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Program Announcements / DUOtris (Full Game)

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fog
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Posted: 13th Oct 2004 07:14
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Hi all,
This was initially intended to be nothing more than a little side project to test the online highscore system las6 has written for our main project but took on a life of it's own.

As you can probably guess it's a block based puzzle game but it's hopefully got a few original touches......a couple of elements stolen from DUO, powerups, fireworks and a load of animals

Main coding's by me with main graphics by las6......a vast improvement over DUO (which to be fair wouldn't have been hard)

It also features a cracking FK'd Reality Compositions soundtrack thanks to AaronF and Michael King

Anyway play, hopefully enjoy and help test the online score system.

Comments and crits appreciated.......cheers

http://www.binaryzoo.com/games/duotris/index.htm

Shrunken Screenie:


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hexGEAR
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Posted: 13th Oct 2004 07:47 Edited at: 13th Oct 2004 08:35
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That looks sick... well done you guys! Lets just see if it plays and sounds as good as it looks...

[edit]

well i gotta hand it to you... it does look, sound and play good! excellent job boys it ran beautifully on my computer! The look and feel of the game was in sync and the controls good. The only problem i got is discussed below.

P.S Hex is on the online high scores but i fear not for long!

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Torrey
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Posted: 13th Oct 2004 07:55
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This game plays nicely on my computers. It's a fun, addictive, and challenging game.

There was one thing I wish was different. When the game starts it goes in full screen window mode. With the window border, and the windows taskbar at the bottom it kind of takes away from the neatness factor of the game. I think that you should make it default to full screen mode, instead of the window. That way all the focus will be on your game, and not the things around it.
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Ilya
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Posted: 13th Oct 2004 12:18
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Good game but how do I enter my initals?
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fog
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Posted: 13th Oct 2004 16:46
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Quote: "
Good game but how do I enter my initals?
"

You need to hit backspace to erase the default name......maybe I should have made that clearer, sorry.

Quote: "
With the window border, and the windows taskbar at the bottom it kind of takes away from the neatness factor of the game.
"

To be honest it doesn't on my PC (maybe due to the fact that's my default resolution) and nobody mentioned it during testing.

I'd normally use Fullscreen Exclusive mode but that caused problems during testing the online score system. Anyway I'll look into it.....thanks

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Van B
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Posted: 13th Oct 2004 17:13
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I love the retro look, very Jeff Minteresque (now a remake of Llamatron, that'd be great) - gotta try it out tonight though, at work .


Van-B


Muhahahahaha.
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spooky
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Posted: 14th Oct 2004 03:29
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Brilliant game! Quite confusing at first but after a few goes it all starts to make sense. Took me ages to realise what the swap colours key did!

Runs like a dream on my pc with no jerkiness or anything.

I think the high score thingy lets the side down slightly by opening a browser inside the game. Doesn't quite fit in. Would have better to do it another way I think.

I'm on the high score table as 'spk' by the way.

Boo!
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medwayman
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Posted: 14th Oct 2004 04:36
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Excellent! Thanks for another great game
The game is visually appealing, the sound is great, and the gameplay is top notch. Well done the whole team.

Currently re-writing the game and re-doing sprites for 800x600 (was 640x480). This game will get a release soon.
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Peter H
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Posted: 14th Oct 2004 04:54 Edited at: 14th Oct 2004 05:01
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[edit] arg got this error
Quote: "Runtime Error 1507 - Display using 32 bit is not supported by available hardware at line 0"

BTW not my usual computer..will try it out on my usual PC should work there for sure so no need to panic or anything

DUO is better

"We make the worst games in the universe."

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BatVink
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Posted: 14th Oct 2004 05:44
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Yeah, I got similar messages on my laptop, it obviously pushes the hardware requirements. My problem was lack of graphics memory.

Just about to try it on my desktop.

BatVink
http://biglaugh.co.uk/catalog AMD 3000+ Barton, 512Mb Ram, 120 Gig Drive space, GeForce 5200 FX 128 Mb, Asus A7N8X Mobo.
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shockedfrog
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Posted: 14th Oct 2004 06:28
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I know it makes it look sort of arcadey, but when it comes to online scores, I don't really think initials are the way to go - it's more satisfying to be able to put your name or alias up. That said, many online highscores limit themselves to 10 characters, and shockedfrog needs 11 - so this way, I suppose everyone's limited Just hard to choose, although I think I'll stick with sf now (sfn and gjs are also me). I remember reading that Jeff Minter went by the name 'Yak' largely because it could fit on the arcade highscore tables.

