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Out Of Office
I'll be back in China (they like me there!) throughout the whole of February, beating the locals at Mahjong like a game designer should. It may not be possible to contact me again until March...

2nd February 2010

Wrestling Games Database
For years, wrestling fans have been telling me that they prefer my games to mainstream efforts. Now it's time to make good on that claim by seeing where mine rank in Gaming Ring's huge database of EVERY wrestling game that ever existed! From the biggest mainstream success to the smallest independent effort, every wrestling game known to man is listed on this exhaustive site. Head over there now to join in the fun and give my games some sorely needed representation. I'll be damned if we can't crack the Top 10 with Wrestling MPire 2008! And if you're not a fan of my work, it's also an opportunity to sniff out some alternatives that you may enjoy more...

18th January 2010

May The Source Be With You
This is the moment many of you have been waiting for. To draw a line under 10 years of game development, the many games I produced are not only FREE to download but are also OPEN SOURCE! It's a remarkable development because these were once among the biggest and most popular releases on the independent scene. Never before have games of this size and quality been so accessible. My games may not have ended up as the best that money can buy, but they're surely the best that hands can meddle with. It doesn't promise to be easy, I hasten to add. I'll try to offer guidance wherever I can, but for the most part it will involve treading carefully around a complex network of code. It goes without saying that you'll need to own the Blitz 3D programming language itself (preferably running at the latest version to avoid any discrepancies). Simply place the code in an installation of the game in question and it should have everything it needs to work. Although you're free to modify the games and re-release your creations, please acknowledge that you must do so for FREE and must credit my original work (unless written permission states otherwise). A couple of tutorials on moves and promos in Wrestling MPire 2008 have got us started. Head over to the dedicated new Code section to get stuck in. For more of my thoughts about going open source, head over to my latest Blog entry...

3D Studio MAX Files
As if getting your hands on the source code wasn't exciting enough, I've also made the original character models and animation files available to download! This is infinitely preferable to doctoring the 3DS files and will assist you in animating your own moves. Those from Wrestling MPire 2008 have launched the section, but some titbits from other games may follow...

13th January 2010

Booking Is Back!
As you may have gathered from the many games I've released on the subject, I'm a booker at heart when it comes to wrestling. So it's with great interest that I watched the simultaneous arrivals of Bret Hart in WWE and Hulk Hogan in TNA. I've blogged about how I would have handled each angle in this new post. If you've got your own ideas, this is also the perfect time to get back into your favourite wrestling management simulator and start booking for real!

New Sections
Following the belated addition of a Videos section last week, I now find myself making yet more last-minute changes to the website. The existing "Images" section has now divided into a separate Graphics section and a Reviews section. The latter always needed its own section to document the production of each project. Under the new name of "Reviews", it may also list interesting ones that come from other sites. The Graphics section, meanwhile, can now be dedicated to visual content alone. In time, it will host high quality screenshots of the games and their artwork. You can also find graphical downloads there - such as the high resolution textures that are excluded from the games by default. Go and grab them now if you recently reinstalled the games and are confident about running them at their best. The main reason for the section, however, is that the original 3D Studio MAX files for the models and animation will also be there! Combined with the imminent arrival of source code, that will make customizing the games easier than anybody thought was possible...

8th January 2010

The Show Must Go Online
It's been a while since I had cause to say "due to popular demand" on this site - and The MDickie Show is the last game I ever thought it would be said about! But from the day the games were starting to be given away for free, all anybody could talk about was the lesser known one that was missing. There were several reasons it was left out in the cold. One is that the speech samples made it 10 times bigger than any other game of that era, which was always hard to justify uploading (even on a broadband connection). I've got around it by putting out a censored version of the game, which means there are only half as many sound files. If you want the uncut original, you'll have to pick it up on disc. The game is modified in several other respects too. I tidied up a few textures (not that you'd notice because the graphics are still shamelessly awful!) and recompiled the executable to work as well as any modern release. That's also true of Big BumpZ now by the way, so check that out too if you had problems in the past. As for the 2nd reason The MDickie Show wasn't available until now, you can head to my Blog for more revelations about that...

New Section
If you can't bring yourself to play a crusty old game like The MDickie Show, you can sit back and enjoy it from a distance thanks to the video highlights I've uploaded to YouTube. The conversations are just about the only thing in the game that holds up, so now you can enjoy them without the hassle of actually playing! You can also see a handful of lesser known skits, such as the one over the credits that rewarded players for completing the game. As you can see, the videos herald the opening of yet another new section at the site. I thought I was done renovating the layout, but I only just realized how easy it is to embed YouTube clips and thought I might as well host them here to avoid them getting lost in the shuffle. Not only does it allow me to host my own video recordings, but I've also selected some of the more interesting fan creations so that they can enjoy a wider audience! But sure to pass along the links of any you think deserve to be here...

