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Acorn Arcade forums: Games: Worcester Smith and the Purple Crystal of the Heavens
 
  Worcester Smith and the Purple Crystal of the Heavens
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VinceH Message #108925, posted by VincceH at 20:10, 1/12/2008
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
Righty ho, then. I've made a little roadmap leading very approximately from now until Wakefield, and the key points on that map are:
  • Now
  • Christmas
  • My Birthday
  • The South West Show
  • Wakefield
It just so happens that these events occur in that very precise order. I'm away for Christmas and it has now become a tradition for me to go away on or near my birthday (usually just after) - and for that reason I tend to miss the South West Show, which isn't long after it.

Wakefield is therefore the target for the next significant update to (and possibly release of) WebChange. The combination of the two holidays (even though I haven't actually booked the birthday one yet) reduces the time I have available for programming, so I've done a little thinking type stuff.

And as a result, today I decided that I will attempt to squeeze in another IF game, to be released online around the time of the South West Show, since that's much easier than working on WebChange, and better suited to the spaces I have in my schedule. Plus, given that for the Chrimbo holiday I'll be taking the laptop to get some writing done (ie my attempt at a book), I can do some of the fiction (rather than scripting) aspect of the game, as well as sift through pictures and such like.

The game itself will be the one I've been half mentioning from time to time: Worcester Smith and the Purple Crystal of the Heavens (a re-imagining of The Purple Crystal of the Heavens that I used to supply with Trellis as a demo).

With that in mind, today I dug out the source files for the old game to map it out... and once I'd mapped it, I promptly decided to start a new map from scratch. smile

Any comments I see fit to make as the game progresses will appear here.

Right this second, though, I'm off to the chip shop.
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VinceH Message #108932, posted by VincceH at 14:19, 2/12/2008, in reply to message #108925
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
I've had a good idea re the graphics in this game - and following on from that, a map.

I discarded some possible pictures for Quicksand because they'd work better portrait - and without looking, I can think of some suitable for WS&tPCotH that are also portrait. Trellis, as it stands, displays images in landscape format (ie across the top half of the screen), setting up the text and graphics viewports appropriately - but it would be quite trivial to have a flag for each room that tells it if the image is portrait, setting (say) the left hand side for text and the right for the image. (Or I could go a little cleverer and make it look at the image dimensions and make the decision that way).

And following on from that, I figured if the player character is carrying an old map of the island, when 'examine map' is typed, a image of the map can be displayed. (Or 'examine <object>' could display an image of the specified object, if one is provided).

So, following on from that I fired up Xara, drew a few random shapes, and came up with a basic look for the map - which I'll work on tonight and try to make look half decent. The basic shape is there, though, and I've decided to call the island "Dog's Head Island".
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Andrew Message #108935, posted by andrew at 21:28, 2/12/2008, in reply to message #108932
HandbagHandbag Boi
Posts: 3439
1. Any idea where you're taking the photos for it, if at all?

2. Can iconbar readers request objects to be in the game? (e.g. an alternate universe visor or some common or garden thing like that)
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VinceH Message #108937, posted by VincceH at 23:14, 2/12/2008, in reply to message #108935
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
1. Any idea where you're taking the photos for it, if at all?
The basic map as it was for the original version was set on an island, with beaches at the North and South, and other than that mostly surrounded by cliffs dropping into the sea, and covered by a forest. Some of the game also took place in a cave system on the island.

The new version will be broadly similar, so looking at it generally:
  • For all the coastal stuff (beaches, drops to the sea, etc) I should have plenty of photos that I've taken in the Newquay area last year, and Land's End a few weeks ago.
  • For the forest stuff, I'll just use another selection of the photos I took in The Forest of Dean and other (smaller) woods.
  • If I add a mountainous section to the map, I should have plenty that I've taken around Dartmoor and/or The Lake District - and the Italian Alps if I need snow, but I'll probably keep those back for another game. smile
  • For any open spaces, the Dartmoor photos should provide what I need.
The bit mentioned above but not in the list is the cave system. I have quite a lot of caves taken from around Newquay and Land's End - and while some of the caves have nice big entrances, etc, they're fairly small in terms of depth (with one or two interesting exceptions). So I might not have enough of those - it depends how many cave locations there are, and how many cave photos I can cheat with and imply they're a long way in.

