Platform games….

On my sabatical from Z80 based systems I was doing a lot of fun* things with CMSs. So using Tumblr really feels like both: a) a refreshing change b) a crippling change

So – I’m thinking… do I try and install a CMS again?

Honest answer – I’m not sure. I’ve used some systems – and even contributed in one way or the other with them. And even though I can appreciate their positive aspects – there’s always the concern about security.

At the end of the day – there’s a lot of naughty and not nice people out there. Ok, I appreciate there are some well meaning hacker types who will advise developers of where they’ve gone wrong… but there’s also not-so-nice types who delight in being unpleasant. And at the end of the day – whatever size project you’re supporting – there’s always that risk that some not-well-meaning type will make life just too hard for a projects team.

Putting all that aside – I’m still considering it. There’s one or two smaller projects I rather like the look of – and there’s the obligitory over sized projects like WordPress… but as I said – security is my concern. And stability.

Knowing which CMS platform to go for is harder than deciding where to place what type of platform tile in a room or series of rooms, that’s for certain!

Oh fun fun fun. Let’s get back to some code and graphics fixes instead while I ponder on all this!

Hugs + Kisses

*Fun is a term that I would use both in an accurate – and a very satirical vein. Projects, unfortunately, involve people. People can be very nice, very helpful, and good fun to go on camping trips with. Or they can be complete *******  who go behind peoples back, steal servers, rip off code with no creditation, go on a hate and smear campaign – and basically be complete and utter…. well not nice people. Come to think of it – that’s probably the same in all communities sadly.

PS: Edited a naughty word!

Updates

Well flu did really mess me up recently. Only just getting back into my stride again….

However – before my breathing system got replaced with a mixture of superglue and sawdust – work was moving along rather well on level one of the game.

Indeed – it appears that I only really need to add some corrected sprites (slightly mislined in the grabbing process), some conveyor belts moving the right direction (but why can’t I confuse people and have the pointing the wrong way? :)) and a couple of key blocks.

Otherwise it’s looking pretty good.

The good thing is – that the work on level 1 will also rather help with level 2 somewhat – so as soon as my fixes are done in the next few days (hopefully!) then I can finally get 2 underway.

Also managed to get a nice shiny new font installed…. and realised that if I want – I could even go for a multi-colour approach. I’ll have to test that though to see what it looks like…

I have been toying with a few miner (ho ho) changes to the finished names of the game and levels – not set in stone (ho ho) yet – but we’ll see very soon!

Anyway – back to the vics, and early night – and perhaps more code tomorrow again!

Where’s the Vicks ?

My head feels like sawdust

Really been suffering with a nasty dose of a cold for last couple of weeks fortunately it’s finally clearing but it’s still as fuzzy as a box full of Tribbles but not quite as cute

Anyway I have some wonderful graphics to work on for the project thank you graphical genius you so after work today and try and get something is fixed such as the wrong direction conveyor belts and some sprites that have been grabbed a bit wonky

Then onto the next phase of the project as soon as possible

Still enjoying playing around my lovely Trinity interface and intend to be doing more coding and graphic work directly on the real machine where possible because it does help with development sometimes

Oh well coffee then off to work me thinks catch you later

Keep Movin On

Two steps forwards one step back as the song went

Decided I was getting a bit fed up on social media so cut it down a little bit and I managed to get a little bit further with my project also rather encouraged by the Splendid work in Adrian Browns dizzy demo

So here I am stuck at home surrounded by Horrible white stuff that’s also known as snow and watching the gritters pass through the window but not literally thank goodness

anyway I have to bare the elements but fortunately not literally grab some shopping and then back on the keyboard

SID + Trinity + SAM = Fun!

Currently working hard on an article and chilling our with some SID Tunes played on SAM with Random play via Trinity!
Using an old program I put together a few years back – although noticing I was missing half the tunes by getting the directory size wrong was embarrassing!

(Forgot the directory was held in 256 bytes – not 512! At least I worked it out!)

I’m definitely going to be supporting Trinity on my big project – but first I need to get this one finished 🙂

Patreon… Not ising.

Was introduced to patron recently by a good friend and have signed up for a couple of interesting produces content providers and not sure what the proper term is

Anyway really pleased to see that the excellent writer David gerrold yes the bloke that created the Tribbles is serialising part of his most infamous science fiction series the War of the Chtorr.

Definitely recommended if you like your science fiction a bit bloody and well interesting

Back to resting and trying to get rid of this bloody cold I have might get a few more bits of graphic work done before I have another nap

Lets get jiggy…

Bit of a new year break – had a bit of illness… but despite all that – ready to go!

