Slow progress....

Well, after listening to the Scotland v Italy match on the Radio I'm wondering if I'll ever speak to luca again!! Oh well, its our own fault - as usual. We should have beat Georgia. Everyone was complaining about the refereeing, but I think it swings both ways. Never mind....We've improved loads and had a great campain - Well done Scotland! Ya done us proud!

Oh well, after that how have I been doing...... slowly. Not had a lot of chance to do much, but I hope to do some more paths tonight. I really hate doing them, but Luca (SPIT!) is still learning the script so I'll be doing these one, but I hope he can start doing some for the actual game.

I was also thinking about the MMC card stuff. I really screwed up here. By not doing a schematic first, I have no idea where all the wires are going, so now I either need to start again, or revese engineer what I had started. Im also thinking I need to do a Plus4 user port version so that I can test out code and allow SID usage. A userport card would be much easier, and if I supplied a ROM (or ROM image) then it could still boot properly.
It does mean this version wouldn't have the clockport so couldnt' do the ethernet/serial addon's. Im still trying to get a milling machine what would let me make real boards, and if this was possible then I could make the card here....Oh well... Still lots to do first.


Oh, and theres a new POLL. The results of the old one were pretty predictable with no one really interested in an external RAM expansion.

XeO3: Demo level progression.

I'm slowly progressing with the alien waves for the demo level and I think it's going okay. If I play without wanting to power up, you can more or less run through without getting hit (so far). But if I get greedy and want all the coins, then it starts to get tricky; which is the idea.

I've mapped out about one third of the level, although I've extended the start a little to make the introduction a little simpler - mainly so theres no backgrounds while you get used to moving around.

I also fixed the 2nd bug in my list from yesterday, where the collision radius wasn't being used.

So.... the demo is progressing slowly. Slow but steady! which is of course better than it has been; stopped and dead.

XeO3: Demo level....

I managed to get Luca to send the test level again, so I've now put that in and have started making new alien wave's. Heres the current plan for the demo.

1. Have the front end as is
2. Only have 1 weapon type but allow you to power it up.
3. Have the full weapon power up/down sequence


4. Only a couple of baddie types.
5. fix all current bugs before release.

Speaking of bugs, I've found another couple.

1. If you shoot a "group" of sprites too quickly, its possible to get multiple pickups. A group is only supposed to leave 1 item.
2. The baddie radius isn't used! This means all baddies have a fixed bullet collision area
3. If you collect a weapon pickup you appear to lose a bullet.
4. 2 character wide bullets don't always appear to hit baddies.

I've fixed the 1st and I'm about to fix the radius one, but I'll fix the rest later. I want to try and get some paths going.

XeO3: Demo level

I've been hunting around trying to find the demo level Luca built, and unable to find it, I went back to Luca's web page to see what it looked like. I was somewhat shocked to discover that he actually made it just over a YEAR ago!! So much for 2007 being the year of XeO3! I've done even less this year than last year! bugger.

XeO3: Here we go again.....

I've not done nearly as much as I'd hoped on XeO3 this year. I was convinced THIS was going to be it's year. A few things got in the way, my new found electronics hobby - which should still prove interesting to others once I start to finish things, and the fact I HATE makeing levels. Always have. Hate it! Hate it! Hate it!

But I think at the VERY least, I need to get the test level done so we can at least make some progress. For those that don't know, the plan is it make a 1 level demo with simple graphics but the game playing. This lets us (Luca and I) test the game mechanics out and at the same time, make sure we're not aiming to high (or low) on the difficulty side.

So...... to this end, I've decided to try and force myself to produce a new 1 level playable demo, and to release it AT THE VERY LATEST for Christmas. I really hope it'll be WAY sooner than that (a couple of weeks would be better), but Christmas at the latest.

Then once I get some feedback from everyone that's played it, we can both start to try and put the final game together.

..........well, thats the theory. So hands up if you believe one word of it?

Dundee "smart" city.

This is a funny one.... Dundee has been named as one of the smartest citys on the planet by some of the worlds leading experts. (HERE). I find this really funny coz it names as one of the reasons the ever growing computer games comunity there, which by definition makes me really smart - and if thats not enough to make you laugh, then nothing is.

The other odd thing is that it seems to try and suggest it was planned.

"It said the city had "continued to transform a former shipbuilding community that suffered severe economic shocks into a national powerhouse and leader in game design and sciences"."

Now.... I find it odd - being one of the founders of this "game design" comunity, that they think it a planned thing since anyone actually IN computer games, knows it was simply because DMA brought in heaps of folk, who then splintered off and formed their own companies. Now, Dundee does have a huge number of games companies per head of population, but non of this is because of the planning of Dundee City Council.

However, all that aside it's good to see I guess as it might help to upgrade peoples opinion of Dundee and let them consider it a place to live. We struggle a lot to hire folk, and lots of folk dont want to move here because its got a bad name, so I guess in that respect its good; funny....but good.

Im still here!!!!

I know....its been a while. I'm still actually recovering from my trip believe it or not. I got back just over a week ago and I'm still not sleeping as well as I was, and this means I have no energy at night to do anything else....bit of a bugger really. I am start to think about things again though, and hope to get stuck in soon, although Im not sure if that'll be XeO3 or my MMC add on - time will tell.

Of course...I didnt make a diagram of the MMC thing, so now I have to reverse engineer what I've already done! doh!!

Mode DMA videos and pictures.

So, another day... another stack of pictures and videos uploaded to my flickr and YouTube accounts. I'm starting to run dry now, most of the video I have has been uploaded, and although I do still have a stack of level building graphics for games, I have very little "pictures" left. Which is good I guess, as it means folk can now see everything.

Anyways...back to XeO3. I think I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and put some code in the level loading when done, however it will mean I lose my 1k I've been holding onto in an attempt to keep the character sprite system, but it just appears theres no real space left for them. I need to add code to draw them, spawn them and move them - not to mention the actual graphics themselves.... Luca's gonna kill me....

XeO3: Possible solutions....

While I was talking to Luca last night, I thought of a possible solution to our background animations. The problem is that its code driven, and then tables that drive them which allows cycling frames of animation to be played. This however isn't good for every level as on level 2 (for example) Luca would like to change the sequence and even speed of animations. To this end, I think it might be possible to move the animation code into the level data, and if I do that it would get loaded with each level. Its unusual to load code in this way, and I've never needed to do it, but it might work fine here.

I'll give it a try soon and I hope this will allow Luca to allow do the animations the way he wants.....

Unseen Tanktics video.

This little gem was never used, much to my frustration at the time. When it was made I tried for months to get it included in some Animation festivals as it really was right up there with the likes of Pixar at the time. Created by John Harrison its a great little video.

Anyway - enjoy!