Bedroom coding - Page 2

Drake1009 · 06 May 2003, 08:12

Quote:

Originally posted by manicx
Java rocks man. It's not Java's fault but the crap VMs we are using. TAO's JVM is much much faster than any VM on earth and is said that applets/application run about 80% faster....

I think Sun's JVM is the slowest posible. I made a simple applet to fire random fireworks onto the screen and have it explode. While MS's VM pulled it off in an applet using 0.6% CPU power on a 800Mhz sun's VM did the same a bit slower using 99%

Never heard of TAO's JVM before. Any links to educate myself?

manicx · 06 May 2003, 08:57

Tao's white papers on Intent Technology

http://withintent.biz/aux-files/Intr...Technology.pdf

SabreGolly · 06 May 2003, 21:43

OK - Fired up Blitz Basic 2 to make test the old thing out.

Disaster!

Can anyone remember which key combination is used to open the debugging window in Blitz Mode?! I've only got the reference manual, not the user manual (lost somewhere along the line) - and web searches have not helped.

Incidently - on searching for Blitz Basic Debugger, I came across what looked like a PC programming language with the same name. Are they related?

Cheers

CodyJarrett · 06 May 2003, 21:57

Quote:

Originally posted by SabreGolly
Incidently - on searching for Blitz Basic Debugger, I came across what looked like a PC programming language with the same name. Are they related?

Yup - it's a PC version of Blitz Basic.

Drake1009 · 06 May 2003, 22:15

As far as I could tell from that whitepaper that wasn't a jvm per se but rather a system for cross platforming stuff to mobile devices. Quite nifty though.

SabreGolly · 06 May 2003, 22:25

Quote:

Originally posted by CodyJarrett
Yup - it's a PC version of Blitz Basic.

Wow!

Is it easy to port the code across? Will it recognise Amiga specific stuff like Blits - or will it need a complete re-write in order to run?

DrBong · 07 May 2003, 17:26

Quote:

Originally posted by VermillioN
DrBong I think it's time you joined Affinity - don't u?
I mean with elite releases like Pussy Quest 2 how could you not! hehe

Yeh I could join and become the group's C64 cracker for new game releases!

Honestly, I've got my hands full these days on the computer front just being a HOL member.

As an aside, has Tony actually re-installed his HD from scratch on his A4000? He said a while back he was having trouble with stuff crashing and needed to re-install at least WB. If not, is he going retro and coding Pussy Quest 2 on a 1Mb A500 instead?!

Twistin'Ghost · 07 May 2003, 18:48

And of course somebody needs to port PQ to GBA...

09 May 2003, 08:48

Quote:

Originally posted by DrBong
Yeh I could join and become the group's C64 cracker for new game releases!

hey yeah!!! that's a great idea - why didn't I think of it...hehe

Not sure about his 4000...but it looks he's coding it on the...*shudder...Pee Cee and porting across to the Ami

Quote:

Originally posted by Twistin'Ghost
And of course somebody needs to port PQ to GBA...

hahahha ... would work nicely on a handheld

hweight seems to be takin' this more seriously than I thought as he's now talking of the sequals being point'n'click or similar...heh

Syko · 11 May 2003, 15:15

PQ2 on the GBA should be perfect, as long as you only need one hand to play....

Twistin'Ghost · 12 May 2003, 03:00

Quote:

Originally posted by Syko
PQ2 on the GBA should be perfect, as long as you only need one hand to play....

With any kind of luck, anyway. PQ1 didn't inspire much 1-handed adventuring...

andyr · 18 May 2003, 17:37

I saw a game running on a unix machine called Textris. Terrible graphics (if you can call them that) but it took up most of my lunchtimes!

I decided to do a version on Amiga, but all i could program in was Amos.

I finished the 1st version, thought 'this looks like an amos program' and started another.

I programmed about 6 different versions and the last one was actually featured on an Amiga Format coverdisc. I was stupid enough to include my telephone number and had phonecalls from people wanting to know how it was done! And people I know still play it today!

