18 April 2006

Arcadia Test 3

• Gameplay tweaks (some changes to the attack speeds / firing patterns).
• Replaced the in game font to allow for the extra characters needed for the scrolly.
• Added the scrolling message to the title screen.
• Added a loading screen.
• More code cleanups.

13 April 2006

Don't worry - be happy

I've been spending a bit of time trying to find a 3d rendering program that I like (and failing dismally) so it looks like I'm going to have to track down my (original) copy of the one I was using before.

That said - K-3D looks like it could be a promising replacement - but I'll have to see how it goes.

This week I'm going to tidy up the font I've used for the scrolly, add some other extras into the game and make another test release.  I'll probably do this over the Easter weekend if I'm not too busy eating Easter eggs.  Yum, yum!

In the mean-time I've given the new website a bit of a face-lift, mainly to give me a bit of practice using NVU which I can recommend if you want a cheap (as in free) web editor.  It's not exactly bug free yet - but it is pretty damn good for HTML editing.  Unfortunately it's lousy for CSS - but for my needs it works fine.

I'll add some text into the blank sections too (the Current and Finished projects ones).

4 April 2006

Another Short Update

More time spent optimising the code (and still more to go).  Such is the joy of porting old code.

The scrolly works a lot better now and is pretty efficient (unlike the original version of it).  I've added a "Loading" message to the very start which is displayed whilst the rest of the graphics and sound are loaded.  Again, this will be changed to something a bit nicer later on - but at least lets you know what is going on.

I've altered the enemy firing pattern slightly for the first two levels, again this should be closer to the original.

It's getting to the point that I'm going to have to look at some new graphics.  Blender makes my brain bleed but I may have to get to grips with it.

Tasks remaining:

• Add remainder of enemies (with dummy gfx till I can get some new renders done)
• New graphics, chances are all sprites will be replaced
• New theme tune
• Complete optimising the code (ongoing)

I'll add back in level 4 using graphics ripped from the last screen shot and take things from there.  Time to crack open the old Spectrum Emulator methinks.

2 April 2006

Short Update

Still working on cleaning up the code - most things are correct now but there are still some little hidden treasures in there waiting to be optimised.

I've added a "scrolly" to the menu screen, this should give a little more info as to what to do for those who don't read the instructions (i.e. everyone).

I'm going to replace the font for the scrolly - but it will suffice for the moment.  I've also just realised that I was still using BlitzMax 1.14 so I've updated to 1.18 and will be releasing a small update later this week.

31 March 2006

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

Welcome to the sites new home (for the moment anyhow).  Make a note of the URL though because that should stay constant even if the site has to relocate again.

So why the move?

Well, now that the main file archive is around 4.5 meg it means that if I was still on Geocities then every time someone downloaded the game the sites bandwidth for the hour would go.  Not good.

Hence the move.

In other news, the Test 2 download has been updated to include the Linux binary.  As a side note to this you'll need libstdc++.so.6 installed to be able to run it.  Newer versions of the library could well work, but you may need to create a soft link to the old name, for example (as root):

cd /usr/lib
ln -s libstdc++.so.WHATEVER libstdc++.so.6
ldconfig

Make sure you change WHATEVER to the version that you've got installed.  This won't work from older versions to newer, only from newer to older (probably).  You make the change at your own risk.  If you are running an older version of the library you'll need to upgrade it.  Check with your distro maker to see how you do this.

Update: OK, so I've not just been messing around with the web site, there has been some progress on the game too.

Today's feature: shot blip's.  "What are they" I hear you ask?  Well, in the original game when a shot expired it left a little "blip" mini explosion.  Now the remake does too.

I've also tweaked the game play a touch to make the levels so far play more like the original too, such as speeding up level 2.

More later.

30 March 2006

Missing - presumed deleted

Hello and welcome to cock-up central.

Or

The Land that Backups Forgot.

The more astute amongst you will have guessed from this that something has gone wrong.  Or rather something has gone missing.  That something being the newest version of the original code that I was going to convert.

Bugger!

The newest version of the codebase that I could find was a pre-beta2 version which was missing graphics as compared to the newer one. Also level 4 is absent. As is the joystick code.

Bugger, bugger, bugger!

On the up side I've converted that version to Blitz Max, updated to the latest version of the graphics, amended the screen wipe effect so it looks better than the original ever did, added music back to the menu, added joystick code (untested), re-enabled enemy shots (which makes the game a whole lot more challenging) and made some other minor tweaks to the code base.

