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Post by johnno56 on Oct 26, 2020 4:07:09 GMT -6
'Endless runner'! Could not remember the type... Good to hear that things may be settling down for you...
We, here in Victoria, have been basically 'imprisoned' within our homes for 7 months now. Thousands of jobs lost. Small businesses have all but gone bust. We've had riots and calls for our leaders to resign. But the weather has been nice... Best to change the subject... Where was I?
I do have 'one' pet project that I have been working on, both on and off - more off than on, for some years. Remember the old David Ahl Super Star Trek? I don't how many times I typed in 'that' epic into whatever flavour of Basic I had... Eventually ironed out all the bugs and got it running... But, text mode, was a little bland. After all, I didn't have a colour computer, until 1984... Coloured text look pretty good... but it was still text...
Jump forward about 2014... By this time 'Windows' had been gone for about 9 years and replaced by Linux. I had been using SDLBasic for about a year but had trouble getting rid of the 'gotos' in the SST listing. Linux Mint had Basic256 in its repository... A search online found a 'cut-down' basic256 version of SST... No line numbers! Basic256 IDE had a window for text, graphics and errors. Program ran quite well but would still produce text only... Found it a LOT easier to convert to SDLBasic (22-Apr-2014). Finally got it to a 'playable' condition in 2019.
Maybe time to "dust it off" and give RCBasic a shot? After all... Who doesn't like a good Star Trek game? (Don't answer that... lol)
Finally got my 'morning coffee'... just after lunch... Looking forward to the second...
Have a great day!
J
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Post by tbird on Oct 26, 2020 15:50:26 GMT -6
Well I would love to see it, only played one star trek game and it was a weird FPS lol so yeah.
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Post by johnno56 on Oct 26, 2020 17:28:25 GMT -6
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Post by tbird on Oct 27, 2020 6:57:19 GMT -6
I do remember you talking about this before, those look great, so its like a turn based adventure/strategy?
Those screens are from your sdl version? I don't see a warp option on the commands or is it in a sub menu? Anything done with an away team and such is just done through reports or do you actually control the team on the surface?
I look forward to seeing a playable demo of yours.
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Post by johnno56 on Oct 27, 2020 8:15:33 GMT -6
Yep. Turn based but for only one player.
They are indeed the sdlbasic screen shots.
Warp is part of navigation. Values of 1+ will move the ship to the next sector and less than 1 will move within the quadrant.
The away team is very simplistic. The ship must be next to a planet with the shields 'down' to transport the away team. The team mines dilithium ore and returns to the ship. Ship's power is increased in proportion to the amount of dilithium returned. raise shields and continue. Yeah. I suppose it would be just like a report.
The original 1978 listing was pure text. Short and long range scans and the galactic chart were all ascii. The sdl version was based on the cut down basic256 version. All the graphics took some doing... My skills with Gimp were quite limited back then... lol
Creating the "windows" from sdl to rc had me stumped for quite some time. Sdl used 'screenopen' and 'setDisplay'. Finally figured out the rc equivalent today. The bulk of the game should be a straight forward conversion. The 'HELM' instructions are going to take a lot of time. Fonts, colours and screen positioning... So tedious...
It will be some time before a playable version is ready. I am yet to design an appropriate splash/intro screen. So far, all I have, is the basic setup (loading assets, defining the layout and the beginning of the helm instructions). If I can get the instructions finished tomorrow I should be able to start on the main game loop.
Anyway... it's gone 1am and I'd best get some shut eye...
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Post by tbird on Oct 28, 2020 6:57:45 GMT -6
Sounds like fun, I bet a guy could get carried away with the away team, you could have loss of crew, fights, etc.... I think it will be a fun game. Right man doing it too! You can do it johnno56 |
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Post by johnno56 on Oct 28, 2020 7:47:04 GMT -6
You could be right about the away team... The original was just... Park next to a planet; Drop shields; Enter AWA; Crew would shuttle down and mine the Dilithium and return. Raise the shields and move on... The only difficulty was if a Klingon was in the same quadrant... that could be unfortunate... Adding risk factors for the landing party would be a cool addition... But I'm not sure if I would be the best choice to do that... Hands full with conversion... Once the game is up and running, assuming I can figure out the risk factors, I maybe able to add some 'random events'... Not to sure how to do 'interactive events'.
I think I'm going to have to learn some screen positioning gymnastics...
When sdlbasic 'points' to a destination screen, any following print or input statement, is directed to that screen. As I mentioned earlier, finally figured out how to define the three screens, drawing text is not an issue but print and input statements seem to only be directed to the overall main screen. I may have to resort to the locate command. But, that too, seems to apply to the overall main screen. Looks like trial and error?
So far... No errors (compiling) as yet. But that could change... lol
The Helm Command instructions are finished and I'm now working my way through the subroutines. A lot of then 'point' to a screen and require print and or input... grrr...
