SkillGrid - new AGA game in the works

[LieutLaww]

Bought the Deluxe version earlier

[saimo]

Originally Posted by LieutLaww

Bought the Deluxe version earlier

Thaaank you

[Predseda]

Used the brand new GoADF for installing SkillGrid to my real Amiga!

I had a slight problem with install script, though. It says there is an error in line 12, so I installed the game manually from ADFs provided and then created assigns. I am not sure where the issue is, if in the script itself or somewhere in my Ami.

[saimo]

All that there is on line 12 is (all), a parameter to (message). I've performed the installation many times without problems, but now I'm wondering if (all) is a late addition brough by OS 3.5 or 3.9. What's your OS version?

BTW, what's GoADF?

[Predseda]

I have OS3.1 and tried to install the game using virtual disks, mounted by GoADF. The problem maybe occured because I haven't booted from the floppy?

[saimo]

No, booting is not related to the installation. I guess that the installer from OS 3.1 doesn't support (all), then. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

[OlafSch]

Originally Posted by saimo

No, booting is not related to the installation. I guess that the installer from OS 3.1 doesn't support (all), then. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

I bought the download version plus a small donation

Thanx for your work

[saimo]

Originally Posted by OlafSch

I bought the download version plus a small donation

Thanx for your work

Thank you so much, I appreciate that more than you can imagine!

[Dunny]

Ditto - with a tip a la DamienD here. Continue to support our little community Saimo.

[saimo]

Originally Posted by Dunny

Ditto - with a tip a la DamienD here.

Wonderful, thanks a lot and enjoy!

Continue to support our little community Saimo.

@all

It's my utmost desire to keep on releasing Amiga games. Actually, I'm already working on something new using the dot-matrix engine already mentioned previously - for your convenience, have a look at this (please check out also the descriptions of the videos):

[ Show youtube player ]
[ Show youtube player ]

Moreover, I'd like also to add an AI to MeMO and rework entirely and release two other puzzle games (which are otherwise 100% finished since years). Not to mention that I have also a couple of other graphical engines that really should be made use of.
That said, I really don't know if I'll ever manage to get anything done. My life is taking a new and unpredictable turn right now. I guess I'd better give you an overall view.

On August 26th, 2016, I returned to Italy because my mother and my father were going through very difficult times; my father, in particular, was terribly ill, spiritually, mentally, and physically. Returning to this place automatically meant one thing: either being jobless or being a slave. Despite my attempts, I couldn't get a proper job. (Eventually, not having a source of income pushed me to create a Patreon page.)
However, being jobless had the positive side effect of giving me time to improve and re-release all my games (and, in particular, produce the very special physical editions of BOH ADVANCE, Huenison, and MAH), create and release SkillGrid, and write the engines for AGA Amigas mentioned above.
Since last November my father's conditions became extremely critical, and my mother and I have been assisting him at the hospital and at home, day after day, night after night. His pain was deep and continuous, and we were consumed by sorrow and fatigue.
Two days ago, he passed away. He's now in peace.
Now my mother and I can return to life as well. In particular, it seems very likely that in a not so distant future I'll move abroad and start a new life again. As a consequence, I'll have much less time to work on my projects. I have many (besides those mentioned above, I also should really finish [ Show youtube player ], the big brother of QUOD INIT EXIT IIm), and I die to bring them to completion, but what I'll be able to accomplish is a question mark.

So, my thanks to everybody who supports me really come from the bottom of my heart. I do hope to keep on bringing some more fun to your lives.

[OlafSch]

Originally Posted by saimo

Wonderful, thanks a lot and enjoy!

@all

It's my utmost desire to keep on releasing Amiga games. Actually, I'm already working on something new using the dot-matrix engine already mentioned previously - for your convenience, have a look at this (please check out also the descriptions of the videos):

[ Show youtube player ]
[ Show youtube player ]

Moreover, I'd like also to add an AI to MeMO and rework entirely and release two other puzzle games (which are otherwise 100% finished since years). Not to mention that I have also a couple of other graphical engines that really should be made use of.
That said, I really don't know if I'll ever manage to get anything done. My life is taking a new and unpredictable turn right now. I guess I'd better give you an overall view.

On August 26th, 2016, I returned to Italy because my mother and my father were going through very difficult times; my father, in particular, was terribly ill, spiritually, mentally, and physically. Returning to this place automatically meant one thing: either being jobless or being a slave. Despite my attempts, I couldn't get a proper job. (Eventually, not having a source of income pushed me to create a Patreon page.)
However, being jobless had the positive side effect of giving me time to improve and re-release all my games (and, in particular, produce the very special physical editions of BOH ADVANCE, Huenison, and MAH), create and release SkillGrid, and write the engines for AGA Amigas mentioned above.
Since last November my father's conditions became extremely critical, and my mother and I have been assisting him at the hospital and at home, day after day, night after night. His pain was deep and continuous, and we were consumed by sorrow and fatigue.
Two days ago, he passed away. He's now in peace.
Now my mother and I can return to life as well. In particular, it seems very likely that in a not so distant future I'll move abroad and start a new life again. As a consequence, I'll have much less time to work on my projects. I have many (besides those mentioned above, I also should really finish [ Show youtube player ], the big brother of QUOD INIT EXIT IIm), and I die to bring them to completion, but what I'll be able to accomplish is a question mark.

So, my thanks to everybody who supports me really come from the bottom of my heart. I do hope to keep on bringing some more fun to your lives.

Sorry to hear that

RIP to your father and all strength to you and your mother.

Good luck to you for your future

[Predseda]

saimo:

please. (you know what I mean )

[saimo]

@OlafSch

Thank you!