5th January 2010

New Book Released
I've released my 3rd book in the past 12 months, which would suggest that my prolific work rate is alive and well in another profession! That's about the only thing it has in common with my games though, because A-fear-ism is a scholarly text which is exclusively about religious attitudes. Specifically, it's a critique of the anti-religious sentiment in the west. Although people are entitled to believe what they want, I find atheism to be the most bizarre belief system to ever enjoy such credibility and I articulate my views on it in this dedicated book - which is my longest and most thorough yet. It should be of interest to anybody who has strong feelings as to whether God does or doesn't exist. The answer is never as simple as it seems! The book should be available at all mainstream retailers. If you'd like to get hold of a copy outside of North America, you may get a better deal by ordering direct from the manufacturers...

New Blog Entries
I wasn't planning to acknowledge the existence of my latest book on this site, since it has even less to do with games than 2009's Sportuality. However, the more I thought about it the more I realized the central theme of "ignorance" couldn't be more relevant! I've certainly encountered my fair share of that in my time. All is revealed in this updated blog entry. There's also a belated post about the "games" I found myself playing this Christmas...

25th December 2009

The Great Game Giveaway
After the Wrestling MPire 2008 series was made available for free last week, the final 2 games that followed it now complete the set and make my work 100% freeware! And what better day than Christmas to demonstrate such generosity. Not least because the final game is an RPG about Christ himself, whose exploits you get to follow in The You Testament. It was the culmination of all the skills I had acquired on previous projects and made for a fitting farewell. A suitably controversial one too for a man who prided himself on innovating at all costs! The other piece of the puzzle is the revamped sequel to Popscene, which brings improved visuals to the classic music industry simulator. Since its heyday in 2004, it has been blown out of the water by fully interactive mainstream music games. But if you were a fan of the original game, this is as good as it gets - and you can't argue with the price now that it's free to download! That will no doubt become my new mantra as the games attempt to live on as freeware...

Free Fall
I've blogged about my decision to give away the games in this new post, which looks back at why I went professional in the first place and looks ahead to what a freeware future might hold. I've obviously got mixed feelings about it. It's sad to give away the games I worked so hard on, and to concede that they no longer have much market value. But it's also with some relief that I make my life less complicated and proceed with more options. It's all summed up in this new blog entry...

18th December 2009

The Great Game Giveaway
It's the weekend before Christmas and what better time to present you with my most generous gift yet! The single most valuable games in my arsenal are now available to download for FREE like all of the others. Wrestling MPire 2008 is as good as wrestling gets on the PC, and it's now more accessible than ever before. I'm giving you both sides of the coin too. Career Edition is a simulation of life as a professional wrestler, whereas Management Edition is a simulation of the business that goes on behind the scenes. These are also slightly modified versions of the games that NOBODY has ever enjoyed before. They each use The You Testament's mouse-controlled manual camera for your convenience, which is great for enjoying the action from interesting angles. Those that struggled with Management Edition first time round will also be pleased to know that the ratings system has been tweaked to be more generous - so there's more fun to be had! Between both instalments, it's the most fun a wrestling fan can have on the PC. They stumbled as commercial products, but as pieces of freeware they can finally be appreciated by the widest possible audience. Spread the word! The best just got better - and the most free-roaming gameplay around just got "freer"...

11th December 2009

The Great Game Giveaway
The freeware revolution has claimed its biggest scalps yet, as the first half of the "Heavyweight Titles" have finally become available! Hard Time is the prison simulator from the turn of 2007 that proved to be an unlikely success. Alongside Popscene, it ranks as my most popular concept outside of wrestling and it's now available for even more people to enjoy. Reach, meanwhile, is THE game that ushered in a new era of quality. This polished boxing sim set the scene for Wrestling MPire 2008 and gives boxing fans the same detailed role-playing experience. If you're remotely entertained by the sport, this gives you it at its most dramatic and involving. I should also point out that these are slightly modified versions of each game, which now have the manual camera from The You Testament that can be controlled by mouse! It comes in handy for quickly knocking the camera back on track if it ever gets tangled up. It certainly beats messing around with keys if you want to set up an inventive camera angle! Get used to it because it'll be fulfilling its potential in Wrestling MPire 2008 in time for Christmas...

27th November 2009

The Great Game Giveaway
My older games continue to enjoy a new lease of life as freeware. Grass Roots and World War Alpha from 2006 are the latest titles to be made available. As you may recall, each game approached the task of world domination is entirely different ways! Grass Roots is a revolutionary sporting RPG that makes soccer more than just a game. World War Alpha, on the other hand, is about waging war the old-fashioned way - quite literally as armies of the present wreak havoc on those of the past! Each game struggled to make an impact as published products, but should fare better as impressive little pieces of freeware...

