all that being said, i’m still a huge fan of going to a brick and mortar store, perusing the game aisle, holding a game box in my hands, looking at the box art, bringing it home, unboxing it, putting the disc in the optical drive and installing it. it’s just a magical feeling and i soak it in every time.

fortunately for me, there are a few games that valve will let you register with steam so that you get all its benefits while also getting to own the boxed game.

start up steam and select activate a product on steam… from the games menu or the button on the main interface.

the product activation wizard will launch.

you must agree with the terms of the steam subscriber agreement to continue; select i agree if you do.

enter your product code, which is typically found on the game manual or cd/dvd case, into the text field and press next.

if it worked correctly, you’ll see an activation successful! message.

the game should show up on your games list in steam now under the not installed section. right click the game and select install game… to start the installation wizard.

you can create game shortcuts in the start menu and on the desktop if desired.

the last step lets you know that it is downloading the game and that you can safely close and restart steam and the download will automatically resume.

when you return to your my games list, you’ll see that the game is downloading.

if you have windows 7, you’ll also see the download progress shown in the taskbar.

now the game is permanently associated to your steam account and you can reap all of its benefits; auto-patching, in game messaging, installation on multiple computers, and achievements (if the game supports them). high five, valve!

having installed window 7 recently, i wanted to install my old games and see if they still worked. after several hours of installing, patching, uninstalling, reinstalling, tweaking and hair pulling i finally have black & white working flawlessly on windows 7 ultimate 64 bit.

black & white came out in march of 2001, before windows xp was released. as it turns out, i had the same problems trying to get this game to work in windows xp that i had in windows 7. therefore, this guide should suffice for a windows xp or windows vista install, but i will be referring to windows 7.

if you’ve already tried installing the game and have been met with problems, i highly suggest you uninstall everything related to black & white and start from scratch. this includes uninstalling the game, deleting the folder where you installed black & white and removing any windows registry keys that were left behind by the uninstaller.

i’m going to assume you know your way around regedit. if you aren’t, you have a lot of reading to do.

if you are on a 32 bit system, you’ll want to delete the following registry keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black & White
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black and White
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black and White Clan Patch
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black and White Patch
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2309910519-2795697514-4011825439-1000\Software\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black & White

if you are on a 64 bit system, you’ll want to delete the following registry keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black & White
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black and White
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black and White Clan Patch
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black and White Patch
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2309910519-2795697514-4011825439-1000\Software\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black & White

now it’s time to get to business. pop your black & white disc in your optical drive and start the installation. you can install the game anywhere you want. i have a separate hard drive just for games, so i installed to E:\Black & White. at the end of the installation, it will ask you (among other things) if you want to play the game–select no.

now is a good time to install any add-ons you wish to use. note that after each add-on you install, windows 7 will start the program compatibility assistant asking you whether or not the program installed correctly. you can select this program installed correctly for each.

i recommend getting the four additional creatures; the leopard, the mandrill, the gorilla and the horse as well as the villager banter add-on. you can download the football add-on now too, but you can’t install it until after you patch the game.

before you go patch crazy and install the latest one, let me tell you what i found in my research. there were a total of three patches released, patch 1.1, patch 1.2 and patch 1.3. patch 1.3 only adds support for the p5 glove. if you happen to have one of these, then you’ll want to get patch 1.3 but if you don’t you’ll want to stick with patch 1.2. in theory, patch 1.3 includes all the fixes and additions from both patches 1.1 and 1.2 and patch 1.2 includes the fixes from patch 1.1. this means you should be able to just install the patch for the final target version you want, but i had some problems that i think were related to the patch not quite installing correctly. there is no harm in installing each patch individually, so i strongly recommend that you install patch 1.1, then patch 1.2 immediately afterward. finally install patch 1.3 if you have a p5 glove.

now you can install the football add-on if you wish.

our last step before launching the game involves configuring the audio and video settings. this is the area that caused me the most grief. look in your start menu for a setup entry under the lionhead studios ltd folder and launch it.

since this game is now an astonishing eight years old, i’m sure your computer can easily handle the maximum detail that the game will allow. i selected maximum detail, the highest resolution available (1280×960), 32 bit color and fired up the game. much to my disbelief, the game was getting less than five fps and was flickering horribly! not only that, but i was unable to use the menu system to exit the game. once i alt-tabbed out of the game, it crashed.

i set the next lowest detail level and tried again and experienced the exact same problem. in fact, the only setting that gave an acceptable game experience was minimum detail. are you kidding me? that’s unacceptable for an eight year old game! luckily, you can get around this problem by using the custom video settings.

in fact, i enabled every single setting on this screen (exactly as shown) and got silky smooth frame rates. i have no idea what the setup program is setting when it uses maximum detail, but if you use custom instead it seems to work great.

for the icing on the cake, this game is capable of widescreen resolutions outside of those shown in the setup program. bust out regedit again and navigate to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Lionhead Studios Ltd\Black & White\BWSetup

look for two DWORD values in this key called ScreenH and ScreenW which correlate to screen height and screen width respectively.

