News flash: gamers and Tron fans everywhere can rejoice; Armagetron Advanced will soon be up-to-date once more in Debian! The last time a new upstream version (0.2.7.0) was uploaded was almost two years ago now, and while the Debian package has languished in neglect, upstream has chugged on, fixing bugs and adding new awesomeness to the game. Just recently, the old maintainer orphaned the package, and since I use it anyway I've adopted it and given it some much-needed love. The new version is 0.2.8.2.1, what an, er, long version number.

The new packages have been renamed from armagetron[-foo] to armagetronad[-foo] to reflect upstream's name change. They include upstream improvements such as the addition of maps and improved graphics code, as well as packaging improvements like a new initscript for the server and rewritten, up-to-date manpages.

While the new packages have been uploaded to experimental, they're stuck in NEW due to the binary name changes. So, grab the x86 or x86-kfreebsd packages from here and test, test, test! (Yes, I run a kfreebsd machine. I wanted something eclectic for a non-essential, moderately old dual-core x86 box. Also, I'll probably compile amd64 packages soon, but the amd64-machine I can use to build them on is currently in a half-installed state, which I need to fix before that. You can always build from source.)

I've cleared with the security team that it won't get in the way of anything and will probably be uploading to unstable as soon as there's been some more testing to look for major problems. And since the newest version contains fixes for the security bugs affecting the old version, I'm going to snoop around and judge the [in]sanity level of porting back the security fixes for etch, since the new version will at most be unofficially backported to etch.

Go, er, take a break in between fixing RC bugs. And test, test, test!

...when you're in the middle of a 16-hour video game binge. Or a LAN party.

Who knows, it might just be useful.

Well, I spent the last two nights attempting to force-beat the Wing Commander: Privateer Remake into shape to give it a whirl. Unfortunately, integrated graphics suck (as someone on the support forums was quick to point out).

So, after beating it bloody getting it to work, I only found it to be unuseably slow. It's gotten some good reviews, though, even grabbing a mention on Slashdot. I'm really wishing that I'd chosen to build this machine from scratch with the parts I wanted. Unfortunately, a year ago I don't think that I really knew what I wanted. Ahwell. Until I get the money to build a new machine, or buy something along the lines of Nvidia's Geforce, looks like I'll just have to deal. I'm a little leery of touching the hardware on this out-of-the-box machine as well, having heard enough horror stories of the difficulties of making upgrades on similar computers.

Live and learn, I guess. Or, as they say in CPR training: "Learn and Live". At least I'll get some more sleep now.