Who's this kmo guy that's totally thrashing everyone?

Anyway, I'm hoping to get my site updated soon and finally add reviews of DUO and DUOtris. This is a great twist on other games of it's type, and perhaps most similar to Puyo Puyo (Mean Bean Machine) except for the addition of powerups, the duo element, and that you have to connect 3 pieces instead of 4. It doesn't quite have the same range of options as DUO does, although considering it was designed mostly for the highscore testing, it's deep enough. I'm curious about whether this would work well as a 2 player game - with two seperate dual-grids, either with each player controlling both parts of their own grid, or with player 1 controlling the top half of grid 1 and the bottom half of grid 2, and player 2 controlling the top half of grid 2 and the bottom half of grid 1. This would mean that powerups interfere with both player's games.

Only two minor problems I've encountered in this game - the fact that there's no option to submit scores except right after a game means that in the event of a problem with a connection, when the game goes back to the menu, the score is lost forever in terms of online highscores. An option at the bottom of the highscore table to submit scores that haven't already been successfully submitted would be handy, although adding such an option might make it more open to cheaters. The other minor problem is the fact that the graphics are a bit blurry - most of them improve by switching the desktop resolution to the game's 1024x768, but the instructions screen in particular stays blurry. I'm guessing this is due to it using the different fullscreen method, and since that comes in very useful when I need to connect to upload a score (no annoying errors caused by it clearing the sprites!) it's a reasonable sacrifice.

And the addition of those daft little animals around the edge of the instructions screen = good stuff. Even more Jeff Minter-ness, although I'm guessing it's meant to refer to the Binary Zoo name.
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kenmo
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Posted: 14th Oct 2004 11:09 Edited at: 27th Jun 2012 06:04
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"Who's this kmo guy that's totally thrashing everyone?"

Ha, that would be me.

(Shockedfrog??? Havent seen you in ages... Im barely on this forum... I doubt you remember me though. Havent put out a truly finished game in the 3 or so years Ive been programming.)
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Ilya
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Posted: 14th Oct 2004 11:28
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Do you use cheats?
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kenmo
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Posted: 14th Oct 2004 12:09 Edited at: 27th Jun 2012 06:04
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Nope, its all skill. Fog claims he can get over 1,800,000 so my current 800,000 isnt really that amazing.

edit - whoops, number typo
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BatVink
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Posted: 14th Oct 2004 20:01
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The screen shots show full blocks, I only see corners of the blocks, which makes it damn near impossible. Is it a bug or a feature I have missed?

Specs in my sig below.

BatVink
http://biglaugh.co.uk/catalog AMD 3000+ Barton, 512Mb Ram, 120 Gig Drive space, GeForce 5200 FX 128 Mb, Asus A7N8X Mobo.
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fog
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Posted: 14th Oct 2004 20:18
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@ spooky
Yeah this was initially developed to test the online side of things so that is something we'll be looking to keep improving on. If I can get the Fullscreen Exclusive mode to work properly then it will look a hell of a lot better. Cheers.

@ Custard
Thanks again. Hopefully more to follow.

@ Peter_X
Yeah 32bit only I'm affraid. I thought about a 16 bit mode but because of the techniques I've used it simply wouldn't work. Sorry.

Quote: "DUO is better"

Heh glad you still like it. Check the DUO page on my site for some of your and others quotes (thanks to Hamish for the idea )

@ BatVink
Quote: "The screen shots show full blocks, I only see corners of the blocks, which makes it damn near impossible. Is it a bug or a feature I have missed?"

The corners of the blocks are brighter but if that's all you can see then it just sounds like your monitor is very dark. Let me know if you still have problems

@shockedfrog
Hey mate how's the site coming along? Thanks for the detailed feedback.....just what I need.

Quote: "I know it makes it look sort of arcadey, but when it comes to online scores, I don't really think initials are the way to go"

Fair point and yes, rightly or wrongly, one reason was because it is more arcadey. However the main reasoning was unfortunately to do with how it might be abused. Sadly there are certain individuals that would abuse a system that allowed any name (I believe Andy has experience of this) and we simply didn't want to have to police it 24/7. las6 has even gone to the trouble of filetering out certain 3 letter combinations but to try and filter all possibilities would be almost impossible. It's a decision we'd rather not have made but I believe we had little choice.

Quote: "I remember reading that Jeff Minter went by the name 'Yak' largely because it could fit on the arcade highscore tables."

Same here. Been using the same alias for nearly 20 years.

