Step by step guide to recreating some smash hit 80's games!

techdojo

Another classic find on the internet!

http://codeincomplete.com/projects/

Step by step guides in how to re-create psuedo 3d driving games, boulderdash clones, snakes, tetris and a host of other goodies.

Ok - it's mostly javascript but the concepts should be applicable!

QuasarCreator

Thank you so much for that link. As a new programmer I find the hardest part to understand is the concepts or game logic and it is always nice to read tutorials and see how they solved the problem.

techdojo

Glad you liked it - it's amazing what you can dig up on the internet (through the magic of hyper links).

If you find any more articles like this please be sure to share!

Teranth

Very cool, I am thinking we will be seeing some old school games released soon

Magnusviri

This is amazing!

techdojo

Just a quick note - the final part of the making a pseudo 3d racing game (outrun style) has been posted on the code incomplete site.

http://codeincomplete.com/posts/2012/6/30/javascript_racer_v4_final/

Teranth

@techdojo very cool, I will be sure to read over that one, I sort of like the idea of making one of those style games, brings back my younger days

techdojo

Yeah - far too much time and money spend in seedy basement arcades (and no it's not where I met @Scouser)

Teranth

@techdojo, not entirely sure I believe you there. I'll ask @Scouser heh :P

Scouser

I'll confirm I never met @techdojo in a seedy basement arcade. I was always a brightly lit arcade / fairground type of person, where all the pretty girls were, not where all the spotty geeks were )

Teranth

@Scouser alright then :P I guess I'll have to take your words for it... lol

techdojo

@Scouser - that's until they all restraining orders taken out!

Magnusviri

We had an arcade named Gold Mine cuz it was in the bottom floor of a mall. It was awesome. A gold mine for the owners I'm sure lol. I was the nerd type...

I'm porting Boulderdash. It's interesting to see how JavaScript is different than Lua. I've never seen JavaScript written like this guy writes it. And I've never used the canvas tag either so I've had to read the documentation a little. Instead of an exact port I'm probably going to have to rewrite a lot of it so it's more Lua and Gideros like.

techdojo

The main difference I think you'll find is between the "retained" mode approach Gideros uses and the "direct" approach you find with Javascript Canvas. FWIW - Javascript can be a horrible language to try and walk through, there are many different ways and shortcuts and hacks a lot of programmers use. Fortunately there are a LOT of online resource to learn from.

To be fair the site your using does document the process fairly well and some of the boulderdash fan links from that site are also very good at explaining HOW Boulderdash is supposed to work (I remember once trying to do it from memory), so I'd suggest using that data more as a "spec" and rather than porting, try and create your own version from scratch - you'll learn more, it'll be more fun and you'll have something you can be proud of in the end!

techdojo

Whilst trawling the net I also found this attempt at a C64 game remake.
It's in Javascript / HTML5 however for someone who fancy's a challenge or an insight in the processes involved then here's the link

http://www.schillmania.com/content/entries/2012/survivor-c64-html-remake/

techdojo

Talking of remakes, here's my own first attempt at the classic ZX Spectrum game Splat! ( http://bit.ly/LeUtjN )

It's mostly a proof of concept, I took the level data file from a different "remake", wrote a little parser on the PC to dump out the map in a "Tiled" compatible format and then used @Atilim's - Simple tile map loader to create a Gideros TileMap object.

Feel free to use the code for whatever...

OZApps

any luck furthering that project??

techdojo

Not with the splat game - story of my life... too many ideas, too little time
Especially with the new job and all that...

On a semi unrelated note.

I've been meaning to post about the latest series from Jake @ codeincomplete.
He's done a full remake of Gauntlet in Javascript and this morning I'd noticed that he'd done a nice little platformer game

http://codeincomplete.com/posts/2013/5/27/tiny_platformer/

Again all the source is there to view and learn from...

ianchia

Hey funness! Maybe one day I'll be inspired to port my first commercial game to canvas or Gideros; although there're probably rights issues galore...

http://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/inspector-gadget/

Ahhh working at Melbourne House on Inspector Gadget and the Circus of Fear. Devving games for Apple ][ & the C64, writing in 6502 - compiling on a Microbee.

Compiles took an hour by the end of the game dev period, only to find syntax errors like a missing "$". Madness. To have instant on-device compiles today using toolchains like Gideros is pure bliss.

Scouser

My company produced Throne of Fire for Melbourne House in 1987 (I coded the CPC version). Those were indeed the days although our compilers (actually assemblers) were a little quicker but working from tape was a nightmare

ianchia

Nice to meet a contemporary, @Scouser (-; Although our 6502 assemblers (nit picky) were dead slow, we were spoilt with 5.25 floppies...

Though my memory for opcodes have long faded except for the bitwise ones, my favourite one still sticks out in my head, since we had it printed on the wall in front of us at Melbourne House.

DWIMNWIS

... kinda a long opcode, but hey, it was wishful thinking anyway.

aka "Do what I mean, not what I say." Still long for that command in every language I use today!

Best,

- Ian

Scouser

@ianchia: That command is still used by almost every boss in the world.

It would appear that everyone they employ has to be a mind reader because they themselves are incapable of verbally getting their ideas across until you've done what they ask and it's wrong (which is always your fault).

hgvyas123

my smash 80's game

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.TigerCubstudio.crazyCarDrivingiving

https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/crazy-car-driving/id645469406?mt=8

and b4 @scouser will find out that it is not made with Gideros i am telling yes it is not made with Gideros

fxone

@hgvyas123 so what did you use for making this game? unity?

hgvyas123

@fxone:-

yup unity

Scouser

Funny, yes I saw it was 3D and thought Hmmmm, that doesn't look like a Gideros game )

I like the idea but I think the control is a bit too sensitive for old folks like me. When I try to turn I move from one side of the road to the other.

Also it just crashed on my Nexus 4 (I pressed the back button on the game's home screen).

hgvyas123

@Scouser

see i already told you can easily catch that it was not made with Gideros

about crash yeah i am getting tons of crash reports currently most of them are fixed game is even lagging in lots of devices including ipad1 but i dont think so i can do anything for that as that is related with high number of polygons in model

about controls i am thinking to leave that as it is but in next version i will implement slider so user can adjust handling as per they like but b4 that i need to finish my another game which is currently under development of course with Gideros.