01.04 - News

Hi all,

I hope everyone had a good weekend... I was out of town, but it was a few days of rest that I desperately needed.

Now, back to the forum. I''ll be continuing with the updates today and/or tomorrow, and I know that there''s a lot of you out there who want to get going with some actual development tasks, so I''m trying to incorporate something interactive for the next update session.

See you soon,

Teej

OK,

I''m starting to actually place the next few articles onto the forum. Boy, I couldn''t even access GDNet last night! This site is either slow or totally inaccessable at time...geez...

My gameplan is to get a couple up this afternoon, and another four by/on Sunday. You''ll definitely have something to work with by then.

Oh, and for those of you who were here for round one of the forum, yes, we''re starting with basically the same BaseCode, but I urge you to pick up a copy nonetheless as there are some slight adjustments.

I still haven''t decided on the best direction to take everyone in, but I have material already prepared on sprites, vector geometry, tiles and code organization. I know how much people want to ''dive in'' to coding games (especially if you were already around for the Tetris and PacMan projects), but I need to squeeze in some basic concepts that help everyone become more productive when we start really getting our feet wet. Gee, thanks, I knew you''d understand

At the very least, there''s now code available, so there''s no reason to not start picking at it...

Teej

Damn!

I was away for the weekend, and when I got home I found my CPU fan melted right off of the heatsink, and my processor was FRIED. Oh well, they warned me that Athlons run hot!

I allowed this forum to fall behind the first time I started it up, and I refuse to let this happen again. You all have been great with your support, and I''m not going to let you down (again). What this means is that I''ll have to prepare material at work instead of at home (for about 3 weeks), and that is going to slow things a bit, but there will still be updates!

Once I bring my drive into work I can extract the next three articles, and then I''ll just stay at work late to keep things moving along. I did manage to get one article up before things went BOOM, and there will be three more tomorrow.

Once again (geez, seems like deja vu) thanks for your patience. I know that you''ll like what I''m doing with the next set of articles, so hang on folks!

Teej

Good news,

I''ve ordered some new parts for my computer:

- another AMD Athlon 1GHz (original one ''melted'')
- Fan/Heatsink for CPU (chrome orb)
- Case fan (helps to have one of these)

My order should be coming in tomorrow morning, which means that I''ll be able to get back to work on the forum.

Teej

Do you ever get the feeling some mystical power is out to get you?

Sure, my CPU and fans came in, but when I tried to connect them to the motherboard I noticed that the plastic on the ZIF socket was chipped. In other words, I couldn''t secure the heatsink to the CPU properly. Geez...

I''m in the process of trying to get it replaced. In the meantime, I really want to continue with the updates, so I promise to try and ''sneak in'' some time this afternoon while I''m supposed to be working and get some more material online.

Thanks for your patience.

Teej

Good News!

My computer is fixed and working!

Expect new articles later today!

Teej

Boy, I always laugh at myself when I read my news posts. The previous one says "expect new articles later today!", and here it''s the seventh of the month. Geez...

Okay, so I''m behind as usual. The good news is that there''s a new 04-series article up, as well as a 03.03 Selected C topic on the preprocessor, compiling, and that funny G structure in GLOBALS.H.

Oh, and I''ve got plenty more in somewhat-finished form on my system...I might even be able to get two more in this afternoon! And if I''m feeling especially energetic (or remorseful for leaving everyone wait so long) I''ll get a couple more this evening as well.

But hey, no promises!

Truly though; there''s one thing standing in my way this evening, and that''s the Toronto/New Jersey NHL series (on at 7pm EST tonight)...I''ll give you a hint who I''m praying on winning: I live in Toronto

Teej

Hey, it looks like I''m on a roll!

I''ve added another article entitled Pixel Manipulation that should finally give everyone some code to play with.

There will be a C topic on pointers and data types very shortly, and I''m not planning on slowing up the pace anytime soon, so stick around for more gamedev material!

Teej

I almost forgot...

Since we''ll be entering the wonderful world of sprites and 2D games, there''s going to be a real need for graphic resources.

Until recently, I was ready with some ''shareware'' graphics, but the author has since rescinded the public license on his artwork.

What this means is that either

• We find some public domain artwork to use


• We end up drawing our own sprites/etc.


• Maybe I can get permission from the author of the existing artwork I have

I''m hoping that by mentioning this someone might either have some artwork to share, or recalls where to find some.