Have now got my SAM armed with Trinity (WOW!) and SID Interface.. and am really planning to jump on my work with being able to test on a Live SAM 🙂

More later !

Update

So to recap…

Been working on my own utils for the game. Not pretty but work well enough.

Currently replacing original graphics with the new redesigned ones.. ready for the first and second sets of levels. The third set aren’t far off.

Some improvements made on the main animation – which is looking “
Schway” to say the least!

Lots of other bits coming along… but still more to do – so back I get to it… when is my music starting Spotify?

Certainly not over hyped

I’ll keep this quick because I want to go back to it later

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to go to the retro show in Manchester now that was an experience and a half particularly for somebody who’s a little on the crippled side like myself as it’s not really designed for people walking but that’s another matter

Anyway it was quite interesting show there was a nice talk about the very interesting spectrum addict video which apart from a few people in the audience making comments about a certain handheld which I am not going to go on about was rather interesting

Some interesting stands lovely old machines saw a zx81 running with one of the expanded storage units and I think the dragons lair conversion by Jim Bagley. Very impressive work indeed and I really wish I knew how we can press that and resells and it’s something I really would like to see on the blue-footed one

There was some interesting stands particularly for Raspberry Pi tinkerers and two particular favourites were the Llamasoft stand and of course the Hewson stand.

I’m really pleased to a finding that Mr Jeff Minter himself,who is a very nice chap indeed, and his game which my voice recognition cannot understand … but it’s the one used in the Nine Inch Nails video less than, is very impressive. Especially in 3D.

If you’re reading Mr Minter,which I doubt but you never know, then I’ll try and bring some lion bars to your stand next time because I know that you rather like them.

Hewson stand had a great book written by Andrew Hewson and the demo of a very impressive game called hyper Sentinel.

Let’s be direct me honest here hyper sentinel is definitely very very very inspired by a certain well-known spectrum and Commodore 64 scrolling shoot Em Up.

And let’s be honest it is bloody good.

In fact that’s rather an underestimate.

It’s a simple game in the sense that you can jump straight in without any convoluted storylines. But it is fast, it is fun, it looks good, it sounds good, it plays incredibly well.

It has tributes to the Commodore 64 and the spectrum in the form of of switchable graphics Styles. That’s nice, not crucial, but it’s fun to see.

Apparently it was a Kickstarter project and it’s good to see any of these that work well although that’s not something I’m afraid I’m touching myself (no innuendo intended there …. gosh this is starting to sound like your Sinclair on a bad day).

Anyone there was a recent sale on. I finally got around to ordering it. I’ve got it now and my goodness I am very impressed.

If you order a physical copy then you will get a very nicely designed cassette shaped box with a cassette shaped USB drive. This really looks nice and takes me back to the days of decent games.

My only niggle about the physical version and to be totally honest I can understand why it is so is that you still need to sign up to steam to play it but with these days out more and more piracy it’s unavoidable.

There is very interesting extra contents with videos, which I do need to sit down to enjoy properly, with Mr Hewson. These seemed to tie in with the book I bought earlier. Also some nice archives and classic Hewson adverts and reviews.

I’m a little disappointed they didn’t include some of their original games but of course they are available out there so that’s not a big problem but it would have been nice.

I suspect that some rights issue regarding including them on the USB drive I doubt it space but is probably some legal reason.

Anyway no spoilers on the game it’s fast it’s fun it’s frantic my reactions are rubbish so I’m not scoring brilliantly but I’m enjoying it. I Will had some screens up later but you probably know what it looks like and you probably know what it’s very inspired by. I will say is it is definitely worth the money.

There’s some interesting demos of new products on there. I tried the point and Click adventure which I wasn’t very good at but looks quite nice I’ll get round to the others.

Anyway topmarks to all involved I’ll stick a link on later for it but have a look on Facebook if you use a horrible system because there is a few adverts running and with the crazy sales at the moment you might even spend less than I paid.

Sorry for the run on text as usual muscle pains in my hand

Achooo!

Damn flu – make me even grumpier than normal, if that’s at all possible.

However, one thing that has brought a smile to my face (which is a rare site – and tantamount normally to seeing Mr Michael Myers of the Haddonfield Myers, wearing his beloved mask… as in rather scary!) is seeing some amazing graphics for my current project.

Thank you to the talented person responsible, and these will certainly help make it look much much better!

Have done a bit more work – hope to get more on the way now i’ve stopped with as many pounding migraines.