For anything more specific that I might choose to put in any locations, I don't know. I'll probably browse my photo collection for inspiration*, only venturing off anywhere if I decide I need to get something very specific that I don't already have, which hopefully won't be many.

That all makes it sound really big, but in fact the original had everything above except mountains in, and was only around 90 locations in total.

2. Can iconbar readers request objects to be in the game? (e.g. an alternate universe visor or some common or garden thing like that)
People can make suggestions while I'm still at the noting down ideas stage, but I can't promise to include anything in the game - it would have to work in the context of the game, which I do intend to make follow the original version at least broadly: The main change, other than a new map, is the nature of the player character - a pirate originally, and an Idiana Jones type character called Worcester Smith in this version.

* What I really need is a database so I can apply keywords to all my photos, and then pull out (for example) all those that include bridges. Ideally, the keyword data (and photos) would be stored on a NAS drive, and can be accessed from either RISC OS or Windows (ie a UI to access that data on either).
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Jeffrey Lee Message #108938, posted by Phlamethrower at 23:31, 2/12/2008, in reply to message #108937
PhlamethrowerHot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff

Posts: 15100
* What I really need is a database so I can apply keywords to all my photos, and then pull out (for example) all those that include bridges. Ideally, the keyword data (and photos) would be stored on a NAS drive, and can be accessed from either RISC OS or Windows (ie a UI to access that data on either).
Could your NAS (assuming you already have one) run Apache? There's probably loads of free software for web-based photo indexing/storage.
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VinceH Message #108939, posted by VincceH at 08:36, 3/12/2008, in reply to message #108938
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
What I really need is a database so I can apply keywords to all my photos, and then pull out (for example) all those that include bridges. Ideally, the keyword data (and photos) would be stored on a NAS drive, and can be accessed from either RISC OS or Windows (ie a UI to access that data on either).
Could your NAS (assuming you already have one) run Apache? There's probably loads of free software for web-based photo indexing/storage.
Not AFAIK. The one I have is rubbish. It requires cruddy software in order to access it from Windows - I have to actually run the software, mount the drive, and then map whichever folders I want to access to drives. It's also accessible with FTP, and that's the only way I can on RISC OS. I'd have to replace it with something useful. The LinkStation Pro range looks appealing.

It's not something that's of immediate concern, though - I doubt I could devote the time to putting keywords on my photo collection!

Edit: Another obvious option would be a Linux box of some variety, but there are space issues atm. I've started looking for a flat that's more convenient for where I do most of my work and to give me more space, so maybe at some point I can go down that route.


[Edited by VincceH at 08:42, 3/12/2008]
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Jason Togneri Message #108940, posted by filecore at 09:55, 3/12/2008, in reply to message #108939

Posts: 3867
You can get pretty cheap NAS boxes (no hard drive included) which host a web server, FTP server, print server, torrent server, and can manage FTP/HTTP/torrent downloads while all your other computers are switched off. Some boxes do all of the above, and others do a selection, it depends on the price; some even support USB/Firewire local drive fucntionality. Stick in a 1TB drive and don't think twice about it again big smile
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VinceH Message #108950, posted by VincceH at 14:09, 3/12/2008, in reply to message #108940
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
You can get pretty cheap NAS boxes (no hard drive included) which host a web server,
Which the LS Pro does.

FTP server,
Which the LS Pro probably does.

print server,
Which I've no idea if the LS Pro does - but I have a network colour laser/scanner as of a couple of weeks ago. smile

The LinkStation Pro drives appear to cover my needs - one of those being accessibility from RISC OS (without using FTP/HTTP). If I happen across something better (without spending any notable time searching), or something as good but cheaper, by the time I decide to order one, then that's what I'll get - but for the moment, LinkStation Pro is what I've put on my "Buy one of these when I can be bothered" list.