Back To The Future
It's been a real eye-opener returning to some of these older games after all these years. In this new post, I blog about my experiences with World War Alpha and notice something that might just change the way my games are perceived as time goes on...

New Interview
When a community of programmers belatedly discovered my work and began questioning its credibility, I kindly invited them to receive answers to their many questions. Unfortunately, they know so little about my work that they lurch wildly from one baseless accusation to another?! Tiresome stuff, but they do at least pose some questions I've never had to answer before...

10th November 2009

The Great Game Giveaway
As we approach Christmas, the Wrestling Encore series has become the most generous gift yet! The single most successful game in the history of this site is now available to download for free. It clocked up over 100'000 hits at Download.com when it was a published product, and threatens to reach even more people as a piece of freeware. That said, it's not the "best" my work has to offer. It was, of course, superseded in every single way by the infinitely superior remake in 2008. Think of this as a demo for that and be sure to snap it up if you want a more polished experience. The games that followed in 2007 and beyond are all available on one great value disc for just $29.99. I also have copies I can sell within the UK and Europe for a discounted price...

Flash Remake
Speaking of resurrecting the past, Sure Shot is the latest concept to be remade as an online Flash game! The retro gameplay is better suited to this format and can now be played instantly to kill a few minutes wherever you happen to be. It's more simplistic than its downloadable counterpart, so look that up if you like the game and want to enjoy a wide variety of different enemies. There's even a 3D version that challenges you to cope with a 3rd dimension! It's also free to download now as part of the freeware revolution. Before you get started, please note that the controls have changed for this edition. Flash doesn't seem to be able to distinguish between the two Shift keys, so the firing is now triggered by Left and Right cursors. The upside is that it's now possible to play with one hand! Up and Down are also used to tug at the bomb on a rope (Space explodes it to kill multiple enemies)...

6th November 2009

David Vs Goliath
To celebrate David Haye's impending fight against Nikolai Valuev on Saturday, I've simulated the contest in my very own award-winning boxing game, Reach! As ever, it was a wildly entertaining affair. The results are available to see in a special article - as told by up to 30 high-quality screenshots. There's a reason that section is now titled Images! It will become the home of high-quality shots in future...

Reaching Back
I had so much fun returning to Reach that I've blogged about my dismay that projects like that weren't more successful. Check it out ahead of some huge changes here at MDickie.com in 2010. If you haven't played the game in a while, now is the perfect chance to boot it up again and have some fun with boxing. It's always available to download or own as part of the compilation CD's...

24th October 2009

New Book Released
I'm proud to announce that my latest book is available to buy from outlets all over the world! It has actually been completed since the summer, but I neglected to mention it because it's of limited interest to fans of the games. That said, I do bring up wrestling every now and then as I discuss the spiritual significance of sport - and there's a whole chapter dedicated to it in the appendix. I should also take this opportunity to point out that my autobiography, Inspiration For The Interactive Generation, has been re-released with a slightly modified layout. I bunched up the text a little too tight in the first version in an effort to make it compact, but now it's easier on the eye and weighs in at 240 pages instead of 170. It's also available outside of the USA from book retailers all over the world. If you'd like a copy delivered within the UK, I still have some that I could sign personally. Both projects are also available as "e-books" if you insist on being hi-tech! The idea doesn't appeal to me personally, but you can download the PDF onto any electronic device at a fraction of the cost...

New Flash Project
Speaking of things that aren't relevant to fans of the usual games, you may be curious to know that another Flash project has materialized in the dedicated new section. It's my own interactive version of the popular Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? quiz, which is used for teaching purposes. That means the questions are entirely about the world's various belief systems, which should perplex the average person! That said, if you happen to be studying the subject (voluntarily or otherwise) then this could sharpen up your knowledge quickly and painlessly. Incidentally, I've also provided the other Flash projects as SWF files that you can download to your desktop and run full-screen instead of within this site...

19th October 2009

More Free Games
The great game giveaway continues into the year of 2004, which saw a radical departure from wrestling projects. Popscene and Popcorn brought the managerial gameplay to two other entertainment industries, and were largely successful in doing so (although the original Popscene has now been rendered redundant by its polished remake). Meanwhile, Wrecked was my first stab at a sprawling adventure and sewed the seeds for Hard Time and The You Testament. It's crude by comparison but there are some interesting ideas at its heart. The quartet is completed by Sure Shot 3D, which I still stand by as one of my most innovative creations. Now that all of the above are free to play, they can be enjoyed by an even wider audience! Grab them now from the Downloads section...

The Final Chapter
Speaking of years gone by, 2008 has finally entered the history books with its own write-up. It charts the final year of my professional career, when I knew things were coming to end and concentrated on going out in style with the projects I had always wanted to make...