I finished that version in 1996! The hardest thing was fitting a full dictionary on a single floppy disc along with the program!

My biggest and proudest thing about it though is that it doesn't look like an Amos game!

I came back to Amos in 2002 via WinUAE and wondered if I could still put a program together. The result of this my version of Who wants to be a millionaire. For this I 'nicked' the graphics and sound from the PSX version. I anti aliased everything I could by hand after the drop 16bit 640xx480 screens to 32 colour 320x250. I'm quite pleased with the code for the Audience AI and the phone a friend.

It's not finished, and probably never will be but the main game works perfectly. It's just the multiplayer aspects and a couple of minor bugs to sort out. There's is also the ability to create your own question sets which is unique to the Amiga version!

I'll stick some links to screenshots up in about an hour and if you want I can send you the images or stick them in the zone.

The amount of stuff I've lost from my Amos programming days though is huge. I wrote a version of the CPC game Roland on the ropes, I wrote a graphics art program that a friend used to draw all his graphics. I wrote a CPC basic emulator (don't ask why!) and also used Amos to create some animated titles for home videos and remember a mod player I wrote that used a screen I designed by copying the front of my Panasonic HiFi!

One last thing I wrote was a program that could automatically cue up various spot sound effects for a local theatre that was used quite extensively. It expanded to a full blown program called Q-SFX that was able to echo, repeat and loop, fade multiple cues at the same time with onscreen VU bars and also a built in drum sequencer(why I don't know!). Again, this is now lost unless the couple of people out there who had copies still have theirs?

Incidently, I'm getting to grips with visual basic which is absolute crap with respect to allowing you to do basically what your imagination wants, which is something the amiga excelled at.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
links to screenshots

www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/million-loading.jpg
www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/million-ingame1.jpg
www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/million-ingame2.jpg
www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/million-audience.jpg

www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/textris1.jpg
www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/textris2.jpg
www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/textris3.jpg
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Upped to the Zone...Let me know what you think (but be gentle with me!)

frsoldier · 18 May 2003, 22:42

what was the unix machine running Textris ? Unix HP , or Solaris ?

andreas · 19 May 2003, 12:05

Nice thread!

Well, yes, I too coded stuff on the Amiga. 90% applications, 10% games. And all in AmigaBasic!
Reason was simple: I couldn't AFFORD more!

Seriously. Lattice C and Storm C and Maxon C were all increeeeedibly expensive at that time! Not until 1991, after I'd had my Amiga for about 3 years, some friend brought me KickPascal. Actually, I was no bad Pascal programmer at all: I did some mini-projects on the IBM PC! But what was that compared to Pascal on the Amiga! I usually remarked that "compared to IBM PC, you had to write a whole compiler on the Amiga with Pascal programs"!

I just wanted to draw some bloody lines, and I had to init this library, that handler, and execbase, blah, blah, blah...

And AmigaBasic was for free, too! So I used this. And 2 years before my 'A-levels', I used it for solving my Maths exercises (vectors, plains and all).
Someone I was visiting had an old HAPPY COMPUTER magazine from 1985 containing a type-in for the Schneider CPC 464/6128! It was a text adventure game, and as I'm really the worst imaginable story editor, I took the story and --- ported the code to Amiga! Yes, it DID work. I even borrowed some CPC manual and dug into the CPC's graphics coordinate system structures!

After reading that, I wrote my wrapper subroutines for transforming the CPC coordinates in DATA statements ...

Code:

 DATA 340, 0, 280, 145, 170, 0, 175, 185, 0, 0, 40, 160

...to Amiga resolution! IT WORKED! Shortly after that, I could see the "intro" of the game drawn in letters on-screen!

In case you ask, yes I still do have that game!

Unfortunately though, it's in German and before I "release" it on EAB, I will at first port it to English and fix some bugs. I've been planning this for a long time now, but I forgot about it.

I hope this thread and the growing stability of WinUAE is gonna push me to do it eventually! If you've EVER coded AmigaBASIC stuff on a hyper-slow A500, you know what a PAIN this is!

Stay tuned!

