Categories
Enjoyed Reflected

The Baron Breaks Free

A week from today marks the day I officially left Freeverse Software and moved into my current position at Weill Medical College.

During my tenure at Freeverse (which somehow lasted nearly five years), I had the chance to work on a [lot](http://www.freeverse.com/bms/) [of](http://www.freeverse.com/tsg/) [games](http://www.freeverse.com/squabble/) that I was proud to say I took part in the production of, even if my roles were nebulous and ill-defined.

But the one game I always held dearest to my heart was Wingnuts 2. The sequel to the first really notable commercial game Freeverse ever did, Wingnuts 2 was mandated to be bigger and better in practically every way.

More importantly (to me, anyway), I was tasked with game design. It’s the only game that I worked on that I sat down and worked out new gameplay elements, level progression, characters, enemies, and so on. Mark Anderson’s engine was amazing, and I couldn’t wait to explore the possibilities.

Of course, six months later I ended up leaving.

After I left Freeverse, I didn’t hear much about the game. They were busy, and justifiably so. I had always held out hope that someday, Wingnuts 2 would finally reach completion.

That day is today: [Wingnuts 2: Raina’s Revenge](http://www.freeverse.com/wn2/) is finally available.

It is, for all intents and purposes, the very last Mac game I have ever – or likely will ever – work on. So if you have a Mac, give the trial a download. And look for my name in the credits.

Categories
Recommended

Links You May Have Missed

Those readers with a knack for caring too much may have noticed a lack of daily link posts over most of the last week; this was not intentional, but was a side effect of recent upgrades and rebuilds to the server. So in an effort to catch up, here are all the links you missed. Granted, many of them can be considered old by this point, but I prefer to think of them as finely aged.

If you’re the sort of person who lives or dies for these posts, cut out the potential 24 hour lag time in the automated posting – bookmark my linkblog directly.

Categories
Found

Mac IT Loses One Of Its Greats

[RIP, Michael Bartosh](http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=20060611204217263):

>It is with the heaviest of hearts that I write these words, but this weekend we lost Michael Bartosh to a tragic accident in Tokyo, Japan at the far too young age of 28.

>Early on Sunday morning Michael fell to his death from a friend’s balcony. Police have ruled the death an accident.

>To many people Michael was a source of endless information that he provided about Mac OS X Server. He was an author, a trainer, a consultant, and, to many, a good friend. All of us here at AFP548.com are still in a state of shock over the loss. We are sure that many in the community feel the same way.

>He is survived by his wife, Amber. Please keep his family in your thoughts during these difficult times. We know he will never be far from ours.

I never personally knew Michael, but I knew *of* Michael – and to be in any way involved in the Mac Enterprise IT community meant he was unavoidable. He was literally everywhere, always ready to chip in to help out. At WWDC, he was either giving or attending every session I was at.

He will definitely be missed.

[John C. Welch has more.](http://www.bynkii.com/archives/2006/06/ah_crap.html)