10th October 2009

New Game Released
My experimental work in Flash continues with a charmingly simple little reflex game called Moksha. This retro concept challenges you purify the contents of your consciousness as they circle you throughout many lifetimes. But the closer you get to enlightenment, the faster the wheel spins to throw you off the scent! As with Sure Shot, I'm quite proud of it as a piece of innovative design - but I'm not sure how much it'll appeal to fans of my usual games...

Face The Music
When I look back over my career and put it into perspective, I'm happy to concede that my solo output wasn't all that great. But one thing I'll always be proud of is how "complete" the projects were. Many people design and program games, and some of those programmers are capable of knocking some decent visuals together too. But very few strayed into the world of sound and music the way I did - adding that responsibility to an already burgeoning workload. Although my work in that field (like all the others) was far from perfect, it was certainly better than I or anyone else ever expected - as one distinct theme after another was attached to each project. And all this from somebody who didn't even know anything about music at the time! It was the gaming equivalent of the Prophet Muhammad composing great poetry despite being illiterate. In order to avoid those achievements being overlooked as the years progress and the games are loaded up less and less, I've put together a dedicated Music section that makes the tunes available to download. Here they're provided as extended high quality MP3's that weren't possible in a gaming environment. I've also offered my recollections about making each piece, so it's worth a glance for those that are curious...  

29th September 2009

The Great Game Giveaway
The celebrations for my impending 10-year anniversary continue - and the free gifts have finally started to arrive! Over the coming months, some of my older games will become free to download. The festivities begin with the key games from Evolution Of The MPire - Federation Booker and the original 2004 Wrestling MPire series (The MDickie Show remains too big to upload). It's with a heavy heart that I make these particular games freeware, because they were the rocks upon which I built a career. I was tremendously proud when they were first released, but the advances of time have forced these dying leaves to fall from the tree and into your hands. For those muttering that the games should have always been free, please appreciate that they probably wouldn't have even existed if that was the case. My work would have barely progressed beyond Big BumpZ if I wasn't able to dedicate my life to it. You can grab the free games from Download.com, where the demos alone have already scored over 150'000 hits. The full games might just creep past the 200'000 mark. Although it's a shame that my least impressive work will enjoy that much attention! Just look at the scathing reviews they've had to endure already. That said, there's something inspirational about being told your game "wouldn't even be touched by diehard wrestling fans"... only to find that it has been "touched" by over 150'000 of them!

Boxed Game Price Crash
A knock-on effect of some published games becoming free is that the compilations must decrease in value a little. That's good news for those of you that still haven't bought any yet though! Since the dawn of time, gamers have been punished for being first on the scene. Sorry to perpetuate the trend. The bottom line is that $10 has been slashed off all boxed products manufactured in New York by Kunaki. That means the ultimate collection is just $29.99, the specific compilations are down to $19.99, and the individual games are $9.99 (I regret this offer cannot be extended to online purchases which are locked in). Head over there now to take advantage of these offers in the run up to Christmas. As ever, I also have a handful of items that can be purchased from me directly within the UK. It's the quickest and cheapest way to get hold of products outside of the Americas. I have copies of Rise & Fall Of The MPire that can be acquired for £20. Simply contact me to stake your claim and you can then pay by cheque or PayPal... 

21st September 2009

Flash StuntZ
To celebrate my 10-year anniversary, some of my classic creations are being remade as free online Flash games! And what better way to begin than with the very concept that started it all almost 10 years ago to the day. Flash StuntZ is a polished new 2D interpretation of the gameplay we saw in the Big BumpZ series, where you play a wrestler sacrificing his body in order to perform stunts for the sake of entertainment. It boasts the most sophisticated flight physics yet - as run-up's and jump power affect the moves you land and the points you score. And with access to all 6 different kinds of jump, there are more moves than ever to discover. Who'd have thought this much MDickie action would ever be contained in a web browser? It's time to get addicted all over again! You're literally seconds away from playing the game. It opens up on the Flash showcase Newgrounds, where you can leave your comments while you play...

Back In A Flash
As you may have gathered, I've returned to gaming part-time as a Flash developer. There are pros and cons to it, but it's certainly better than nothing. I explain all in this updated blog entry...

Clearing Away The Cobwebs
Observant visitors of the site will notice that its structure has changed slightly. In an effort to draw a line under the past and prepare for the future, many sections have been chopped up and changed. A divide will slowly emerge between the new games that are free to play online and the old ones that have to be installed. Meanwhile, my various writings have merged to form one concise section where the best of them can be found. Those that dealt with the past have also been passed over to the History section where they belong. The Q&A section has been replaced by one dedicated exclusively to my numerous interviews, and similarly my blog is now a section in its own right. It will serve as a kind of archive for news and developments. The Links section has also been tidied up to assist you better. There'll be lots of broken links and inconsistencies as the changes slowly sweep through my website's many pages, so please bear with me...