Messages

Yes, on some forums the answer would have been something like:

TOPIC IS OFF TOPIC.  THREAD CLOSED.  SHUT DOWN.  FOR GOOD, YOU HEAR ME!?
I'M A MODERATOR WITH ALL MODERATION POWERS YOU CAN IMAGINE. I'M GONNA CLOSE/BAN/REJECT/MOVE YOUR EVERYTHING, YOU 

Which can just translates to: "Help me. It's my wife who descides what's on TV."

You've been reading the BlitzBasic forums again, haven't you?

People still visit those forums?!? 

Yes, on some forums the answer would have been something like:

TOPIC IS OFF TOPIC.  THREAD CLOSED.  SHUT DOWN.  FOR GOOD, YOU HEAR ME!?
I'M A MODERATOR WITH ALL MODERATION POWERS YOU CAN IMAGINE. I'M GONNA CLOSE/BAN/REJECT/MOVE YOUR EVERYTHING, YOU 

Which can just translates to: "Help me. It's my wife who descides what's on TV."

Gernot, is there something about your private life you would like to get off your chest? 

Just kidding, that made me laugh out loud though.

The only things I wouldn't abide would be advertising spam (ie. the sort you usually get from spam bots) and anything that would be deemed illegal, either by my own country (if I was legally responsible for the forum either because of fees I paid, or a contract I had signed) or by the country of the web server my forum was hosted actually hosted in -- although the latter can be a grey area as too many countries law systems are still struggling to catch up to the technology (I know ours is).

I think it uses some sort of cut-down Linux doesn't it, but even if that is the case (or not) why choose to ignore one of the worlds most used operating systems?

It's a full version of Linux, not any half arsed measures. I'm sure there'll be a proper Windows compiler soon - the team are pretty busy fixing the software issues they have before creating all new ones

TBH I'm getting pretty concerned about the Pandora hardware - reading the forums there seems to be so many problems with the nubs, reliability, battery and other things. I hope that by the time I (eventually) receive mine that all of these issues will have been fixed. I won't hold my breath though.

Whoops, sorry.  I assumed it was along the lines of Windows CE as compared to Windows.

Anyway you are probably right in that it's just a case of them not having gotten around to it yet.

I'm starting to think forums are good for researching something before you buy, and maybe after you've bought something, but never after having bought something and are still waiting for it to be delivered.  I did that back when I had bought my laptop from Dell and was waiting for it to arrive -- by the time it did arrive I'd already started to wonder if I'd wasted my money, thankfully though it turned out I hadn't.  Anyway hopefully yours wont have any of the issues people have reported with theirs.

Archimedes, Acorn, Apricot, Sinclair, alas, many good things have gone down the drain...  What ever happened to the Fairlight synthesiser, was that British as well, or perhaps rather from down-under?     (ooh yes, that last bit shows my age... )

bottoms up! 

Ocean

Well you wouldn't be the only one there mate.  Mind you I think we sort of have our modern equivalents with devices like the Wiz, depending on what parameters your nostalgia uses to judge the past.

I vaguely remember the Fairlight Synthesizer.  Thought it was British but apparently Fairlight was an Australian company.

Various bits of information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight_CMI
http://audiovisualizers.com/toolshak/vidsynth/fair_cvi/fair_cvi.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight

And their actual website (although it's not the original company):
http://www.fairlightau.com/

Could always convert your game to GLB maybe?

Not good enough for GLBasic   Plus, I dont like designing levels...  Pretty good example of rotation!

Well if you ever choose to make a game that involves levels and you don't want to design them, just make it in such a way that other people can design them for you.  I'm sure, if we liked a game idea, we'd be happy to help with level designs.  That goes for anyone who makes games on here.

Just don't expect works of art.

I got the same (MOV). BB was/is a total bastard at times. That's one of the reasons I switched languages - eventually to GLB. Gotta love BB!

I do however remember Insectoids from the first time around - though I only played it briefly back then, as I thought it was crap. Sorry HOAS!

The main reason why I switched is I got sick of Mark Sibly's attitude towards developers, that and various things I didn't particularly like about his products.  Oddly enough I've never had a MAV (that I remember). 

LOL No need to apologise.  I don't like it because I think it's a good game, it isn't.  It was the first time I'd ever seen the technique of displaying animated textures on 3D objects.  Or at least the first time I was aware of it happening.  That's the only reason why I liked it because I had a game idea that could (and probably will) use it, although not in the same annoying way.  More sort of using it to display CA's. 

