About me I've been a computer programmer since I first started typing in program listings on a Commodore Vic 20 when I was about 8. My hobbies include electronics, CNC manufacturing, photography, beer and winemaking.
I live with my wife and lots of left-over parts from unfinished projects in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.]
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9 October 2012, 2:30 UTCFTL (un)packer for Linux
Update: Added some notes about what is in the various files in data.dat
Recently I bought Faster Than Light (FTL),
a game which runs on Linux (and also on Mac and Windows).
I noticed that there was a lot of stuff in two ".dat" files; the format of the
".dat" files turned out to be very simple, and so I wrote a packer and unpacker:
ftlpack.py.
14 November 2008, 13:42 UTCDomino Sweeper
Many years ago--the fact that the original announcement has a note that Python
1.5.2 is required should give you some idea--I wrote this minesweeper variant
in which the board has a combination of square and domino-shaped cells. It
also has a much more powerful middle-click than traditional minesweeper.
I've made sure it runs with modern python (it did without modification) and
added a GPL notice. It's not the greatest game, and it's not without a
few bugs, but it's still something to spend a few minutes playing.
Files currently attached to this page:
dominosweeper.py 14.1kB sweeper-medium.png 236.9kB sweeper-small.png 66.0kB sweeper.png 6.5kB
8 May 2008, 2:28 UTCTyler Wong's Possibly Optimal Hangman Strategy
I always like it when a computer is able to establish an optimal strategy for a
game; that forever frees human beings from spending their time playing it.
Toward that end, here's an effort from 2001: http://www.sharkfeeder.com/hangman/. I wonder if a modern computer runs much
faster than the reported 15 hours on a P3/600 -- let's hope it does. Perhaps
this can be used to push the search deeper than choosing one of the 4 most
likely letters at each junction, though for each one-letter increase I imagine
there's a pretty steep runtime increase.
FTL (un)packer for Linux
Update: Added some notes about what is in the various files in data.dat
Recently I bought Faster Than Light (FTL), a game which runs on Linux (and also on Mac and Windows).
I noticed that there was a lot of stuff in two ".dat" files; the format of the ".dat" files turned out to be very simple, and so I wrote a packer and unpacker: ftlpack.py.
Domino Sweeper
Many years ago--the fact that the original announcement has a note that Python 1.5.2 is required should give you some idea--I wrote this minesweeper variant in which the board has a combination of square and domino-shaped cells. It also has a much more powerful middle-click than traditional minesweeper.
I've made sure it runs with modern python (it did without modification) and added a GPL notice. It's not the greatest game, and it's not without a few bugs, but it's still something to spend a few minutes playing.
Files currently attached to this page:
| dominosweeper.py | 14.1kB |
| sweeper-medium.png | 236.9kB |
| sweeper-small.png | 66.0kB |
| sweeper.png | 6.5kB |
Tyler Wong's Possibly Optimal Hangman Strategy
I always like it when a computer is able to establish an optimal strategy for a game; that forever frees human beings from spending their time playing it.
Toward that end, here's an effort from 2001: http://www.sharkfeeder.com/hangman/. I wonder if a modern computer runs much faster than the reported 15 hours on a P3/600 -- let's hope it does. Perhaps this can be used to push the search deeper than choosing one of the 4 most likely letters at each junction, though for each one-letter increase I imagine there's a pretty steep runtime increase.
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