make sure you select the decimal radio button for the base and enter your desired screen width and height in each DWORD. i’m using 1680×1050. for the full report on widescreen support, check out the black & white wiki page on widescreengamingforum.com.

if you still have trouble with black and white, check out the official forums hosted by lionhead. good luck!

most wanted has a play button instead of an install button even though i haven’t installed the game! the reason this happens is that both games have a main executable named speed.exe and the autoplay program checks the registry to see if that executable is already installed. when it sees speed.exe (which is associated with need for speed underground in my case) in the ea games registry key, it assumes that most wanted has already been installed and gives you the option to play it. of course, hitting play here isn’t going to work because the game isn’t installed yet.

there is a simple solution for this conundrum, but you’ll have to use the registry editor. then again, if you’re playing need for speed on your pc instead of a console, you’re probably already a hardcore pc gamer and know your way around regedit. in any case, hit the windows key + r on your keyboard to get a run dialog, and enter regedit and hit enter. drill down on the left side to the need for speed game that you already have installed. if you’re on windows 32 bit, you’ll find it in:

HEKY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EA Games\

if you’re on windows 64 bit like me, you’ll find it in:

HEKY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\EA Games\

simply right click the game key (in my case it was Need for Speed Underground), hit rename, and add some text to the end of the key. it doesn’t matter what text you use because we’re going to change this back to the original value later. keep regedit open and re-run the need for speed autoplay for the game you are trying to install.

if everything went according to plan, you should now have the option to install. start the install process and swap the discs out as needed.

when the game is finished installing, go back to regedit and rename the key back to its original value. close the registry editor and you’re good to go!

fortunately, my friends, there is an easier way. if you hunt down your autoexec.cfg file that i told you about previously, you can add a command to the file to change the crouch behavior. the toggle_duck command will reverse whatever state of crouch you happen to be in; if you are currently standing up, you will crouch when pressing the button. if you are crouched, pressing the button will make you stand up. sweetness, right?

i use mouse button 4 for crouch toggling, but make sure you insert whatever key or button you use in the following command:

bind "mouse4" "toggle_duck"

now you just press or click once to crouch, and again to stop crouching.

i find this very helpful for the hunter as well, because you can be ready to pounce at any time without fear of standing up when in the heat of battle!

to get you pouncing in the comfort of your own single player game again, please follow the same steps in the other article, but replace the previous line:

alias "sp_versus" "sv_cheats 1; director_force_versus_start; director_no_human_zombies 0; sb_all_bot_team 1;"

with this one:

alias "sp_versus" "sv_cheats 1; director_force_versus_start; mp_gamemode versus; sb_all_bot_team 1;"

good times.

want to practice hunter pouncing over and over? no problem. just enter the following into the developer console during gameplay:

z_spawn hunter auto

want to play as the tank? now you can any time you want with:

z_spawn tank auto

to make this choosing process easier, use the configuration below whereby you can press f5 through f8 to play as the special infected of your choice. make sure you check out my previous article if you don’t know where to put these commands:

alias "sp_versus" "sv_cheats 1; director_force_versus_start; mp_gamemode versus; sb_all_bot_team 1"
bind "f1" "sp_versus"
bind "f2" "jointeam 2"
bind "f3" "jointeam 3"
bind "f5" "z_spawn hunter auto"
bind "f6" "z_spawn smoker auto"
bind "f7" "z_spawn boomer auto"
bind "f8" "z_spawn tank auto"

happy infecting!

luckily, left 4 dead has a single player mode that allows you to practice fighting off the zombie horde with three other ai controlled players that won’t ridicule you. bill may say you smell like a sewer or francis may say he wouldn’t mind leaving you to die, but they certainly won’t call you a newb.

that’s all well and good for practicing as the survivors, but what about the infected? the very first time you play versus mode as the infected, you notice right away that it is radically different. the game world is viewed with a brown hue, you start off in a strange state called spawn mode, your methods of attack are obviously very different from the survivors, and you can see where the survivors are at all times.

if you are intimidated about all this like i was at first, you’ll be happy to know that it is possible to play as the infected in single player mode.

unfortunately this isn’t a mode that is built into the game so you’ll have to use some console commands to get it working properly. open your game options and head to the keyboard/mouse settings to enable the developer console.

by default, the key to open the console is the back tick key, which is found to the left of the 1 key on most us keyboards. start a single player game, open the developer console, and type in the following commands:

sv_cheats 1
director_force_versus_start
director_no_human_zombies 0
sb_all_bot_team 1
jointeam 3

you now have a playground to experiment with the four different special infected against four ai controlled survivors. learn the special infected’s strengths, their weaknesses, and where the good hiding spots are located. if you plan on practicing a lot, you certainly aren’t going to want to type in those console commands every single time you play. fortunately, you don’t have to.

