also has a few videos with some very good comments on coding (and portability) which people on this blog would benefit from watching if they weren’t too busy waving their “male privilege” around like a badge. It’s not a task which was worth the effort which is why Raymond Chen gave up. The code is “great but write once” code full of programming magic to get it to work. The short version is according to Dave the game would need a complete rewrite from the original ported code which wasn’t practically possible and he explains why. He’s yet another one with too much testosterone between his ears. “NCommander” also gets a bit argumentative in his own comments about who is telling the whole truth. He claims to have done it first which can be true but he published last. (I forget if it was a DOS or Amiga or other port and I’m not watching it again to find out.) It looks like “NCommander” is a wet behind the ears trying to earn some rep with a reaction video. Some months ago I watched the video by the Microsoft programmer “Dave’s Garage” who did the Windows port from the original Maxis Full Tilt Pinball. At this point we seem to have a pretty complete picture of its entire history, but it too some serious digging to get there. This story and investigation into Space Cadet Pinball is wild. I was amazed at the level of thoroughness (and the fortitude it required to get those Itanium systems up and running, much less debug them), but there’s one version of 64-bit Windows that NCommander didn’t try out, and that’s the one that’s relevant to the story. Retrocomputing enthusiast NCommander even undertook a Zapruder-level analysis of all of the 64-bit versions of Windows he could find to prove or disprove my story. One point of contention is over my claim that I removed Pinball from Windows because I couldn’t get the 64-bit version to work. People keep asking if it can be brought back. My proudest achievement of Windows XP was fixing the game so it didn’t consume 100% CPU. A customer used their support contract to ask how to change among the three levels of play in Space Cadet Pinball. Space Cadet Pinball has a special place in the hearts of many Windows enthusiasts.
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