Going back to the reason the subject came up - a db of my photos so I can search for keywords. It occured to me that I don't need a database, per se. Just putting each photo on a simple HTML page, with keywords, would suffice - with the files accessed as a drive for this purpose, rather than over HTTP.

The reason being, as well as providing me with the information I need, it could also prove a useful source of test data for my software - both WebChange, and Seek'N'Link (the latter being ideally suited for searching the keywords).

The downside to that, of course, is that both are RISC OS only - though the code (particularly the back-end stuff, such as all the search code) is nicely portable, I think.

Or it would be if I used C on Windows. smile

Definitely something for the (distant) future. For now, none of this is a priority.
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VinceH Message #108959, posted by VincceH at 22:08, 5/12/2008, in reply to message #108937
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
That all makes it sound really big, but in fact the original had everything above except mountains in, and was only around 90 locations in total.
It looks like the new one is going to have a few more than that...

The map image has so far beaten me. I've abandoned every attempt, concluding that I'm naff at that sort of thing - but I'll have another go at it some point. What I've done in the meantime is overlay the basic outline of Dog's Head Island onto a grid so that I can start thinking about the actual map of locations in the game.

There's a coastal path which follows the outline of the island, and leads down to a couple of the beaches; that path alone is (based on the grid) is 40 locations, the beaches look like they'll account for another 15-20 locations and the unmapped central part of the island (ie the unused grid) amounts to 30 locations - so that's 85-90 locations before I even start on what's underneath the island; the cave system.

Obviously, not all of those locations will be used: some 'two grid' stretches of coastal path, for example, might become one location within the game - it depends on the availability and suitability of photos - and I probably won't use every space on the internal grid, but overall it looks like the map is going to be bigger than in the original.

Before mapping the middle section, I need to think of puzzles for the player to solve - and the clues to those puzzles. I've already come up with the way to present some clues to the player - similar to the map; the nature of the game character means he'll have some notes (which have become damaged/wet) and "examine notes" or whatever will cause an image of (what's left of) the page of notes to be displayed.

For example, one of the tools he'll have right at the start of the game will be a syringe, the reason for which is partly explained in the damaged notes... the player will have to do put some thought into when and where to use that syringe based on the limited information.

That's actually based on one of the tasks in the original game - and unfortunately is the only one I've thought of so far. indiff
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VinceH Message #108968, posted by VincceH at 14:26, 7/12/2008, in reply to message #108959
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
There's a coastal path which follows the outline of the island, and leads down to a couple of the beaches; that path alone is (based on the grid) is 40 locations,
I've just had a quick look through my Land's End photos (which are actually still on the laptop rather than on the NAS). As a slight aside, I hadn't really had a proper look through these as yet, and I'm quite annoyed by something I found - for some reason, my camera got set to 4:3 before taking the pictures on day two. I usually leave it on 3:2 unhappy

However, ignoring that, the 40 needed for coastal route will easily covered; in fact, I could make it considerably bigger if I wanted - I counted around 120 contenders, when excluding those that where I took several shots of the same (or similar) view. Some will prove less suitable as they're looked at in detail, but some could actually become two locations with a bit of cropping.

the beaches look like they'll account for another 15-20 locations
Shots from beaches and spots where I could clamber down to sea level were considerably less - I knew this before I started looking. I found 19 possibles, but how useful they'll be will depend on how the game progresses. If they're not suitable, though, I do have quite a lot that I took last year around the Newquay area - and thinking about it, near a campsite near Exmouth when I was off-roading a few years ago.
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VinceH Message #110206, posted by VincceH at 15:02, 8/6/2009, in reply to message #108968
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
Things change...