Quote:

Originally posted by andyr
I wrote a version of the CPC game Roland on the ropes

Wow! Would you mind putting it into the zone?

andyr · 19 May 2003, 14:14

Quote:

Wow! Would you mind putting it into the zone?

I only wish I could - I sold one of my A1200's in 1997 (I was a poor pennyless student and I needed to tax my car...I really wish I could turn back the clock now though!) - Anyways, Roland was on one of the disks that I included with the A1200. I lost a lot of stuff during that sale...(*wipes tear from eye*)

I did find a very early version on an Amiga disk (that was labelled with Kettle TEST (I don't know why!) but it's just me just testing out a scrolling routine. There are no bad guys at all!

andreas · 19 May 2003, 16:47

OK. Nevermind ... and don't worry about it. Thanks anyway.

SabreGolly · 20 May 2003, 22:41

I've re-started work on my little 'project' for the fun of it - just fixing a few things.

It's going to look so bizarre with the dates 'written 1994 -2003' on it!! (possibly 2004 by the time its done.)

Getting back into coding is a nightmare - just dont have the time now that I'm not a student anymore.

Andyr - have downloaded your Textris - looking forward to having a play when I get the chance!

Cheers.

andyr · 21 May 2003, 01:15

Hope you enjoy the Textris game - one piece of advice...a glaring bug that has been in it from the beginning (dont know why I never sorted it) is that if you choose HIGH SCORES from the main menu then the game crashes.

If you find a word missing from the dictionary then you can add it by pressing ESC. It will be picked up when the computer performs it's next search of the grid. The fire button will pause your game and give you some stats.

I've have just discovered Dark basic on the PC which is very similar in it's concepts to AMOS. It has the worst GUI known to man and the language is geared more towards 3D gaming but it seems more than capable for the next incarnation of Textris - Textris 2! ( www.darkbasic.com )

I've just started drawing the graphics using paint shop pro 8 which is an experience all on its own.

Wish me luck!

(Idea's gratefully received)

wakeupbomb · 21 May 2003, 01:22

Quote:

Originally posted by andyr

I've just started drawing the graphics using paint shop pro 8 which is an experience all on its own.

Wish me luck!

(Idea's gratefully received)

Good luck dude!

Syko · 21 May 2003, 19:16

Just been going throug my Amiga Format CD's and I'm sure I've seen Textris - I check tonight and upload it ASAP

18 May 2003, 17:37	#32
andyr Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 97	I saw a game running on a unix machine called Textris. Terrible graphics (if you can call them that) but it took up most of my lunchtimes! I decided to do a version on Amiga, but all i could program in was Amos. I finished the 1st version, thought 'this looks like an amos program' and started another. I programmed about 6 different versions and the last one was actually featured on an Amiga Format coverdisc. I was stupid enough to include my telephone number and had phonecalls from people wanting to know how it was done! And people I know still play it today! I finished that version in 1996! The hardest thing was fitting a full dictionary on a single floppy disc along with the program! My biggest and proudest thing about it though is that it doesn't look like an Amos game! I came back to Amos in 2002 via WinUAE and wondered if I could still put a program together. The result of this my version of Who wants to be a millionaire. For this I 'nicked' the graphics and sound from the PSX version. I anti aliased everything I could by hand after the drop 16bit 640xx480 screens to 32 colour 320x250. I'm quite pleased with the code for the Audience AI and the phone a friend. It's not finished, and probably never will be but the main game works perfectly. It's just the multiplayer aspects and a couple of minor bugs to sort out. There's is also the ability to create your own question sets which is unique to the Amiga version! I'll stick some links to screenshots up in about an hour and if you want I can send you the images or stick them in the zone. The amount of stuff I've lost from my Amos programming days though is huge. I wrote a version of the CPC game Roland on the ropes, I wrote a graphics art program that a friend used to draw all his graphics. I wrote a CPC basic emulator (don't ask why!) and also used Amos to create some animated titles for home videos and remember a mod player I wrote that used a screen I designed by copying the front of my Panasonic HiFi! One last thing I wrote was a program that could automatically cue up various spot sound effects for a local theatre that was used quite extensively. It expanded to a full blown program called Q-SFX that was able to echo, repeat and loop, fade multiple cues at the same time with onscreen VU bars and also a built in drum sequencer(why I don't know!). Again, this is now lost unless the couple of people out there who had copies still have theirs? Incidently, I'm getting to grips with visual basic which is absolute crap with respect to allowing you to do basically what your imagination wants, which is something the amiga excelled at. ------------------------------------------------------------------- links to screenshots www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/million-loading.jpg www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/million-ingame1.jpg www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/million-ingame2.jpg www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/million-audience.jpg www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/textris1.jpg www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/textris2.jpg www.andysplace.fsnet.co.uk/textris3.jpg ----------------------------------------------------------------- Upped to the Zone...Let me know what you think (but be gentle with me!) Last edited by andyr; 18 May 2003 at 18:54.