@Predseda

I know, I know. But you also know my answer

[saimo]

@all

In another thread, I've read that no developer does the effort to allow his hardware-hitting game to quit and return to the OS: well, I'd like to let you know that I did include such function in SkillGrid - all that's needed is pressing [ESC] from the title screen. I did my best to take over the machine at startup and release the resources when quitting in the cleanest and most compatible way.

Also, in the same thread, it's said that hardware-hitting games shouldn't really be expected to run flawlessly on all the Amiga setups, given the huge variety of configurations. While it's true that it's impossible to have the game tested on all the configurations out there, I did a big effort to have the game running perfectly and in exactly the same way on a wide range of very different machines.
These are the systems (running a variety of AmigaOS versions from 3.1 to 3.9) that SkillGrid has been tested on:
* A1200
* A1200 + M-Tec Viper T1230
* A1200 + Blizzard 1230 MK IV
* A1200 + Blizzard 603e 68060
* A4000/040 + Cybervision + Prisma Megamix
* A4000 + Cyberstorm MK III 68060 + VA2000 + VA2000CX + Buddha IDE + SCSI2SD + network card
* Amiga CD³²
* several A4000 68040/68060 UAE configurations

(Many thanks to James Monkman, John Scolieri, Tony Aksnes, and Trevor Dickinson for testing the games on their machines.)

It's worth noting that the release was delayed by a couple of months due to the game crashing randomly and shortly after launch on the second A4000 listed above. I simply refused to release a product that seemed to suffer from such an issue. After a difficult investigation and countless tests (the machine and I were 6 time zones apart), it became clear that the problem was AmigaOS being unstable: in fact, a complete reinstallation of AmigaOS solved the problem.

Of course, I can't guarantee that SkillGrid will work on each and every exotic Amiga system out there, but I did strive to make the game as much compatible as possible, so it's safe to say that SkillGrid will run fine on any stable AGA Amiga system.

[Puggsy]

Originally Posted by saimo

@all

In another thread, I've read that no developer does the effort to allow his hardware-hitting game to quit and return to the OS: well, I'd like to let you know that I did include such function in SkillGrid - all that's needed is pressing [ESC] from the title screen. I did my best to take over the machine at startup and release the resources when quitting in the cleanest and most compatible way.

Also, in the same thread, it's said that hardware-hitting games shouldn't really be expected to run flawlessly on all the Amiga setups, given the huge variety of configurations. While it's true that it's impossible to have the game tested on all the configurations out there, I did a big effort to have the game running perfectly and in exactly the same way on a wide range of very different machines.

You are a testament to the quality of real scene Amiga coders. Thank you for your work.
This is why I buy your games and not those of the whiny lazy cash-grab party crashers that appeared out of nowhere and only have bad excuses when called out on their bullshit.

[saimo]

Puggsy, thanks for appreciating my efforts (and for buying my games )!

[NeoHippie2016]

@saimo: sorry for my laaate answer. It is not a problem, that the game only run on my Amiga w/o booting from HD, cause my Amiga has another Equipment. Sure, you (& others) can't test your work on ALL configs! Whatever, i love SkillGrid (beside Bridge Strike & ReShootR)!!

[saimo]

Originally Posted by NeoHippie2016

@saimo: sorry for my laaate answer. It is not a problem, that the game only run on my Amiga w/o booting from HD, cause my Amiga has another Equipment. Sure, you (& others) can't test your work on ALL configs! Whatever, i love SkillGrid (beside Bridge Strike & ReShootR)!!

Can you explain better, please? Do you mean that you can run the game only from floppy? Also, what are your system specs?

[roondar]

Originally Posted by saimo

Also, in the same thread, it's said that hardware-hitting games shouldn't really be expected to run flawlessly on all the Amiga setups, given the huge variety of configurations. While it's true that it's impossible to have the game tested on all the configurations out there, I did a big effort to have the game running perfectly and in exactly the same way on a wide range of very different machines.

...

Of course, I can't guarantee that SkillGrid will work on each and every exotic Amiga system out there, but I did strive to make the game as much compatible as possible, so it's safe to say that SkillGrid will run fine on any stable AGA Amiga system.

I'm not too sure I understand this properly. You seem to both agree with the point I and others made in that thread and disagree as well. So, with the greatest respect (because I think it's awesome you made and released a full game and did so much work trying to get it to run on every Amiga), here's where I stand on the issue.

In essence, my point was this:

Originally Posted by saimo

it's impossible to have the game tested on all the configurations out there, I did a big effort to have the game running perfectly and in exactly the same way on a wide range of very different machines

See: it's impossible to test for every eventuality, so you do the best you can and that should be enough. This is what I tried to get across.

In your case, this meant you could also test on Blizzard PPC boards as you (either directly or indirectly) had access to them, while it meant not testing on Apollo, GVP or Individual Computer accelerators, or the Vampire (which you apparently didn't have access to). For others, this set of available systems will be different and testing on say a Blizzard PPC or even a 68060 might not be possible. For instance, they might not know or not be able to get in touch with the people whose Amiga's you used for testing.

I personally feel that this should not be a reason to tell those developers they're doing a bad job or that they shouldn't release games in that state - if they clearly label what has and hasn't been tested this simply should not be a problem. Even multi-billion dollar companies do this: have a list of supported hardware with the clear position that everything else is a 'maybe works'.

To be clear: I never meant to say you shouldn't try to be as compatible as you can (you should!), nor am I saying here that you personally didn't do enough (far from it, you clearly went above and beyond!). I meant to say that you can only test within the limits of what you have available (again, directly or indirectly).

Expecting more is simply unreasonable.

[saimo]

Hi roondar,

please don't be offended, but I didn't even know/remember your name. I was not referring to anyone in particular. All I wanted to say is what I posted, I didn't mean to attack anyone, and I didn't want to start any debate (and if it starts, I won't participate).

Cheers!