I've now decided that Worcester Smith's first game isn't going to be a re-imagining of the old Purple Crystal game because based on that map and the few bits I've decided upon, the only thing it has in common with the Purple Crystal game is that it's set on an island and (if I'd carried on) the name.

Instead, once I've found the time to finish off the website redesign, I'll dig out the old Purple Crystal (and the other) game I used as example games with Trellis, and just put them online as they are. The first Worcester Smith game will therefore be called something else, and not be a quest involving a crystal, purple or otherwise.

Worcester Smith (ie me for the purposes of photos for use in the game) now almost has a costume*. The main thing I'm lacking at the moment is a suitable jacket. I have a couple that would look right, but are too good to ruin this way. I just need to find something that not only looks the part, but is practical for me to wear when I go out wandering in the middle of nowhere.

My main idea is that most of the photos will be as per Quicksand - just location shots - and some will have Worcester Smith in them; these will initially just be me 'there' in the costume, but post development, I may re-visit some locations and take pictures doing something as described in the game. All simple enough.

But then I had another idea... I don't really know much (er, anything) about video playback on RISC OS. If the game required the instruction 'climb fence' for example, and I filmed myself in character doing just that - what are the options for playing that video sequence back at the right point in a game?

* It started with a hat. The hat was too big so I ordered another, a size down - it was when placing that second order I had the costume idea, so I also decided not to send back the first hat. In however many years time, when I've finally finished the game, the first hat could be a fun bit of promotion - eg give it away in a competition at a RISC OS show, or something.
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VinceH Message #110226, posted by VincceH at 07:38, 11/6/2009, in reply to message #110206
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
FYI:

Worcester Smith's hat - which I have.

Worcester Smith's bag - which I have.

Worcester Smith's possible jacket - which I found and ordered last night; it's not really possible to say if it's right until it arrives and I see what it looks and feels like with the hat and bag (and whether it feels practical - remembering I'll have to wear or carry it when I go out with photos in mind).

And finally, Worcester Smith's website - or will be once I have some content; I need to design a logo, which I think should incorporate the character; which means I can't do that until the first photos are taken, so hurry up and arrive, and prove to be suitable, Jacket!

(I'm off to the Lake District in a couple of weeks, so if the above jacket is no good, it will be nice to have one that is by then.)
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Martin Bazley Message #116076, posted by swirlythingy at 00:15, 20/12/2010, in reply to message #110226

Posts: 460
Bump!

Hint hint? naughty
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VinceH Message #116077, posted by VincceH at 09:17, 20/12/2010, in reply to message #116076
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
I have a selection of pictures to slot in - but none 'themed' to match the actions in any particular game idea as yet; it's only when I start designing a game, I'll revisit spots to take photos featuring the character that match the text.

However, I want to get It's No Game done first - the follow-up to Quicksand. The main thing holding me up with that is a picture I've yet to be able to take.

Well, that and that other stuff. Real Lifetm and all that.
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Sion Message #118053, posted by apacketofsweets at 18:29, 17/6/2011, in reply to message #116077
apacketofsweets
RISC OS, too cool for Javascript.

Posts: 110
any news on this and No Game?
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VinceH Message #118054, posted by VincceH at 21:02, 17/6/2011, in reply to message #118053
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
It's No Game: There's no news. wink

Okay, being serious, the situation is that with how I planned it, I need a very particular photo for the opening location, but I haven't been able to get it. Other than notes, I've done nothing else because when I first decided on the start, I thought I'd have the photo in a few weeks, which became a few months, and so on.

