tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5721392246515731932024-03-14T09:16:21.963+00:00TMR's Dev BlogT.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-66546333313829989672009-10-13T16:01:00.005+01:002009-10-13T16:25:25.031+01:00A8 :: shooty stuffi've been thinking about writing a shoot 'em up for the Atari 8-bit for literally years now... but it's not the easiest machine to write that kind of game for. The current project <i>started</i> as something of a urine extraction of a particular person at Atari Age who rather ridiculously <i>kept banging on</i> about how more colours in a game somehow made it more beautiful. No, i couldn't see it either so i threw together something with three playfield colour splits a scanline that essentially looked like Rainbow Brite had vomited down the inside of the monitor to demonstrate:<br /><br /><img src="http://formatwar.net/temp/a8_shooter.png"><br /><br />i suspect a few people thought that was just a mock-up when i posted it (and it keeps getting complements, that's worrying...) but there's a fully functioning game engine behind that too... but the sprite engine being used isn't much more complicated than what games like <b>Mirax Force</b> or <b>Humanoid</b> already do (it has some wave sequencing behind it so there's more game logic going on, but the way it actually recycles hardware sprites is the same) so everything is on horizontal rails. It's <i>workable,</i> but seriously limited when it comes to what the nasties can actually do.<br /><br />So i started thinking about other options and now i have a [i]second[/i] preview, this time far less busy on the playfield colour splits but changing the sprite colours every other scanline and able to recycle the three sprites assigned to nasties (the player's is dedicated) in order to give six relatively free standing objects whizzing around the play area with a more complex wave sequencing engine feeding them control data. Fantastic stuff and i can live with just one of the playfield colours being split... except to my mind the sprites simply don't <i>look as good</i> with one colour and splits (the splits are a scanline out on this screenshot, use your imaginations!):<br /><br /><img src="http://formatwar.net/temp/a8_shooter_2.png"><br /><br />So now i have something of a dilemma, do i go with this revised engine and carry on, look at the possibilities of changing it <i>again</i> to multiplex three colour objects (if i do, the player's ship becomes a software sprite and things are... fraught as far as available CPU grind go already) or is there a third option...<br /><br />Decisions, decisions...<br /><br />In the meantime, i might arse around with the scroll engine and multiplex to produce a much simpler game to see how things stand on CPU loads.T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-30969119798185342262009-09-14T19:40:00.002+01:002009-09-14T19:43:21.676+01:00C64 :: GR9 Strike Force releasedIt's being called the "party version", but <b>GR9 Strike Force</b> has been released over on the <a href="http://cosine.org.uk/" target="_c0s">Cosine website</a>. Yay! Here's a screenshot from the final release:<br /><br /><img src="http://cosine.org.uk/images/c64/gr9_strike_force.gif"><br /><br />Enjoy...T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-50851315428690359812009-09-10T15:49:00.001+01:002009-09-10T15:51:35.671+01:00C64 :: so near...!<b>GR9 Strike Force</b> is pretty much done bar the pretties now... here's the video!<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Pzt8fresLAg&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Pzt8fresLAg&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-39353802929945727542009-09-03T17:07:00.002+01:002009-09-03T17:30:38.976+01:00C64 :: bugs and tanksThe code that manages the likkle tanks went into <b>GR9 Strike Force</b> yesterday (for speed, the various objects are driven by discrete blocks of code rather than a generic management routine) along with a first draft of their firing routines; at first everything seemed happy bunnies and they'd tootle into the play area, stop after a distance set by the wave data and began firing, exactly what they're meant to do until something odd started happening... <br /><br />It took about <i>three damned hours</i> to diagnose, but the symptom was that Tank 1 would drive into play from the bottom of the screen, park up and start shooting normally. Then the attack wave manager would throw a couple of passing aircraft into the mix before getting to the data for Tank 2. Just after Tank 2 was assigned (using up the last available object) Tank 1 wanted to fire and couldn't find a free object for it's bullet. The routine has a contingency which essentially suppresses the urge and resets the counter as though the shot happened... but it'd mangle one of the registers on the way out (it should've recovered it from a storage location, but the command got lost in the wash) with the result being that the attempted bullet firing dented a table of timers so Tank 1 <i>forgot</i> it was in "stopped and firing" mode and promptly drove away!<br /><br />Silly likkle tank.T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-80670316626357737572009-08-29T20:02:00.001+01:002009-08-29T20:03:33.392+01:00C64 :: Whoosh!!