Because work on the 1.0.0 version of Little Big Architect is drawing out (almost three years have already passed since last stable version (0.10)), I have decided to release publicly the beta version I have been working on through that time. Currently the latest version is beta 7, which has so many changes and improvements that you would die out of boredom reading it :). Thus I encourage you to download this version and try it out for youself. In the Programs section the new version got separate article (old version is still available), which contains short list of the most important new features and two screenshots.

Out of other things I am thinking about changing the engine of this site to something more up to the current standards. Current engine I wrote myself and it is not very convenient. For example to write an artcle or add a program I have to edit the php code manually. And there is almost no CSS here. I don't know if I succeed with this (I may not find time), but if so, it most likely won't happen within the next year of time.

I have moved the site to a new server, so some links may not working properly. Please let me know if you find any:
kazink@_don't_like_spam_gmail.com

There is a polish walkthrough for LBA 2. Grisz wrote a pretty decent walkthrough with screen shots. It is in the Documents section. Thanks :)

After three years of efforts yesterday the LBA File Information system has been launched:

LBA File Information

It is database of all files from LBA (only those, that it is reasonable to collect information about, of course), that is HQR, VOX, ILE, OBL, and files held inside them, plus their format descriptions, lists of programs that support them, etc.
Of course not all information is there, because not all of the things are discovered yet. But they probably will be all of them one day, because the system allows everyone to submit information they discovered themselves (or got it form other sources). Such information will be added to the base, after validating by administrators, with credits for those who shared it. The system will be still developed. The plans are for adding possibility to post comments for presented information, adding information in graphical form, and other.

Together with Alexfont I have worked on something, that will significantly change the way of modifying LBA. Connecting my LBArchitect with Alexfont's LBA Story Coder it is now possible to edit scene "visually". If someone tried to do something in Story Coder before, he probably came into idea, that even a simple change of position of a character is horribly bothersome. It is mainly because we can't see what we are doing. This is where Architect comes in. It displays all elements of the scene: tracks, zones and actors. But not only. Now you can change positions of the elements with your mouse! You only have to drag an element and drop it on another place and Story Coder will update its coordinates automatically. This feature only works for actors and tracks now, but it is developed constantly, and soon it will be possible to edit everything.
Unfortunately nothing is perfect. This connection still has many bugs and glitches, which we hope to correct soon. The most important ones, which should be kept in mind during editing, are: no zones editing (you can edit them in Story Coder), bad displaying and refreshing of sprite actors, and possibility to drag an element that is covered with a wall or floor, which makes it possible to accidentaly drag an element that is behind a wall without even knowing about it. Also there is no option to undo changes that we have done.
Alexfont fixed many things in Story Coder also. The most important one is that the script compilation is now 99% accurate! Other improvements are: script hints (Ctrl+Space opens small window with list of possible script commands), and better help system.

You can download LBA Story Coder from its homepage: http://sacredcarrot.fishos.cc/ (direct download link). You can also download both programs from the Programs section of this site.

I got some e-mails with questions like: what is going about LBA 3? How can I help in the campaign? etc. Current situation is that we don't know anything . Campaign is suspended at the moment, because we are waiting for new information, which "supposedly" should come any day. Axx, "offficial" MBN spokesman between us and LBA creators wrote in Day with Frederick Raynal & Yael Barroz thread, that he had some news from Frederick Raynal and he would share them with us as soon as he would launched his new site (which would replace TwinAdv). The problem is that it supposed to happen some time ago now... so now we can only wait.

Some time ago some people started project of creation an unofficial new part of LBA. No, I don't mean LBA 3. The project is called "LBA Prequel" (working title), its action takes place long before events from LBA 1. Of course Twinsen can't be the main hero in this case, the main hero is Hégésippe, Twinsen's ancestor. Recently we decided to set about doing this really hard. Currently the Project is at story writing stage - we've got two chapters already. We also have some drawings ("concept art"). And today we released the official project site:

http://lbaprequel.lobitowebsite.com/

El-Muerte from www.magicball.net was so kind and made us our own sub-forum:

http://el-muerte.student.utwente.nl/lba/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=49

Aleksander Jarecki was so kind and wrote a walkthrough for LBA 1 (in Polish only). It is now in the Documents section. Thanks Aleks :)

There is Polish version of transcription of chat with Frédérick Raynal. Here are both links:

Thanks to Alexfont, there is Bugtracker (site where you can report bugs) available for my programs. There is comfortable interface designed for this purpose, which beside of reporting issues (bugs, suggestions, ideas, etc.), also allows you to comment issues reported by someone else, and ask questions. Registering is not required (although it is possible).

Bugtracker address is:
http://sacredcarrot.fishos.cc/mantis/project_issues.php?project_id=16

Above address opens view of all my projects (most important ones). There you can report bugs, etc. regarding the Emerald Moon Base site. If you want to report a bug in one of my programs, you will have to select it from the list at the top right corner of the Bugtracker site (links to individual programs are also in descriptions of programs on this site).

On Sunday 12 march 2006 at the adventure.eu forum there was a chat with Frédérick Raynal himself! Transcript of the conversation is here. From the conversation we found many interesting things out, among other things about his plans regarding LBA 3.

After 8 years of waiting, there is hope that LBA 3 will be made. We have information that Frédérick Raynal (LBA 1 and 2's creator) has presented LBA3 project to several publishers and that he will meet them within a couple of months (read the source article). So we try to inform as many people (mainly developers and PC game magazines) as we can about LBA 3 in hope they will be interested in it. If you want, you can join the Magicball Network forums and help us with this. You will find most recent news about it just there.

I just fixed serious bug (found by OBrasilo) in almost all my programs. The bug caused menus appear black and act weird under Windows 98. Under Win XP it will not change anything.

I just uploaded new versions of almost all of my programs. Most important change is that they now use my modification, that makes menus and tool bar look better, but there are also smaller or bigger changes in all of them. Another important news is that LBArchitect can now edit Bricks.

I made some small changes to the site. Firstly there is no welcome page where you had to choose the language. The site now determines language automatically depending on Your browser settings. Of course it's still possible to change language with the button above the menu. If you change current language the site will remeber your choice and will set last displayed language next time you will be here. Information about language you have chosen is stored in cookies, so if you disable cookies, the site will choose language automatically each time (however you can force the site to display desired language by adding &lang=PL or &lang=EN at the end of the address). Second change is small correction of download script. It now sends file size to the downloading program, so there shouldn't be any more problems with downloading the files.

A serious bug in Lba 2 translation was fixed. It's all thanks to Marcin, who reproved me. The bug consisted in when you wanted to talk to somebody on Otringal, after actual text there were other texts shown. That was bothersome a bit, but now everything should be OK.

I have just finished work on Architect v 0.03, which enables you to EDIT rooms from LBA 1 & 2 and islands from LBA 1. Now you can create your own island or design Twinsen's house as you like! At the time also the source code was released, on the GNU license as usual.

Firstly: downloading source codes already works (thanks AlexFont). Scondly: I started new project. It is a program which can display rooms from both games (and islands from LBA 1). It will be able to edit them in the future. I also added new file format descriptions.

I worked on the site, it is reason for that downloading was not working yesterday. Everything is working now. There is no Sources section any more. No, it doesn't mean I stopped sharing the sources ;) The sources can be downloaded from the Programs section right below each program download link.

Link to Text Editor 2 source is now working.