Quote: "I'm curious about whether this would work well as a 2 player game....."

Me too and I might give it a go if I do another version
A 2-player co-op mode is something I considered adding to DUO but never got around to....I might just add it when I do the little revamp I have planned.

Quote: "An option at the bottom of the highscore table to submit scores that haven't already been successfully submitted would be handy, although adding such an option might make it more open to cheaters."

Again I agree but yes, it was in an effort to beat cheaters. Maybe that wouldn't be much of a problem on this game but thinking to the future it might be on the bigger projects we have planned.

Quote: "The other minor problem is the fact that the graphics are a bit blurry - most of them improve by switching the desktop resolution to the game's 1024x768, but the instructions screen in particular stays blurry. I'm guessing this is due to it using the different fullscreen method, and since that comes in very useful when I need to connect to upload a score (no annoying errors caused by it clearing the sprites!) it's a reasonable sacrifice."

Exactly right. As mentioned earlier I'd prefer to use Full Screen Excllusive mode but this causes problems with the online score submission. Hopefully I can find a solution.

Quote: "And the addition of those daft little animals around the edge of the instructions screen = good stuff. Even more Jeff Minter-ness, although I'm guessing it's meant to refer to the Binary Zoo name."

Heh yeah. They are a reference to Binaryzoo but certainly inspired by that lovable hairly hippy

Also if you move the mouse pointer along the bottom of the menu screen you can trigger a nice "fireworks" display (hold the right mouse button to temporarily hide the menu)

@kenmo
Impressive scores mate.

Quote: "Nope, its all skill. Fog claims he can get over 1,800,000 so my current 800,000 isnt really that amazing."

What do you mean "claims"...do you doubt me

@Ilya
To get higher scores it's worth reading the tips in the instructions. You need to get big combos on faster speed settings to get kenmo sized scores.

For the record the basic score formula is:

Points = Number of Blocks Removed * Block Speed * Combo

....then of course you get extra bonuses for "DUOtris" and "x2" powerups.

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kenmo
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Posted: 15th Oct 2004 04:47 Edited at: 27th Jun 2012 06:04
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"What do you mean "claims"...do you doubt me"
Maaaybe...

"You need to get big combos on faster speed settings to get kenmo sized scores."
Haha, what an honor.
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BatVink
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Posted: 15th Oct 2004 06:12
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No...definitely missing the middle of the blocks...



BatVink
http://biglaugh.co.uk/catalog AMD 3000+ Barton, 512Mb Ram, 120 Gig Drive space, GeForce 5200 FX 128 Mb, Asus A7N8X Mobo.
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BatVink
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Posted: 15th Oct 2004 06:26
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I fixed it by adding an extra grey block to the centre of the png file. I now have some funky fluorescent blocks, and 11th place on the scoreboard!!

BatVink
http://biglaugh.co.uk/catalog AMD 3000+ Barton, 512Mb Ram, 120 Gig Drive space, GeForce 5200 FX 128 Mb, Asus A7N8X Mobo.
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Osiris
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Posted: 15th Oct 2004 08:28
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WOOOOOOOOO!...
awesome

anyone can be a hero, but a soldier can be a hero five minuets longer....
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Ilya
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Posted: 15th Oct 2004 09:08
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Yay. Got 200,000.
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Peter H
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Posted: 15th Oct 2004 09:56
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lol...can't believe you quoted me

"We make the worst games in the universe."

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shockedfrog
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Posted: 15th Oct 2004 10:25
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kenmo - yeah, I remember you Just returned to coding recently, and was further helped by the fact that I started going to college recently and have actually met a real life DB coder. Hopefully I can finally finish Bomb Dodger, after I rewrite the whole game to not use the backsave thing, then I can finally get to work on a dafter, larger project!

Fog - the site as a whole really needs a lot of work, but hopefully I'll have the reviews updated again this or next week.

Now to try playing with a different speed and to get a higher score before the table consists of 10 kmos!
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fog
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Posted: 15th Oct 2004 18:45
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@ BatVink
Hmm that screeny doesn't look good. Looks like your PC can't handle the alpha on the blocks and unfortunately we've used a lot of alpha in our images. Anyway glad you managed to get something sorted.....it hasn't stopped you getting some decent scores

@ Osirus
Thanks. Glad you like it.

