andrew cowan : projects

iPhone Apps ( new )

I have recently started developing iPhone apps and have discovered how much fun building apps for mobile devices can be.

  1. mobile.tmc - Designed for the TMC (see below) community, allows users to keep up with the latest discussions, new game listings and new reviews posted to the site.
  2. TMC Game Client - This is a telnet client built for the iPhone which ties into TMC's large database of free multiplayer text-based games. The app enables iphone users to play hundreds of games listed on the TMC website.


The Mud Connector ( TMC )

I created a website in 1995 called The Mud Connector devoted to a genre of online games called MUDs (multi-user dungeons). I had been playing MUDs for some time and had become hopelessly addicted to them, creating the web page served many purposes: a) I needed to learn HTML, b) I needed to learn CGI programming and c) There were no web-based mudlists in existence yet, the only resources available were only available via mail or via Usenet posts. TMC is still drawing a sizable crowd over a decade later and although I no longer play MUDs I still run the website.


Ultimate Warcraft 3 for CS ( UWC3 )

I enjoy many types of video games, I no longer get a whole lot of time to play but when I do I enjoy first person shooters (FPS) and roleplaying games (RPG). After many years of playing the popular FPS game Counter-Strike I thought it'd be fun to add some RPG style gameplay, so I wrote a plugin called UWC3 which has become very popular, at any time of day there are from 25 to 100 servers running the mod.


CS World of Warcraft MOD ( WowMOD )

Shortly after releasing the first official version of UWC3 I had to take a leave of absense from the project as my new son Zachary had just been born. I took about 2 years off and then the bug bit me to get back and either expand UWC3 or start something new. I decided to start fresh and create a Counter-Strike mod with the RPG theme from the very popular MMORPG World of Warcraft. WowMOD,while not as popular as UWC3 due to its much more complicated gameplay, has grown an audience of its own and can be found on a number of CS servers. I do not consider the mod completed, but everything that as planned for the initial release is coded and working. I hope to get back and finish this one at some point.


Genetic Algorithms (GAs)

My Master's thesis in grad school (MA in Mathematics) involved writing software to implement a Genetic Algorithm in the application of curve-fitting. I have created Actionscript3 Flash apps that create GAs to find a linear and non-linear equations that best fits random data w/ optional noise added. You can play with them here [ linear ga | non-linear ga | trigonometric ga]