<img src="http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs141.snc1/5211_1198965369355_1085144550_637699_3737672_n.jpg"><br /><br />Here's a screenshot taken about thirty minutes ago with some "real" attack wave data in place and the status bar pretty much working as it's meant but on test pictures - there's also a video to see it moving on YouTube:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pNUugl20IIk&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pNUugl20IIk&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-36790897378871483402009-08-13T00:57:00.002+01:002009-08-13T01:06:00.753+01:00C64 :: GR9 under wayOkeydokey, so i posted to Facebook, uploaded video to YouTube and mentioned it on a couple of forums whilst forgetting my own dev blog... the new C64 project is under way and called <b>GR9 Strike Force</b>; it's <i>another</i> horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up, being written for <a href="http://www.retroreunited.info/" target="_rr">Retro Reunited</a> and the overall theme is more current than most of my previous games. According to the finite "research" i did, the GR9 Harrier is the model in service with at least some of our military right now.<br /><br />Here's that video i uploaded:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cRh1QFS9zWY&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cRh1QFS9zWY&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />The status bar has been drawn and installed, along with a six by six character area for a digitised picture - the idea is that at the event someone'll win a door prize, be photographed making themselves look a plum and be inserted into the game as an avatar during play and on the loading screen "live". Today was spent writing a very specific converter that takes four blocks of 24 by 48 multicolour pixels and converts them into a six by four character block in the status font, two sprites with the extra sixteen pixels that are in the lower border and six high-res sprites that are horizontally expanded and used as overlays to give a total of six colours for the image.<br /><br />And yes, the code running in the video <i>already</i> has the upper and lower borders open and is handling the masking as sprites leave vertically itself to within a couple of cycles - of course, nobody'll notice these things unless i bloody point 'em out <i>[mutter, mutter!]</i>T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-85096134297379384242009-05-03T11:50:00.002+01:002009-05-03T11:55:19.074+01:00C64 :: Armalyte menu sortedThe disk menu for Psytronik's release of <b>Armalyte</b> was finished yesterday; i recycled the loader from the <b>Mayhem In Monsterland</b> menu (try saying that three times when you're drunk!) and at Kenz's request added keyboard-based selection since i hadn't even noticed the option in the original!T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-87867437747104544622009-04-07T22:28:00.003+01:002009-04-07T23:02:29.301+01:00C64 :: More menu manipulationYup, i've been asked to do some more disk menu coding for Psytronik, this time for the release of (wait for it...) <b>Armalyte</b>! How could i refuse, it's one of my <i>all-time favourite games</i> f'crying out loud...! Anyway, the brief was to produce something similar to the original disk menu and Kenz sent over a lovely mock-up with the text nicely placed (i changed the position of two words so that one of the raster effects was closer to the original) and this is a fully-functioning menu that just lacks the loaders for when something is selected.<br /><br />Oh, before some smart-arse says anything, the code was written from scratch without <i>once</i> looking at the original, even the colour tables for the bars were worked out by grabbing screenshots and squinting - i even had to create half the numerals in the font since they weren't there on the original and even managed to get a couple of sprite overlays onto the raster bars in order to enhance the Psytronik logos that took over from Mr. Thalamus in the top corners (it's been ages since i did anything even <i>approaching</i> timing-specific demo code, that took a bit of remembering on it's own...)<br /><br /><img src="http://cosine.org.uk/tmr/pictures/arma_menu_20090407.gif"><br /><br />There's been a little progress on <b>Co-Axis 2189</b> an' all (the code itself changed a few weeks back but the tile re-colouring happened just a few days ago) - it now has a full colour-per-character scroller as opposed to the colour-per-tile one it was running previously and the fourth level's backgrounds are in but for the moment are running with attack wave data from the third as test. Here's the <i>"before and after"</i> images and pause for just a moment to consider how bloody hard it must have been to pause the game on <i>exactly the same frame</i> twice like that!!<br /><br /><img src="http://cosine.org.uk/tmr/pictures/ax2189_comparison_20090407.gif">T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-12994181752249325432009-03-21T13:14:00.004+00:002009-03-21T13:23:12.907+00:00C64DTV :: Blok Copy DTV released!Further to my previous post, <b>Blok Copy</b> for the C64DTV has "officially" been classed as done and dusted; i've literally just written it up for the main <a href="http://cosine.org.uk/" target="_c0s">Cosine</a> website, added a news item to <a href="http://www.oldschool-gaming.com/" target="_osg">Oldschool Gaming</a> and uploaded an entry over at the <a href="http://noname/c64.org/csdb/" target="_csdb">CSDb</a>. Phew!