The Windows version is sitting in the downloads section now, the Linux version should go up later on tonight or in the early hours of tomorrow morning once I've had a chance to test it thoroughly.  Once the Linux version is uploaded it will be added to the Arcadia_test2.zip archive on the downloads page to try and claw back a bit of bandwidth.

I'm going to have to have a good look through the code to see what else needs fixing and to see what I can do about ressurecting the next level.

I'm also going to have to have a look at the graphics and try and get to grips with Blender to either create an improved graphics set or else go forward with a totally different graphical style.

Watch this space (although hopefully not for another four years before anything happens).

T.T.F.N.

29 March 2006

Hello?  Anyone there?

Some of you may be wondering what happened to Arcadia.  Well, there lies a tale, but not a particularly interesting one.

In a nutshell I had a bit of a systems crash which took out my Windows installation.  Yes - I had backups - so restoring Windows was a simple case of restoring my main drive image and re-installing a couple of apps.

Except that the ray-traced graphics for the game were stored on C:\ rather than D:\ and were destroyed when I restored the partition.

AAAAAAARGH!

For me it was one crash too many.  I'd been tinkering with Linux on and off for a couple of years and already had a Linux installation which I'd been playing around with.  As a personal challenge to myself I decided to spend three months using Linux.  No Windows products at all.  Total cold turkey.

Four years later I'm still using Linux (Slackware Current as if anyone cares).

I was intending on continuing with Arcadia but family commitments (two of them: one nearly six, the other nearly three) meant that the time wasn't there.  Plus there were rumours of a Linux port of Blitz Basic.

The rumours turned out to be true and I was lucky enough to be able to buy the unfinished version for Windows (which allowed me to download the beta version for Linux).  Now that Blitz Max is out of beta (and has been for some time now) and looks like a pretty stable system it is time to get back into coding and, oddly enough, Arcadia looks like the obvious choice of a project.

I've converted an early two level version of the game to Blitz Max and it works pretty well.  Why an early version?  Easy.  Less code to wade through, which made fixing the various problems easier than it might have been.  The only feature dropped compared to the original version is the music.

Check the downloads section later this week for Linux and Windows betas of this version.

Accelerated 3D support is required for the Linux version even though it is a 2D game (Blitz uses OpenGL for its 2D support on Linux).

So for those of you who are still visiting the site (hello both of you) - stick around - we may get this suckah finished yet!

P.S.: Don't take this as an anti-Microsoft rant.  Windows XP (with Service Pack 2) is pretty good.  It's certainly a lot better than Windows 98 ever was which is why I'm going to release for both systems.  If there is enough demand then I'll think about releasing an OS-X version too.

P.P.S.: The email link on this site is dead (sorry).  I'll set up a new one this week for comments about this game (and hopefully others at some point too).

Update 1: The new e-mail address is now online.

Update 2: Test 1 (Windows) available for download. Remember - this is basically the same as the old Beta 1 but ported to Blitz Max. Hopefully I'll get chance to compile and upload the Linux version later tonight.

Update3: Test 1 (Linux) available for download.

23 April 2002

Not dead yet. . . . .

After a two month "holiday" from Arcadia I'm finally able to pick up and get things going again. With a bit of luck a new release should be available fairly soon. . . (and just to keep you going a new screenshot is now available).

20 Feb 2002

New version of Arcadia available

The second beta of Arcadia is now available from the downloads section. This will probably be the last beta before the full release.

New Beta 2 screenshots are now online.

11 Feb 2002

New Screenshots

Two new screenshots from the Beta 2 prerelease are now online, showing one of the new backdrops and sone of the new sprites in action. Still plenty of work to do before the next beta release through. See the Current Projects section for current status and E.T.A. of next beta.

10 Feb 2002

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3

The first couple of test renders of the game graphics are now available for preview in the Screenshots section. The finished sprites should look a lot better (textured etc) but these should give some idea of the look I'm aiming for.

Thanks!

Big thank you's go to JJ and Hitman at Retro-Remakes for posting the news on this release, and for Hitman's comments on the game. Cheers guys!

9 Feb 2002

Web Site Online!

Welcome to Dan's Remakes - a site dedicated to remaking classic Spectrum games for the PC. My first re-make is Arcadia - which was the first game released by Imagine way back in 1982.The first beta is now available for download. Hope you enjoy it.

Dan