Sorry your browser is not supported!

Hello AGKers,

I've been writing games and programs since from 1979, and self taught. I've not used the Basic language since around 1981 where I usual code in Assembly Language or a C Variant these days.

However, I thought it's about time I tried AppGameKit and see if it really lives up to it's name, Code Once Deploy Everywhere, and to relearn BASIC in it's updated form.

I created a remake of Manic Miner in the 90's on Windows as an exercise to learn DirectX.

I only code when I have spare time, which these days isn't very much with home and work life, Let's face it, making money as an indie developer these days is not like it used to be in the 90s!

I will be updating my Blog as progress is made, and will share code with you, and if our FB page gets enough likes, we will release the full source code completely free for other AGK'ers to modify as they see fit/fix my bugs etc.

I started using AppGameKit Tier 1 about two weeks ago, but I've clocked in only 18 hours so far on this project, which includes reading the "Hands on AppGameKit Basic Book" by Alistair Stewart. However, it demonstrates the ease of the language and the rapid development/prototyping that I know your already familiar with.

I'm using AGK2.0.10 (now AGK2.0.11) on a Mac platform, and I received explicit permission from Andy Noble to use his artwork in the game.

Here's the first video, this took about 4 hours to create as I was struggling with some of the syntax and what turned out to be bugs in AGK..

Manic Miner Loading Screen written in AGK...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCO88dBOfjM&list=UUW3TGG7dNBMg7Q7tXXoQbcQ

I implemented the levels this morning (about two hours work)

Manic Miner Levels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3dF9EPYWCQ&list=UUW3TGG7dNBMg7Q7tXXoQbcQ

If you want to follow progress of the project you can follow here :-

https://manicmineragk.wordpress.com

and please share and like us on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/WonkyPix

And yes, I know this game has been remade so many times, there are plenty of versions out there already

Thank you for your time.
Jason

This looks great! I love Manic Miner. Timeless gameplay. Eugene's lair gave me a few nightmares back in the 80s, especially when I collected all the items and saw what his fiendish final trick was. This version looks very faithful to the original.

Im wanting to write a simple platform game
so im following this tutorial on your site
Will the next tutorial be up soon .?

Thanks for this!

Hi Mozzy,

Thank you for following

Yes the new tutorials will be up at some point over the weekend, I am fitting everything in between a demanding real job, family life and the only time I have available at weekends.

The last tutorial took several hours to prepare. Both the text and video to go with it, so please bear with me.

The upcoming tutorials will be (subject to change)

1) How to Animate the Manic Miner Loading Screen
2) How to simulate the ZX Spectrum Loading Bars
3) Adding a Tape Controller to the effect of number 2.
4) Adding the Piano title page and optimisation tricks for new coders to reduce the number of draws to the screen/scene.
5) How to code the Piano keys when playing music. This is quite clever as it is scaleable and can play as many notes as AppGameKit can handle.
6) Creating the Level Scenes, With Static and Moving blocks along with optimisation tricks for new coders.
7) Adding Actors to the scene and making this scaleable and scriptable (it)
8) Adding Miner Willy to the scene
9) Playing the scene
10) Fine tuning with pixel perfect collision detection
11) Fine tuning the game and end scenes.

This will take time on my side, however from a game perspective I have implemented the Actors to the scene and just working on adding a playable Miner Willy.

As always, if we get enough likes on our Facebook page we will release the full source code of the project on GitHub so anyone can tailor the MM engine for their own 2d platforms

So please help spread the word!

Kind Regards
Jason

Love this tutorial, especially the new fake Zx Spectrum tape loading.
Keep them coming!!
btw, if i was to use the fake spectrum loading screen in my game,
would there be copyright issues, if i was to release it.?

Btw2, u seem to be very talented.!
any chance u knocking me up a crude text scroll upwards function
star wars style.? bet u could do it in 5 mins!

It's been a while I know, my day job has taken me away from doing some fun stuff. However, V1.0 of my Manic Miner Re-Write Re-Write in AppGameKit Tier 1 Basic is now available for you to download, have a play and let me know what you think.

It's completely free of course and the download links are as follows :-

Completely written in Tier 1 BASIC.

Mac OSX

Linux - Experimental Build as my Ubuntu won't play nicely with AGK

Windows

Enjoy!

Apologies everyone, if you have downloaded, please download the game again, a bug slipped in when it checks for the game version to see if a newer one is available. I will only perform the check periodically, but the version last night checks overtime you start the game.

There's also an instruction file included.

Hope you enjoy it

Mac OSX Version

Windows

Linux - Experimental Build as my Ubunto doesn't play nicely