<br /><br />Thinking about it a little bit, i'm not sure if this counts as the first DTV-specific game - there's a mod of <b>Boulder Dash</b> using 8BPP graphics, but in this case i wrote the game code as well as did the visuals so it's <i>some kind</i> of first! Anyway, it's got a <i>superb</i> tune in by Sean "Odie" Connolly called "Sporting Chance", some 8BPP graphics i'm quite pleased with and plays pretty nicely too (i hope). Here's a screenshot and enjoy!<br /><br /><img src="http://cosine.org.uk/images/other/blok_copy_dtv.gif">T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-50493881568877959802009-03-01T01:57:00.004+00:002009-03-01T02:01:25.524+00:00C64DTV :: Blok Copy just about done!Just a quick update really, i've just removed the loader and included the two 16K 8 bits per pixel fonts into the main file (the beta version is still under 17K when compressed) and a couple of days ago Sean talked me through a work around to get the music playing correctly after compilation, so <b>Blok Copy</b> is ready apart from the final beta testing. Yay!T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-47686872804381953132009-02-15T20:42:00.003+00:002009-03-01T00:38:46.630+00:00C64 :: copy of more blockageWell, as promised here is the video footage of <b>Blok Copy</b>... and the cryptic nature of my previous post might be explained since it actually runs on the C64DTV version 2 upwards, using an 8 bits per pixel display mode. i didn't quite get all the cosmetic glitches out and the music (by Sean Connolly and to date unreleased) has a small hiccup when it starts because the <b>EMS</b> compiler seems to have an issue but... well, it goes at least!<br><br><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1WImBxOk3jA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1WImBxOk3jA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-66236681437420594892009-02-07T02:23:00.003+00:002009-02-07T02:29:27.060+00:00C64 :: still copying bloksi've <i>almost</i> got what amounts to a complete game going! It plays all the way through from titles to completion screen and back (i've got it dialled down to only play two stages during testing), all the cosmetics have been rewritten from the PET code so that they work in their new environment and i spent some of the night before last and most of yesterday morning drawing presentation graphics. There are some cosmetic glitches still, although i'm pretty sure i know where they're coming from and plan to flatten them over the next couple of days. The game won't be released just yet because there are a few variations on the theme to complete first (and the music isn't settled on) and yes, i <i>know</i> that's needlessly cryptic, but i'll post some screenshots or a video when i get the flickers repaired.T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-10744767849627276272009-02-04T00:55:00.003+00:002009-02-04T01:07:25.280+00:00C64 :: Blok Copyi've spent a couple of days beavering away at <b>Blok Copy</b> (since i've <i>finally</i> got myself into a state of mind where coding is possible now) and the game itself is functioning perfectly. A little <i>too well</i> in fact, in the way that i start expecting it to crash and burn hideously at any moment! The presentation is still assuming there's a PETSCII font and isn't doing what it's supposed to but i'll get around to that next.<br /><br />Thinking about it a bit more, i want to try converting it to the BBC Micro as well; that could put up a bit more of a fight to be honest, there's only 32K of RAM on a stock BBC and the best bitmap mode to use needs 20K just for the display (and a character set in memory will need 4K as well) but there are other options and i need to read up on the hardware a bit more before i make a decision as to which mode to go for. It <i>might</i> end up in four colours if things get desperate! All told, the various versions will need <i>at least</i> four different graphics sets (all laid out in a similar way) and somehow i've got to find a musician willing to do tunes for at least five platforms...!T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-40839618041118711712008-12-13T02:14:00.005+00:002008-12-13T02:17:36.666+00:00C64 :: Mayhem 15th introsAfter Kenz spotted a couple of small cosmetic bugs and i went delving around, the final menus for <b>Mayhem In Monsterland 15th Anniversary</b> with their loaders in place have (hopefully at least) been sent off for mastering; here's a video of the code written for the B side, which contains the two MC Mayhem music demos:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-eeZ_e-Epm4&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-eeZ_e-Epm4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-76925396722447607382008-12-04T14:49:00.004+00:002008-12-13T02:19:19.917+00:00C64 :: Utter MayhemOver the last couple of days i've been quiet because i was coding a new disk menu for the 15th anniversary edition of <b>Mayhem In Monsterland</b>... i was asked to an' stuff, i didn't just decide i was going to do it out of the blue or anything! It's been a while since i thought about presentation programming like this to be honest, it's closer to demo coding than games so takes a little getting my head around. Still, i think it works pretty well and the client <i>[ahem =-]</i> is happy with it. Anyway, here's a video of the thing actually moving (i've just noticed a problem but it'll be fixed before the final release)...