Worcester Smith: Other than the initial map of the island (called Dog's Head Island), I've done nothing else - and will do nothing else until It's No Game is done.
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VinceH Message #118055, posted by VincceH at 21:28, 17/6/2011, in reply to message #118054
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
Just a little teaser for It's No Game. Fairly early in the game, you'll be talking with this fellow, interrupting his work.
OfficeSquirrel.jpg 240x117 22.4KB
OfficeSquirr...
240x117
22.4KB

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Blind Moose Message #118066, posted by Acornut at 09:44, 18/6/2011, in reply to message #118055
Acornut No-eye-deer (No Idea)

Posts: 487
Where I live, I'm sure I've seen him or some relatives. Or maybee he's undercover, in the 'witness protection program'? tongue
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Trevor Johnson Message #118077, posted by trevj at 07:29, 20/6/2011, in reply to message #118066
Member
Posts: 660
Report those grey squirrels now!
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Martin Bazley Message #118089, posted by swirlythingy at 17:24, 20/6/2011, in reply to message #118054

Posts: 460
Okay, being serious, the situation is that with how I planned it, I need a very particular photo for the opening location, but I haven't been able to get it.
And this is an example of a photo you have been able to get? What haven't you managed? The Loch Ness Monster? smile
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VinceH Message #118094, posted by VincceH at 08:51, 21/6/2011, in reply to message #118089
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
Those buggers in the US government haven't given me permission to bring the Roswell alien they have in captivity over here to pose for some photos in the Forest of Dean.
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VinceH Message #118124, posted by VincceH at 22:48, 27/6/2011, in reply to message #118094
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
Handy things that happen while out walking...

As I've said somewhere above, the island in the Worcester Smith game is called "Dog's Head Island" - because when I drew the rough outline of the island, onto which I need to put the grid and map it out, it resembled (by accident) a dog's head. dhi.png is a quick export of the outline so you can see what I mean.

So, anyway, I decided to visit the Sugar Loaf mountain in the Brecons on Friday for my first half decent walk in over a year. I decided on that location for no other reason than I haven't been up there since I was about 15 - so that's at least 10 or so years ago wink I didn't specifically have photos for games in mind, though I did expect that some might be of use.

Tonight, I was looking through the photos I took and I noticed a bloody useful rock formation - which I think will have to be a kind of centrepiece on Dog's Head Island - see dhr.jpeg

I'll have to make a return trip to Sugar Loaf to get some shots from different angles, so I can be sure to have something suitable for the game.
dhi.png 320x355 15.1KB
dhi.png
320x355
15.1KB
dhr.jpeg 320x217 38.5KB
dhr.jpeg
320x217
38.5KB

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VinceH Message #118125, posted by VincceH at 23:27, 27/6/2011, in reply to message #118124
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
when I drew the rough outline of the island, onto which I need to put the grid and map it out, it resembled (by accident) a dog's head.
Perhaps not such an accident. I hadn't noticed the blindingly obvious coincidence before, but I have a picture of a German Shepherd on the wall above my desk - I suspect I may have been subconsciously influenced...
gs.jpeg 197x320 24.8KB
gs.jpeg
197x320
24.8KB

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Jeffrey Lee Message #118126, posted by Phlamethrower at 23:35, 27/6/2011, in reply to message #118125
PhlamethrowerHot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff

Posts: 15100
All hail the hypnodog?
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VinceH Message #118143, posted by VincceH at 13:00, 2/7/2011, in reply to message #118126
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
Fun and games. Bah!

I'm having a bad weekend, and I blame Zap and ZapRedraw*. Rage

And the fact that I'm too used to C these days, rather than BASIC. One of my test BASIC programs earlier had a terminating semi-colon on every line! blush

* Forgetting the fun and games I had with Zap yesterday, and getting the example ZapRedraw programs to work - and my inability to even get a window opened in BASIC until the early hours - I've just made a disappointing realisation:

I'd assumed ZapRedraw could be made to act on an _area_ within a window - but now that I'm actually trying to do that, it appears it can't: It just acts on the whole window - so I'm going to have to use panes.

(Edit: Or nested windows, which I'd forgotten about - just pointed out by Jan-Jaap on Twitter)

I imagine they aren't particularly hard, but I've never looked at either before - on top of which my only WIMP programming experience is in C, not BASIC, which really isn't helping. BASIC confuses me now with it's lack of... well... everything useful!