That sounds a bit odd.  Wonder why they chose not to provide a compiler for the Pandora under windows.  I think it uses some sort of cut-down Linux doesn't it, but even if that is the case (or not) why choose to ignore one of the worlds most used operating systems?

Wow, that revolver thing looks amazing. Very clever idea to render the game on a sphere.

My idea would be: Because you have to render each frame to an offscreen sprite anyway, I'd do the movement/translation on that sprite as I would code the scrolling of a map. Then I'd statically draw a sphere with the texture applied.
You "might" apply the y-rotation of the sphere if you need that effect, too.

Funnily enough I'd thought of trying that out too after seeing Revolver in action - mostly though because it reminded me of my favourite Blitz 3D demo 'Insectoids' (see attachment on this message for a compiled version).

I never got hands on an archimedes, but that was always my dream in early 90s. I heard they even wrote that "desktop" program in BASIC. A-Ma-Zing!

Same.  They just didn't exist in my neck of the woods (unless someone specially imported it).  It was pretty much all Amiga's and Atari ST's here.  Our schools back in the early 80's had heaps of the earlier model Acorn (BBC Micro) 8-bit computers which I really liked because I enjoyed programming in BBC Basic, but for some reason though we never got to see the Archimedes.

[attachment deleted by admin]

The Archimedes was very nice - most commercial applications were in BASIC because it ran so fast...  Wish I could record my Walker game (wot I wrote), but unfortunately Fraps doesn't work with Red Squirrel...

Sounds pretty cool to me.   Could always convert your game to GLB maybe?

BTW for those who are interested in seeing the formula above in action, here's a simple example.  Left/right cursor keys to move, S to toggle starfield.  Keyboard input is a bit twitchy, so you may have to whack the S key quickly to get it to toggle properly.  This is all very alpha WIP stuff...

[attachment deleted by admin]

Gernot and Ian, I must have started this for some Retro Remakes competition or something.  Not really sure.  I just found this comment at the top of the source:

This isn't really a game for Bob.  No, this is more for the 'Driving Miss Daisy' shoot-em-up set.  People who want a shoot-em-up that plays like a leisurely drive through the countryside, as opposed to a manic, twitchy, dodge-5000-bullets-of-hell-on-screen-all-while-screaming-as-your-eyes-and-ears-bleed-from-the-graphical-and-audio-assault style game.  No, this is a game for people like me.

Yes.  No.  Maybe.

Every time I read your explanation I seem to have a different idea as to what you have suggested -- not because yours isn't clear, but because the explanation I gave in my source code is rather garbled.  So sometimes I think yes, other times I think well no. 

What I did end up with is 4 lines of code, 2 for x and 2 for y.

Where:
ps = player speed
es = enemy speed
pd = player direction (angle in degrees)
ed = enemy direction (angle in degrees)
ex, ey = the enemy's new location on screen

Code (glbasic) Select Expand

nx = 0 - ((ps * COS(pd)) - (es * COS(ed)))
ny = (ps * SIN(pd)) - (es * SIN(ed))
ex = ex + nx
ey = ey + ny


This allows me to draw the enemy in relation to the player, depending upon the facing and speed of both, while taking into account that the player is only pretending to move.  There's probably more optimisation that can be done, I don't really care.  I just care that it works.

Edit:  I've had to edit my reply half a dozen times now because my reading comprehension seems to have abandoned me.  Either that or my notes are the garbled product of someone with a lot of fatigue.  That and my maths skills aren't really up to much. 

I never got to use that computer system but wanted to because we didn't get any of them in my neck of the woods.  Only Archimedes game I remember was Zarch, which I played on my Atari ST where it was known as Virus.

Just had a look at Revolver.  Amazing how many mini-videos are on YouTube of old games in motion.  Very handy reference while looking for old games you aren't familiar with that might be worth researching and remaking.

Anyway my game isn't going to be as smart as Revolver I'm afraid.   Actually it's not going to look very smart at all.  Just an ordinary shooter.

Not just Pandora.  I have this calculator watch you see, and it has a nice little screen and some buttons.  When can I expect full GLB support for this device? 

Well I figured either I'd have to do some complex diagram to try and explain what I was doing because my explanation reads like gibberish, or just plod along until I figured it out myself.  Option B (thankfully!) became the easier of the two.

That looks really cool.  Could do a remake of Empire with that.