@ Peter_X
Quote: "lol...can't believe you quoted me"

lol....and I can't believe you've changed your name....again

@ shockedfrog
Quote: "Now to try playing with a different speed and to get a higher score before the table consists of 10 kmos! "

Don't let it happen.....he'll be unbearable

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the_winch
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Posted: 16th Oct 2004 03:20
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BatVink set your display to 32bit. I get exactly the same when running in 16 bit.

http://winch.pinkbile.com/
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BatVink
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Posted: 16th Oct 2004 07:17 Edited at: 16th Oct 2004 07:18
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Mr the_winch, you were right. I knew my PC specs were OK, it's a nice little motor. Now to see if 32-bit makes my glass look any better...

Edit: IT DOES!!! Waheey! I have glass!

BatVink
http://biglaugh.co.uk/catalog AMD 3000+ Barton, 512Mb Ram, 120 Gig Drive space, GeForce 5200 FX 128 Mb, Asus A7N8X Mobo.
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Damokles
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Posted: 16th Oct 2004 08:03
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Wonderful game, like always.

Will DuoBreakOut be the next one ?


- Mind the gap -
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kenmo
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Posted: 16th Oct 2004 08:50 Edited at: 27th Jun 2012 06:05
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Dont worry, I hit the million mark, my goal is complete.
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shockedfrog
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Posted: 17th Oct 2004 10:09 Edited at: 17th Oct 2004 10:10
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Woo! Finally stopped being lazy and updated the site.

http://www.shockedfrog.com/gaming/freeware/

Reviews of DUO and DUOtris both added.
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Cyberflame
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Posted: 18th Oct 2004 08:31
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This game R0x0rz m4 b0x0rz.

=P

http://neoeden.web1000.com

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Peter H
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Posted: 18th Oct 2004 23:02
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i finally got a chance to play it

i think the gameplay isn't quite as good as DUO...but it's really good for tetris

but the graphics are much smoother(if that's possible!)

Quote: "lol....and I can't believe you've changed your name....again
"

heh..i would just go by "peter" but it's already taken so i just got the idea to change it to "Peter_" because it drives me crazy when people call me "Peter_x" or "peter_h"

i'll go change it...

--Peter

"We make the worst games in the universe."

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fog
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Posted: 20th Oct 2004 18:57
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@ Damokles
Cheers. No, I think we'll be giving "DUO" style games a rest for a while. I have a few ideas we may do sometime but now it's time to move on and try something bigger and hopefully better.

@ kenmo
Well the aim of this was to test our online highscore system and you've certainly given it a thorough testing. I know who to contact for our next bit of playtesting

@ shockedfrog
Nice one. It's always good to get some constructive feedback so thanks for the honest reviews (but then I would say that with DUO getting a 10/10 )

@ Peter_
Thanks again whatever you're calling yourself today. I'll update my quotes page but this is the last time

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Peter H
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Posted: 20th Oct 2004 22:30 Edited at: 20th Oct 2004 22:30
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Quote: "@ Peter_ "

the last three names have all been futile attempts to get people to call me "Peter"...no "_"s no "_H"s or "_X"s

i would just go by plain "peter" but it's taken by some inactive person

"We make the worst games in the universe."

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blue
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Posted: 22nd Oct 2004 12:15
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Once again, I'm just amazed. IMO, you're one of the most talented 'developers' working in DB today -- great design, simple yet neat graphics, and perfect gameplay. Now I'm wondering if it'd be possible to update DUO to incorperate online scoreboards. At any rate, good job for the second time.
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Peter H
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Posted: 23rd Oct 2004 03:45 Edited at: 23rd Oct 2004 03:46
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Quote: "update DUO to incorperate online scoreboards. "

yah! yah! yah! yah! yah! yah! yah! yah! yah! yah! yah! yah!



then i could pwn everybody

"We make the worst games in the universe."

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fog
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Posted: 23rd Oct 2004 04:33
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@blue
Thanks. In answer to your question, yes, now the DUOtris is complete we plan on giving DUO a quick cosmetic makeover and also adding the online highscore system. I may slip in a few other minor things as well but right now that's the only planned change to the actual code.

Hopefully that will keep Peter happy as well (see, no "_H", "_X" or "_" )

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teh game wiz
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Posted: 23rd Oct 2004 08:31
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my eyes hurt... i think i've been playing this for too long... its too addictive !!

great game... sister says "its pretty"

http://www.elliot-dickerson.co.uk
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fog
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Posted: 27th Oct 2004 05:34
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Thanks game wiz......and game wiz's sister

Anyway version 1.02 is now up.

http://www.binaryzoo.com/games/duotris/index.htm

This adds "next colour" indicators (although if you have time to look at them you should be playing on a faster speed ) , online code has been converted to run using BlueGUI v2 (thanks RobK) and numerous but fairly minor cosmetic changes.