<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pZoRDf4Qrqc&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pZoRDf4Qrqc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-7190550438416107762008-10-31T02:30:00.003+00:002008-10-31T02:45:37.763+00:00C64 :: Sidetracked... again!i'm rather good at sidetracking myself these days... i spent most of the day working on graphics but not for <b>Ax 2189</b>... and, after a little late night wandering around i returned invigorated (well, partially awake at least and that's better going than most days) and for reasons i might never be able to explain decided to convert the code for my first PET game <b>Blok Copy</b> to run on the C64. Actually, i can explain the reasoning... i think. i wanted to strip the code back to it's absolute basics (there were a lot of PET-specific hardware detections and work-arounds for frame sync or control in there because it runs on just about any 40 column machine) with the intention being to then convert it over to a number of other 6502-based platforms.<br><br>This has been on the cards for a while to be honest (and one day i'll retrofit the new title into the Atari 2600 version of the code and perhaps the music driver too) but there were issues that had previously prevented things from progressing from the theoretical stages (in particular the number of colours per line on some of the potential targets) which have now been pretty much sussed during that walk to Asda and back... i haven't decided yet if <b>Blok Copy - C64 ROM Font Edition</b> (snappy title... but accurate since it uses all the PET screen data) will "escape" yet, it depends on if the design work-arounds i came up with can be applied to a full-blown C64 version or not really.T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-30882393355491733932008-10-28T22:24:00.002+00:002008-10-28T22:28:13.382+00:00C64 :: Some progress at last!Things have been a little quiet of late because, despite my "best" efforts, i've been utterly unable to get a fourth level for <b>Co-Axis 2189</b> started; finally that deadlock was broken today and i seem to have the <i>beginnings</i> of a tile set for it although if i'm honest i've deviated a little from what i originally intended - but that's fine because the various attempts at what i had in mind to begin with were stalling the bloody project! So now i've got that going there will hopefully be some screenshots of the new level to look at in the (relatively) near future <i>[Crosses fingers and looks hopeful!</i>T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-87558204543444870132008-10-02T16:04:00.003+01:002008-10-02T16:36:14.080+01:00C64 :: Armour Storm videoSince i'm going to try breaking the "block" and start working on <b>Co-Axis 2189</b> again, my thoughts have of course drifted to the <i>next</i> project; ironically, it's going to see me restarting work on a previous project, a sci-fi themed platformer called <b>Armour Storm</b>. What makes it rather special is the graphics, the majority are taken from Cyberdyne Systems' unreleased game <a href="http://gtw64.retro-net.de/Pages/d/Review_Deadlock.php">Deadlock</a> with full permission from Robin Levy and Dan Phillips themselves - what is far more exciting (well, for me at least) is that Robin <i>also</i> drew the player sprite especially for <b>Armour Storm</b>!<br><br><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/auWtL1F346U&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/auWtL1F346U&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br><br>What has been holding it up (for several years in fact, the last build was in 2005 according to the change log i kept at the start of the source code) was the issue of guns; i had always planned to allow Martin (the player's walker droid... Martin Walker, get it? Please y'selves...) but at the same time it does have some quite complex issues such as what happens to shot nasties, do they respawn and how or just frozen or how often should there be guns in operation. That needs a fair bit of thought, discussion and indeed experimentation before its worked out and hopefully i'll be able to find a little more time now.<br><br>But anyway, enjoy the video because those graphics are pretty friggin' stunning...T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-59269802924228510362008-09-23T13:59:00.002+01:002008-09-23T14:05:25.227+01:00PC :: Wire Fighter releasedAlthough the <a href="http://www.bulletmechanics.com/" target="_bm">Bullet Mechanics</a> website hasn't been updated to reflect it yet (that'll happen on Wednesday) yesterday saw the release of the now christened <b>Wire Fighter</b> over on the <a href="http://www.shmup-dev.com/" target="_shmupdev">ShmupDev</a> forums.