There are still a lot of routines to go before I can start on the main game loop. It's just gone 12:30am and the old grey matter is about to 'take its bat and ball and go home." Pillow time. Have a great day.
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Post by johnno56 on Oct 29, 2020 16:13:57 GMT -6
Update: All the subroutines are in place and compiles without errors... No cheering yet. I still have to sort out 'print' and 'input'
In the meantime, I will start on the game loop, and "let the chips fall where they may".
I think it might be best if this topic continues in "Projects"... lol
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Post by tbird on Oct 29, 2020 23:21:42 GMT -6
Hmm you mean to say that this won't turn into a platformer? Yes 👍 I believe a new project is the right route. I am eagerly waiting to try it out.
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Post by johnno56 on Oct 30, 2020 8:43:52 GMT -6
My apologies. Started off with help for a side-scroller and got totally side-tracked with trek.
Yes. Platformer help. Yes. Not happy with the platformer movement. Just doesn't 'feel right' and sometimes, when the player jumps, it kind of 'embeds' itself into bottom of platform it is jumping towards. I think it happens more with multiple key-press jumping (at an angle). Vertical jumping and falling seems fine. Head-butting the above platform works fine. When the player embeds itself it doesn't get stuck, but that new 'y position' becomes 'the ground'. The player can move left and right, but floats slightly above the platform from which it was jumping, until it jumps again. Not sure if I'm making much sense... It's probably just an issue with collision detection /tile mapping.
The overall concept of the game is kind of ok. Collect coins. Unlock doors. Avoid lava. The basic stuff. I don't know enough about the "game design" to make it "pop". If you know what I mean. I would like it to behave more like Mario but I figure I need to tackle the basics first... lol The current game has only three levels but I think it will get a bit boring... ok. A lot... if I continue with extra levels... For the moment, I need to work of movement/collision.
Crumbs! It's after 1:30am! Got to get some sleep. Our grandkids are popping in for lunch... First time in over 4 months. 5 kilometer travel restrictions eased to 25Kms. Two adults and dependents can now visit homes... It would be a good idea if I were awake for the visit... lol
Heard a funny thing about our Covid19 restrictions... Our state Government now permits 10 people at a wedding; 10 in our homes (10 including us); 20 at a funeral. Facebook comment... "We will be having a funeral for our pet turkey at our house on the 25th of December".
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Post by tbird on Oct 30, 2020 17:52:59 GMT -6
No apologies neccessary, I actually don't have your platformer anymore on my laptop.
Thats ok stuck with the project that holds your interests, I know I have a problem with that lol.
Thats a pretty awesome quote, pretty funny.
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Post by johnno56 on Oct 31, 2020 0:12:05 GMT -6
I had another look at the collisions and they seemed to be ok. I couldn't replicate the "embedding" issue... at first... Modified the Window and canvas to full screen and the issue returned. Ran the game, at full screen, 5 or 6 times and it only embedded once. I will attach version 4 for educational purposes of course... If you can figure out how to improve the movement etc, be my guest... All of my research is based on how these things were designed in the 'dark ages' of the 80's and 90's... I will not be offended if you choose not to do anything with it... Even ideas on design and or layout would be cool.... I think the basics (no pun intended) are there. I just need to make it more interesting. I am still looking for ideas on how to make the game a proper 'side-scrolling' platform. I have a quantity of Mario resources (ie: level map images etc) but no instructions on how to build the game... Next phase of research I suppose... Well, we survived the grandkid invasion and are now recovering... lol Time for more research... J platform4.zip (858.36 KB) |
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Post by tbird on Oct 31, 2020 11:54:34 GMT -6
I will have a look after Halloween lol
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Post by johnno56 on Oct 31, 2020 15:59:37 GMT -6
Hmm... I'm not sure which will be scarier!! lol
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Post by tbird on Nov 3, 2020 7:49:13 GMT -6
Well took me 11 tries to get all 3 levels, but I finally did it lol. The biggest issue I have is the movement is tile based and not pixel based. If I tap the arrow key I move a full 32 pixels as opposed to 1.5 or something similar.
I never had the embedding problem on my attempts, I was lucky haha.
I realize that your collision is tile based as well, if I am jumping at an angle I can "ghost" through coins, without grabbing them.
I have an idea I will test out instead of switching to pure pixel based like mine, I wonder if a guy could partition tiles, like moving 1/4 of a tile so 8 pixels, smoothed out, and collisions could be based on part of a tile so if you cover 1/2 a tile you can stand on the edge or you will grab the coin if you are on a 1/4 of the tile....I hope I am making sense.
I think it will smooth it out ad bring down the jank factor while adding some playability, without a drastic change in foundation that you have laid out.
Give me a couple days and when I have the time I will attempt to put words into action and see if it's a viable option.
I would have already but I found a funny new problem in my engine and it was a fun bug hunt last night....
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