Unless there are any new bugs reported this will be the final version as this has proved the online highscore code works (which was the whole point of the excercise) and we can return to working on our main project.

Thanks.

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Peter H
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Posted: 27th Oct 2004 23:01 Edited at: 27th Oct 2004 23:02
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BTW after you submit your online score is there any way to start a new game without restarting the entire app????

because i couldn't get back to the main menu

"We make the worst games in the universe."

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fog
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Posted: 28th Oct 2004 02:22
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Hi Peter,
yeah when viewing the online highscore page simply pressing any key should return you to the game.

If not then chances are you have something like a firewall pop-up behind the game window so make sure your firewall is configured to allow DUOtris net access.

Try accessing it again and if you're still having problems Email me and I'll see if I can sort something out for you.

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Tersaken
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Posted: 29th Oct 2004 03:23
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Really, it's a good game ...
You broke the rules of a classical tetris to make something much more original.
It's very funny, and never,I have been bored by your work !!
Keep working as good as now !!

Athlon Barton 2500+ ; 512 Mo DDR2 ; GeForce Fx 5200 Ultra 128 MoDDR.
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Damokles
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Posted: 29th Oct 2004 03:58
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Tersaken, traitre, tu as pris mon ancien avatar.

This game will come in the anals of history

- Mind the gap -
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Tersaken
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Posted: 29th Oct 2004 04:50
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sorry damocles, i did not know you had this Picture as portrait !

Athlon Barton 2500+ ; 512 Mo DDR2 ; GeForce Fx 5200 Ultra 128 MoDDR.
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Damokles
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Posted: 29th Oct 2004 06:46
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nevermind, just a joke.
Don't take it too seriously.

- Mind the gap -
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Peter H
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Posted: 29th Oct 2004 09:30
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Quote: "yeah when viewing the online highscore page simply pressing any key should return you to the game."

hhmmm...i clicked in every imaginable place...but i didn't try hitting a key

...

"We make the worst games in the universe."

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shockedfrog
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Hmm, I'm mixed about the addition of the next colour indicator - on the plus side, it does seem to give the player a lot more control over what's happening, and it has got me up to the top of the highscore table. The obvious minus is that since I'm somehow able to reach the top, the game is obviously too easy now! Seriously, though, the 10th (last) level of Arcade mode is pretty easy - it only really gets hard once you begin to get a little bored of it, or you get too many bad powerups. Although making changes now would probably imbalance the current high scores, and I think you want to work on something else now anyway , I think it would be a good idea to add different challenges for levels after 10. I don't think changing the arena size or speed any more would work - perhaps changing the powerup chances (less chance of good, or more chance of bad), or maybe removing the next piece indicator after reaching a certain level after 10.

Basically, it's a pretty good update in general and makes the Classic mode a bit more interesting, and it's nice to see the fixed version of the title screen that I never realised was broken in the first place, apart from the strange graphical style. My review's been updated to take account of the next piece indicator and the slightly lower file size.
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Jeku
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Posted: 2nd Nov 2004 05:00
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Fog! What a fun game this is! I would love to know how you do the "fuzzy" vector-like graphical style, but I know that it is so unqiue it's worth keeping to one's self

Good job


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fog
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Joined: 5th Oct 2003
Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 7th Nov 2004 05:26
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@ Tersaken & Damokles
Glad you both liked it.

@shockedfrog
Hi. Yeah the "next colour indicator" was added due to a couple of requests and is mainly of benefit for new players on the slower levels. Also I wouldn't put your highscore down as it's certainly higher than anything I've managed and to date still sits at the top of the table.
As for making the later levels harder I did try a few methods but they all felt artificial and unfair. The creation of the powerups is already tightly controled and not entirely random as it may appear. For example no "bad" powerups are created when you are approaching a game over situation as I feel it would be unfair if you lost purely due to the random creation of the wrong type of powerup. That was just a gameplay decision I made but I may be wrong.
Like you said for now though we are moving onto something else.....although I do have a couple of new game modes in mind so may well return to this one day.
Thanks again.

@Jeku
Thanks. Not seen you around much lately
The graphics aren't anything clever, we just make a lot of use of the alpha channel in our images. Many have no 100% solid parts at all and IIRC the centre of the blocks have the aplha set as low as 5%. On top of that a lot of the sprites also have their alpha and diffuse settings altered in code. Oh and having a talented artist on the team helps

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