<br><br>The game itself is quite simple to get into, the player has two energy bars for the ship itself and the "laser wire" grappling system (above and below the score respectively); along with the ship, there is also the laser wire's cursor, when the system is charged, it will lock onto attackers (the usually red cursor will turn green if there is power for it or orange if not) and a swift right click will take control of the enemy and see it tethered to the ship as a support weapon. It is possible to play the game <i>without</i> using the laser wire but it's difficult and the best scores will be achieved by constantly grappling new support craft.T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-4023269918683094622008-09-19T12:26:00.003+01:002008-09-19T12:32:12.702+01:00PC :: Grappling with spaceshipsThe new rapid prototype has been receiving a little care and attention yesterday and as far as the code is concerned it's pretty much complete now; i want to spend some time getting the graphics and sound up to spec, there need to be attack waves created and probably couple more nasty types and at this point i haven't actually settled on a [i]name[/i] but the progress is good and i'm happy with the way it feels to play so hopefully it'll be well received on the <a href="http://www.shmup-dev.com/" target="_shmupdev">ShmupDev</a> forum when i'm done.T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-8989534859750558252008-09-12T17:23:00.006+01:002008-09-12T17:33:25.961+01:00PC :: More rapid prototypingi haven't actually given the thing a <i>name</i> yet and it didn't end up using the OpenGL rendering code i was talking about previously... but after a day and a bit of slaving away i've got something together for the fourth ShmupDev competition! The idea is quite simple, the player has the option to lock onto attackers and take over their ships, slaving the craft itself and the weapons for their own use. There are some restrictions placed on the use of course (otherwise it'd be way too easy) such as the enslaved craft not moving as fast as they would otherwise and the bullets taking between two and eight hits to destroy attackers depending on the weapon grabbed, but generally it works pretty well.<br><br>All it really needs to "complete" it for the competition is some movement code for the nasties, a bigger selection of attackers with their own weapons that can be taken control of, a proper attack wave initialisation system (it's currently just slinging nasties in at random once every sixty or so refreshes) and then some pretties like a title page, a few more sprite designs, sound effects and so forth.T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-80760828688544257202008-09-07T11:11:00.004+01:002008-09-07T11:39:39.062+01:00PC :: Shiny, happy spaceshipsi've had a weekend of getting my head around the basics behind OpenGL; my programming language of choice, the rather spiffy <a href="http://www.blitzbasic.com" target="_bm">Blitz Max</a>, is essentially a 2D language (which was one of the main reasons i leant towards it in the first place, having previously used <b>Blitz BASIC 2D</b> to the point i was trying to simulate some of the more rudimentary lighting effects that <b>Max</b> can handle by rendering objects manually) but there is support included for rendering with OpenGL and, theoretically at least, that means i could build a 2.5D shooter of some kind. So far i've managed to position, plot, scale and rotate some vertexes and then some low poly shapes, although i suspect that a lot of my code so far is somewhat fudged...<br><br>As to what i'll actually do with this test code i haven't decided yet, but the idea of stylised, untextured shoot 'em up is rather appealing right now and, assuming the theme doesn't preclude it in some way, might be my "look" for the next <a href="http://www.shmup-dev.com" target="_shmupdev">ShmupDev</a> rapid prototyping session since i really enjoyed the last one and the next one starts on Monday. Certainly one of my thrown together test objects will look quite good tumbling onto screen, disgorging some bullets and then spinning away again (or being blown to smithereens - that does raise a question of how to blow up a 3D object but i've just had a thought as i was writing this so i'll have to give that a little more consideration) and with a bit of modification will make the basis for a nice player ship as well. Strapping the Alien Release Scheduling Engine into this environment should prove quite... interesting though, the co-ordinates are based on 0,0 (thinking in two dimensions and ignoring Z) being the centre of the play area!T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-84338665177077134742008-08-24T23:27:00.006+01:002008-09-01T03:33:03.612+01:00PC :: Boom bang a bang!Yay! i didn't really get around to documenting any more of the process, but <b>Vinculum</b> has been released in it's "competition form" and i'm in the process of setting up a website for a new "venture"; to paraphrase the old bank advert where the businessman asks people at work, friends and everyone else apart from <i>his wife</i> before making a life-changing decision, i'm "going it alone" or more accurately i'm going to have a go at setting m'self up as an indie developer with this project in a greatly expanded form as a first product