Okay, I'm very glad to hear you're still going strong with this project. To tell you the truth, I almost though you would drop about, but it looks like you'll stay in the whole race! Just to let you know, the hack is going fairly well on my end too. I've got the 256-tile hack working, so all the graphics are just about done. I'm still working on my scripting (which is pretty good), and some other major stuff. As for a beta realease, I've got awhile.
And also, you should check out the link in my sig.