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06 May 2003, 08:57	#22
manicx Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Athens, Greece Posts: 991	Tao's white papers on Intent Technology http://withintent.biz/aux-files/Intr...Technology.pdf

06 May 2003, 21:43	#23
SabreGolly Registered User Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Cheshire/UK Age: 52 Posts: 77	OK - Fired up Blitz Basic 2 to make test the old thing out. Disaster! Can anyone remember which key combination is used to open the debugging window in Blitz Mode?! I've only got the reference manual, not the user manual (lost somewhere along the line) - and web searches have not helped. Incidently - on searching for Blitz Basic Debugger, I came across what looked like a PC programming language with the same name. Are they related? Cheers

06 May 2003, 22:15	#25
Drake1009 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Denmark Posts: 2,284	As far as I could tell from that whitepaper that wasn't a jvm per se but rather a system for cross platforming stuff to mobile devices. Quite nifty though.

07 May 2003, 18:48	#28
Twistin'Ghost Give up the ghost Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: U$A Age: 33 Posts: 4,662	And of course somebody needs to port PQ to GBA...

11 May 2003, 15:15	#30
Syko Now got GSX750F :)) Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Halifax UK Age: 60 Posts: 584	PQ2 on the GBA should be perfect, as long as you only need one hand to play....

18 May 2003, 22:42	#33
frsoldier Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Location: Milan - Italy Age: 43 Posts: 124	what was the unix machine running Textris ? Unix HP , or Solaris ?

19 May 2003, 16:47	#36
andreas Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Age: 50 Posts: 5,857	OK. Nevermind ... and don't worry about it. Thanks anyway.

20 May 2003, 22:41	#37
SabreGolly Registered User Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Cheshire/UK Age: 52 Posts: 77	I've re-started work on my little 'project' for the fun of it - just fixing a few things. It's going to look so bizarre with the dates 'written 1994 -2003' on it!! (possibly 2004 by the time its done.) Getting back into coding is a nightmare - just dont have the time now that I'm not a student anymore. Andyr - have downloaded your Textris - looking forward to having a play when I get the chance! Cheers.

21 May 2003, 01:15	#38
andyr Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 97	Hope you enjoy the Textris game - one piece of advice...a glaring bug that has been in it from the beginning (dont know why I never sorted it) is that if you choose HIGH SCORES from the main menu then the game crashes. If you find a word missing from the dictionary then you can add it by pressing ESC. It will be picked up when the computer performs it's next search of the grid. The fire button will pause your game and give you some stats. I've have just discovered Dark basic on the PC which is very similar in it's concepts to AMOS. It has the worst GUI known to man and the language is geared more towards 3D gaming but it seems more than capable for the next incarnation of Textris - Textris 2! ( www.darkbasic.com ) I've just started drawing the graphics using paint shop pro 8 which is an experience all on its own. Wish me luck! (Idea's gratefully received)

21 May 2003, 19:16	#40
Syko Now got GSX750F :)) Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Halifax UK Age: 60 Posts: 584	Just been going throug my Amiga Format CD's and I'm sure I've seen Textris - I check tonight and upload it ASAP

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