open your favorite text editor and open the file autoexec.cfg which can be found in your Steam installation folder in SteamApps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead\cfg. if you don’t see this file, you will need to create it. insert the following lines:

alias "sp_versus" "sv_cheats 1; director_force_versus_start; director_no_human_zombies 0; sb_all_bot_team 1;"
bind "f4" "sp_versus" // enable single player versus mode
bind "f5" "jointeam 2" // join survivors team
bind "f6" "jointeam 3" // join infected team

with the above configuration, you can press f4 to begin versus mode and f6 to join the infected team. but wait, there’s more! if you have played versus mode before, you know that the tank typically only spawns once per level, sometimes not at all, and the person that gets chosen to play as the tank is random. since you’re the only infected on the team, you will always be the tank! if you chose the final chapter for any movie, you will get to play as the tank twice or maybe even thrice!

also, because you can select any chapter to start from, you can keep playing the finales over and over again. this is a great way to practice with the tank and to completely dominate the survivors. if you try this yourself, you may notice that the ai controlled survivors won’t begin the finale, which is where our previous configuration comes in. press f5 to switch to the survivors team and start the finale, then press f6 to go back to the infected team.

there are a few things i want to leave you with:

• the difficulty you chose will be inverted as infected. expert mode will be easier for you and easy mode will be more difficult.
• the delay for the smoker tongue is much longer when you miss than it is in versus mode.
• you may find that sometimes the safe room door cannot be opened. if this happens, make sure you are on the infected team and wait for about 30 seconds. the door will open automatically.
• you can play any campaign, not just the two currently available in versus mode! you can learn the dead air and death toll campaigns before the survival pack comes out on april 29th!
• the maps you are playing on are single player maps and are not properly balanced for versus mode. there will be differences between these maps and those specifically designed for versus mode.
• you will not see the arrow indicators for areas you can climb as the infected, but it is still possible to climb those areas regardless, provided you know where they are.

have fun and practice pouncing, pulling, puking and pummeling!

update! the alias shown here does not work as of the survival pack update. read the survival pack update post for additional info and the new alias.

due to this painful but necessary restriction, i have had an extremely long battle for time to play bioshock. i’m proud to say that after a long and trying year of avoiding game reviews, spoilers, sequel announcements and anything else that may give away parts of the game i have finally beaten it.

the hardest part about having so little time to play, at least for single player games, is that the time between gaming sessions can be weeks if not months. when i would finally have time to play, it would be hard even remembering where i left off in the story. at one point in the game–obtaining the code to unlock the elevator in olympus heights–it took hours of searching before i realized i already had the code in a previous log entry. when your time is precious it can be very frustrating wasting it on remedial tasks like this. sure i could have cheated and looked up the code on the internet, but i have a pledge never to obtain outside help until i have completed a game on my own.

i am extremely impressed with how solid of a game bioshock is. the story is phenomenal and the game was so reminiscent of system shock 2 that i felt right at home while playing it. i’d love to play through it again to take the evil path–harvesting the little sisters instead of rescuing them–but i don’t know if i can wait another year to see what that end game will be like.

additionally, blizzard released patches for all these games (1.12 for diablo ii, 1.15.2 for starcraft, 1.20e for warcraft iii) which let you play without a cd. this is an unprecedented move in the gaming industry. while most companies are trying harder to increase the drm on their games with disc verification, blizzard is removing discs from the picture entirely. i really hope more companies take this route because going into my disc case to find a disc for a game i want to play is a real pain.

head over to the blizzard store and register an account (if you don’t have one already). once you have verified your email address you can visit the games section under my account controls. from there you can enter your retail cd key for any blizzard games you own which are supported:

Which game keys can I attach to my Blizzard Account?
The following games are supported by the Games page at this time:

• StarCraft
• StarCraft Battlechest
• StarCraft Anthology
• Warcraft III
• Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
• Warcraft Battlechest
• Diablo II
• Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
• Diablo II Battlechest

– Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

each one you add will give you a banner that offers a download link:

from here you can download an executable file that, when launched, will begin downloading your game installer via bittorrent:

if you are having difficulty with the downloader, you can look for help at blizzard support.

once your download is complete you will have a full blown installer which contains all the data necessary to install the game without discs:

in addition, you will be given a new 26 digit product key that will be used to install the game. you can obtain this key by selecting the view game key link on the game banner as seen on your my game downloads page. thank you blizzard!

after installing diablo 2 and the lord of destruction expansion pack, i created a new battle.net account, made a sorceress character, and immediately looked for a rush (where a high level character completes quests for you allowing you to get rushed through the game rapidly). while playing i posed the question to my fellow diablo players; “who here is just getting back into diablo 2 after hearing about diablo 3?” everyone in the game replied “me!” the same could be said for players in nearly every game i joined.

fast forward from the announcement to now and i find myself with a level 87 sorceress and about five mule characters full of items, runes and gems. it’s great fun for a game that is 8 years old. have you just gotten back into diablo 2 after hearing about diablo 3? leave a comment and let us know.