if all goes to plan. Anyway, my new website isn't actually <i>there</i> as such but the domain is working and theres a temporary page on it already for <b>Vinculum</b> with the instructions and a download link so <a href="http://www.BulletMechanics.com/" target="_bm">off you go</a> for a likkle look. And here's a screen of that latest revision:<br><br><img src="http://bulletmechanics.com/screens/vinculum_1.png" width="360" height="480">T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-40705264821087862672008-08-14T23:08:00.003+01:002008-08-30T17:07:42.945+01:00PC :: i'm in the middle of a...As usual, my sidetrack has become sidetracked... there's been a series of rapid prototyping sessions on the <a href="http://www.shmup-dev.com/forum/" target="_shmupdev">ShmupDev forums</a>, each lasting a couple of weeks and with a theme set by the previous winner and i've been putting something together over the last day or so for the third of these sessions which has a theme based around chain reactions. The game in question is called <b>Vinculum</b> for a couple of reasons; partly because it's nice and spacey-sounding and that's a Good Thing for a shoot 'em up... but <i>mostly</i> its because "vinculum" means "that which unites or binds", like a chain and that's what the game is about.<br><br>The objective is simple, the player is assigned three standard issue spaceships with forward-firing lasers and nothing else, then sent into battle; blazing away works quite happily but is absolutely guaranteed to result in <i>appalling</i> scores. The secret to racking up the points lies in using the parting shots fired by the enemies against them, when a nasty is shot it explodes rather prettily and disgorges a ring of bullets and, whilst fatal to the player, they'll <i>also</i> blow up any other nasty they rip into. Since that's how chains are created, the true skill is to <i>fire as little as possible</i> and figure out the best ways to create chain reactions that do the rest of the work for you. Every shot the player fires decreases the chain multiplier, every nasty destroyed by a chain reaction adds to it and losing a life with reset the thing entirely. Here's how it looks, running in windowed mode:<br><br><img src="http://bulletmechanics.com/screens/vinculum_preview.png" alt="Vinculum screenshot"><br><br>Yeah... it's a little hectic, what has happened is a row of seven nasties all stacked up across the screen and i've shot the one on the left; that's blown up, peppered the nasty to it's right and so on until the second to last has just detonated and is about to blow the remaining nasty to kingdom come, all whilst i dodge like a lunatic between the bullets. Even at this stage of development with just five attack waves installed, <b>Vinculum</b> has been proving pretty good fun to play and i've been enjoying the testing, in part because i've been placing the waves in ways that i hope will require a little thought. All it really needs to be complete is a soundtrack (which i'm pretty sure i can sort out, i've been listening to the second level tune from <b>Patriot Dark</b> whilst testing things out) a little more presentation work and then i have to arrange lots of fairly intricate attack wave data... perhaps i need to think about an XML processor for the Alien Release Scheduling Engine's attack waves?T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-572139224651573193.post-84764348002288936012008-08-12T14:49:00.002+01:002008-08-12T14:52:04.849+01:00A8 :: Blending into the pictureWhoops, forgot to update the dev blog... i've had a bit of a "coders block" as Kenz put it, so there hasn't been any progress on the remaining couple of levels for <b>Co-Axis 2189</b> - i know a few people are "champing at the bit" to play the thing (and everybody who had a go at Fusion seemed to enjoy themselves) but i'm fairly adamant that i'll get the bugger right before releasing the final version... that <i>will</i> be this year and hopefully next month at the latest, but in the meantime i've taken a few steps away from it to try clearing my head; to that end, i've been doing an Atari 8-bit puzzle game.<br><br>At the moment, it doesn't have an <i>official</i> name but it's pretty much based on the old MSN game <b>Blender</b> where pictures are displayed, then shuffled around and the player is tasked with chosing pairs of blocks to swap in order to get the original image back; right now i have the core of the code running, so single games can be played and the game knows when a picture has been restored and, since i'm not using a common or garden resolution for the pictures (more on that later when i have examples) there was a day of writing a converter in <b>Blitz Max</b> that takes bitmap files that adhere to certain rules and converts them into something my code can display. The "to do" list right now is getting a couple of pictures arranged (preferably three, i'm not sure why but two seems too little but three is enough... odd that), working on some compression to get everything wedged into the Atari and then building the presentation code around what is already there so that games go from title page to main game and back.T.M.Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17569939968664903426noreply@blogger.com0