[Edited by VincceH at 14:01, 2/7/2011]
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VinceH Message #118145, posted by VincceH at 14:50, 2/7/2011, in reply to message #118143
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
So I start a new test program whose task is simply to open a parent window, then the child windows that will be needed within.

And I've started again, and again, and again - because I'm back to a blind spot I suffered for ages last night: I'm doing something incredibly stupid and as a result the first window isn't opening. The program is just hanging.

Gah! Rage
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Matthew Wightman Message #118155, posted by msww at 07:38, 3/7/2011, in reply to message #118143
Member
Posts: 4
I'd assumed ZapRedraw could be made to act on an _area_ within a window - but now that I'm actually trying to do that, it appears it can't: It just acts on the whole window - so I'm going to have to use panes.
You can use ZapRedraw to redraw an area: by using ZapRedraw_RedrawArea directly, you get more control over how ZapRedraw behaves, but it does less of the work for you.
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VinceH Message #118157, posted by VincceH at 10:28, 3/7/2011, in reply to message #118155
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
You can use ZapRedraw to redraw an area: by using ZapRedraw_RedrawArea directly, you get more control over how ZapRedraw behaves, but it does less of the work for you.
Yeah, that makes sense in the cold light of day-on-which-I'm-not-utterly-exhausted-and-suffering-a-totaly-evil-headache. Yesterday and Friday, however, I stood no chance, which is probably why I was struggling to do even the simplest of things.

Mind you, it doesn't help doing stupid things like writing an entire program in BASIC and terminating every line with a semi colon, DIMing memory blocks and trying to access them with block[offset], using != in conditions, and so on - more than half of my aborted test programs over the last coupld of days were the result of me programming in BASIC while thinking in C.

Anyway, the situation as of last night is that I have a parent window, in which there's a child window taking up the lower two thirds or so: The space in the top window will be where the graphic goes, and ZapRedraw takes care of the child window.

In theory, now that I'm not the zombie I've been over the last couple of days, I could go back and look at ZapRedraw with a fully functioning brain and do it all in a single window - but since I've got something working now that's roughly how I want it, I might as well stick with it.

For now, at least: It would be nice if I could get Quicksand running in a window in time for next week's show - if I go back and revisit how ZapRedraw works, I stand no chance. I don't stand a brilliant chance of making it work anyway, because I have an unfortunately busy day today, but I stand a better chance if I do it as is. Once the show's out of the way, I could then go back and use ZapRedraw to handle an area of the main window.
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VinceH Message #118196, posted by VincceH at 15:31, 8/7/2011, in reply to message #118157
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
After a bad start last week, when I was in no condition whatsoever to do any programming* and ended up getting almost nowhere over the course of two days, then making more progress in a couple of hours on Sunday than I had on those previous two days...

I've squeezed in an hour here and there over the course of this week and Quicksand is now running in the RISC OS desktop.

It's not perfect - I've used no colour in the text window, and only the default font with ZapRedraw (I presume that's actually the system font, or Zap's equivalent thereof), but it is working.

It's also text only at the moment - I've ignored the graphics stuff to get the basic game up and running, but because I've got it working already (I was expecting it to be a late night job) I might have a bash at the graphics this evening, after I've had a bit of a break.

Just in time for tomorrow. smile

More importantly, once I'm satisfied that everything's working properly (in fact, I might take the opportunity to rewrite it properly), I can rebuild the old demo games to use the new Trellis program, so they'll run in a window too - and, of course, when I finally get around to It's No Game and Worcester Smith, so will they.
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VinceH Message #118199, posted by VincceH at 18:59, 8/7/2011, in reply to message #118196
VincceH
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time

Posts: 1600
It's also text only at the moment - I've ignored the graphics stuff to get the basic game up and running, but because I've got it working already (I was expecting it to be a late night job) I might have a bash at the graphics this evening, after I've had a bit of a break.
And that'll be that job done.
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