Presenting: L4D Tweaker

Update: This is old. Click the tab above for the latest version.

I’ve decided it’s easier to have one bat file for everyone, so I went ahead and made Left 4 Dead Tweaker.

Features:

1. Turn off the opening cinematics.
2. Turn the opening cinematics back on.
3. Switch the background movie to the original
4. Switch the background movie to the lighthouse

Instructions:

The L4DT will first ask if Left 4 Dead is installed in c:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\, and if it is it wants to be on the same drive. If you do not have Steam installed in that location the application wants to be in your \steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\ directory.

Known bugs:

1. Does not work in Windows 7 unless installed in the \steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead\media\ directory. (I hope to have this resolved shortly.)
2. Will not work correctly if the Left 4 Dead demo was installed before Left 4 Dead and the \left 4 dead demo\ directory was not deleted. (Workaround: install L4DT to \left 4 dead\ . Update may be coming to resolve issue, if possible.)

Planned features:

1. Custom background videos.
2. Community suggestions.

Change the Background on Left 4 Dead's Start Screen

So it was the night of the update, I was trying to get a VS game together and the damnable Lighthouse kept flashing me in the face. “Nuts to that!” I thought. I enlisted the help of Nietzsche the IT Kitty, Aggressive Taco, Nox, and my friend Ben to come up with a bat file to change it to the original background. While we were at it we made a second BAT to switch it back; you never know what you might want in the future.

There are two versions. If you’re running a 32bit operating system and have Steam installed in your c:\Program Files\ directory you can use this and everything will be done for you once you double click the appropriate file inside the zip.

If you’re running a 64bit os and/or have Steam installed somewhere other than the default location you’ll need to put these files in \Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead\media\ and run them from there.

Hope this helps.

Fallout 3 Tatoo

My buddy Jed over at SkinPrints.net put this bit of ink on someone’s body today. Fan-freaking-tastic. If you live in Western Wisconsin and are interested in some work I’m sure I can put you in touch with this artist directly if you don’t want to mess around with his site (which you should).

Dead Air and Death Toll on our L4D Server

As a few of you found out tonight, Andrew and I are able to run Dead Air and Death Toll on our server. I figured I’d let the rest of you know how to participate.

First off you need the maps. Here is the .exe file for the lazy folks, and this is the .rar for folks who’d like to move the maps in to place by hand.

There is a problem with some of the textures. You’ll need to go in to your advanced video options and turn “shaders” to medium.

Join our group on steam and join us next time we have a game, which has been nightly for a while now.

OnLive to buy Sony

In a press release dated April 1st, 2009 OnLive CEO Steve Perlman announced OnLive will use it’s remaining venture capital to purchase a controlling interest in Sony Electronics.

Sony has been dealing with fiscal issues. Recently they reported blu-ray sales were not as strong as they had hoped, and that their faith in physical media has left them bruised and broken. Howard Stringer, Sony America’s CEO, has been quoted as saying “RIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDGEEE RAAAAAAACER!”

In a joint interview Steve Perlman, CEO of OnLive, said to Stringer,”As you can see, my young apprentice, your cell chips have failed. Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational micro-console!“

Larry “Han” Herb, Kaz “Luke” Hirai and Cammie “Leia” Dunaway have teamed up to fight the encroaching menace before it impacts the Nintendo/Microsoft joint venture code named “Alderaan.”