Email me if you have any information.

Thanks guys/gals...

Teej

Hi, I''m drunk.

I''m pretty sure that the Toronto Maple Leafs lost tonite (I didn''t watch the last 6 minutes, but it was ummm 5-1 NJ at that time), so I''ve convinced myself that drinking all of the beer in the house would somehow ease the pain.

So, even if I could push an article out of my soggy brain tonight, it would be mixed with hockey analogies and how an entity can waste a whole year training for something that they''re just gonna choke on in the end.

(I really want to type swear words here)

Luckily for all of us, game development is my second-favorite pasttime, and hockey won''t be bothering me for a long time, so expect renewed determination tomorrow.

Oh, and I''ve plugged the forum in a few places in the GameDev forums, so perhaps we''ll get some more hapless ''victims'' in the days to come.

Hey, thanks for sticking it out with me -- I''ll make it worth our while! Just have a little patience while I pound out the groundwork. Real game development follows close behind!

Teej
BURP

Hello again,

Good news, bad news time folks.

Good news: I''ll be putting 5-7 new articles up over the weekend, including some actual game development material (what many of you have been waiting for...)

Bad news: I''m told that my home internet connection will be down for a couple of days. I can still prepare the material, but I won''t be able to upload it, nor will I be able to participate with feedback from topic replies. So, the worst-case scenario is that I can''t update the forum until Monday morning. If my internect connections kicks back in over the weekend though, they''ll be up earlier.

In any event, I''m looking forward to all of the free time I''ll have over the weekend to work on the forum material ,as I''m sure you''re all looking forward to getting in some practical game development practice.

See you on Monday,

Teej

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay with the next set of articles -- I''ve been under the weather and didn''t get to work. I''m feeling better now, and will upload the new material as soon as I get some free time.

Teej

Hi,

It''s been a while, and what can I tell you? My life is out of balance, and everytime I try to reserve time for the forum it gets yanked out from under me.

There are three more articles up after almost two weeks (disgraceful I know); two in series #4 and one in Selected C Topics.

I''m not going to make things any worse by promising more at a specific time, ''cause I think I end up jinxing myself, but I can tell you that there''s some great sprite material coming.

Perhaps by the end of the week I''ll be able to make up for some lost time...

Teej

Hi, just a couple of quick notes:

First, I''ve made a change to BaseCode2 as of June 1/2001, so if you have an older version please grab the update on my webpage.

Also, I''ve finally figured out a way for the code samples in the articles to come out larger... All new articles will obviousely be improved, and I''ll try to go over the existing material and make updates as well.

Animation, Game State and Internal Data articles are on their way...

Teej

There''s a new article up, 04.08 - Animation Anticipation, and there''s some new goodies on my webpage.

While you''re trying your hand at sprite animation, I''ll be getting the next articles ready...

Teej

It''s time to play Good News / Bad News again...

Bad News: I''m going out of town for the weekend (to a funeral) and won''t be able to update the forum for the next few days...

Good News: I''ll be taking an entire week off (perhaps in two weeks'' time) from work, so I''ll have plenty of time to devote to adding lots of articles to the site!

Keep playing around with pixels/images... "I''ll be back"

Teej

Okay everyone, next week (June 18th to June 22nd) I''ve taken off of work, which means I have an entire week to devote to site updates.

What this means is that there won''t be anything by way of updates before then (well, perhaps one or two), but you can look forward to a mountain of new material next week.

I don''t have internet access at home currently, but I''ll try and find a way to get articles online throughout the next week. That also means that I might not be able to moderate very often for the next week or so.

Basically, I''m going to devote the rest of this week to getting my other work completed, and then I''ll be able to turn my full attention to this tutorial forum.

I''d like to thank everyone for participating thus far; it''s you I''ll be thinking of when I ''donate'' my week of vacation to the cause...

Teej

Hi folks,

I''m back from vacation, and I''ve got all sorts of new material to upload, but you''ll have to wait a litter longer as my employer also has things for me to do since I''ve been gone. As well, I''ve got mountains of your emails to go through, so there''s going to be some catching-up to do...

Also, I''ve been told (and confirmed) that my dumb little webpage isn''t working. Figures. I''ll get a new one up and running today and will post the new link soon.

Teej

Okay, I''ve created a new website for the forum resources. Changing the links in all of those articles is going to suck.

http://www.angelfire.com/home/gamedev

Busy busy busy...

Teej