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DarkBASIC Professional Discussion / - DBPro Coding Challenges -

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Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 5th Feb 2007 15:16
There was such A game, I know I had it quite awhile ago perhaps it was called Welltris? not sure but it had full 3 dimensional shapes to drop into a box basically.

gadgetfreak 66
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Posted: 5th Feb 2007 15:20
yeah, i've seen those. But i think the idea of being able rotate the central cube with all the blocks stuck to it would make it fairly different.


omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latina
Ric
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Posted: 5th Feb 2007 16:12
Ok - how about this then ... a challenge to make a game based on a classic (like pong or tetris), but with some new angle on it? Sort of a retro remake challenge, but more 'retro reinvented' than remade. ??

gadgetfreak 66
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Posted: 5th Feb 2007 17:15
yeah, that'd be good. It'd bring a bit more variety into the challenge aswell.


omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latina
Diggsey
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Posted: 5th Feb 2007 18:24
Sounds good!

Ric
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Posted: 5th Feb 2007 18:32
Ok - that's enough yes votes for me!

_____________________________________________________

** New Challenge **

Retro Reinvention Challenge!

Create a game, based on a retro classic, but with a different twist. Lots of scope there - I'm not going to be fussy about what counts as 'retro', 'classic' or 'different' - just have fun!

-----------------------------------------------------
Deadline: 2 weeks as usual (19th Feb)
-----------------------------------------------------

Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 6th Feb 2007 22:17
A start only, hope I can finish this in time. left right move space fires (though nothing to shoot yet)



gadgetfreak 66
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Posted: 7th Feb 2007 00:05
Interesting. Took me a little while to figure out that it looks like a tunnel (that is what it is, isn't it?). Reminds me of an all to addictive game called torus trooper:
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/windows/tt_e.html


omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latina
Zotoaster
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Posted: 7th Feb 2007 01:54
There's a D programming language? (The language Torus Trooper was made in)

Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 7th Feb 2007 02:19
Kind of, it is actually an attempt at Tempest, real early arcade game.

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=T&game_id=10065

Phaelax
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Posted: 7th Feb 2007 07:30
game remake? sounds more like another retro remake competition rather than coding challenge. 'Any' classic game leaves this rather open and broad. Any interest in narrowing it down?

I'm just somewhat against it cause I was starting a remake of an old amiga game, with media.

gadgetfreak 66
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Posted: 7th Feb 2007 07:50
Yeah, D. ABA Games was the first I heard of it too. Shame, really. Just think, a DB version of BulletML. That would be useful.


omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latina
Ric
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Posted: 7th Feb 2007 09:03
Quote: "'Any' classic game leaves this rather open and broad. Any interest in narrowing it down?"


Should have got your voice heard before the challenge started! I basically went along with public opinion when setting this, and a retro remake type challenge is what we agreed on. Can't change it now, but as always - win the challenge, and you get to set the next one!

Anyway - having a broad and open challenge probably doesn't hurt once in a while - at least it allows people to be creative.

acelepage
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Posted: 7th Feb 2007 21:09 Edited at: 8th Feb 2007 05:30
I remember a game at the arcade I used to play. I think it was called Star Castle. It was a vector graphics game, so ideal for a 'medialess' implementation. I haven't seen the game for many years, so I have programmed it from memory. I remember the screen had a transparent coloured circle in the centre to make the central ship and shields look a different colour (because the arcade machine graphics were monochrome).
Here is my interpretation of the game. The twist? I have added shields to the player's ship, which I do not recall being available in the arcade game. I have also added colour.

Edit: now that I have read up on the old game, I have updated the code to require double hits on the shields. I also REMed out the timer() check. If it runs too fast, just uncomment lines 166, 167


( 2b || !2b ), that is the question. The answer: true
RiiDii
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Posted: 7th Feb 2007 22:10 Edited at: 7th Feb 2007 22:12
Wow acelepage! That is great. Nearly what I remember (though, like you, I'm a bit fuzzy on the details).

Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Castle


Open MMORPG: It's your game!
acelepage
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Posted: 8th Feb 2007 00:26
RiiDii,
I just read up on the game from your link to Wikipedia. I see I missed a few points. The mines come from the rings. And I don't have the core shields rotating faster as the levels go up.
Now that I read it, I remember it better. Perhaps I'll be able to update the code before the end of the competition.

( 2b || !2b ), that is the question. The answer: true
Brain111
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Posted: 8th Feb 2007 05:52
I made a game called Snipe Invaders. If you can't figure out what it's a remake of... well... sorry.

Basically, the enemies come down, and you stand back and have to snipe them down. It's pretty self explanatory, you just point and shoot with the mouse.

Darth Vader
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Posted: 8th Feb 2007 07:45
Can somoen give me any Ideas on 'Retro' games?
Thanks!


gadgetfreak 66
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Posted: 8th Feb 2007 08:55
hmm....Okay:

PacMan
Pong
Space Invaders
Time Pilot
Brick Breaker
Pinball (maybe???)
Street Fighter
Top down racers (cant think of any names)

Thats about all i can think of.


omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latina
Ric
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Posted: 8th Feb 2007 09:45
.... also:

lunar lander
asteroids
defender
donkey kong
elite (now there's a classic!)

Just a few games I remember fondly!

@Acelepage: Nice work! Quite hard - but it really has a great retro feel. Brilliant sound effects too!

David Gervais
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Posted: 8th Feb 2007 11:31 Edited at: 8th Feb 2007 11:32
Classics I can think of not previously mentionned..

Atari Adventure
Spy Hunter
Jumpman
Load Runner
Pole Position
Miner 2049'er
Hard Hat Mac

Ok, I better stop before my eyes glaze over...

Cheers!

Edit: How could I forget Q-Bert? sorry.
acelepage
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Posted: 8th Feb 2007 15:13
More Classics:

Battle Zone (vector graphics)
Berzerk
Centipede
Lunar Lander (vector graphics)
Mr. Do
Pengo
Qix
Space Wars (vector graphics)

( 2b || !2b ), that is the question. The answer: true
Phaelax
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Posted: 8th Feb 2007 16:40
R-type
Lander (fly around and land on icons on Workbench)
Trix

Brain111
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Posted: 8th Feb 2007 23:38
Ok, I made some minor tweaks to my Snipe Invaders game.
Spopovich
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Posted: 11th Feb 2007 03:33
Here is the start to my entry of Dig Dug, though I don't think it is very good. Arrows move, space shoots the air pump thing and you hold shift to pump the enemy up. There are two levels and its pretty basic, hopefully I will actually work on it some more.


Also I made the images using data statements. Thats ok as long as I didn't use and image to data function right?

Do not ask what the forums can do ask what you can do for the forums.
Brain111
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Posted: 11th Feb 2007 04:39
Hahaha, i love the Dig Dug! The only things i would improve is the ability to make the shooter thing extend further (maybe just stretch the sprite?) and make the AI choose to turn into new paths more often.
Ric
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Posted: 11th Feb 2007 17:58 Edited at: 11th Feb 2007 17:58
@Brain111: Very nice - especially for a no-media project, it looks great. Although I guess the mouse cursor shooting method, rather than shooting vertically from the bottom of the screen, is a twist on the original, it does make it a bit easy. Probably because the shooting is 'instant' - rather than in the original, where you shoot a missile, but by the time it gets to the alien, the alien has moved a bit. I wonder if there is a way to increase the time between firing the laser beam, and the laser getting to the enemy, which would increase difficulty ( same as the game 'Elite' if you remember it).

@Spopovich: Good start - I don't actually remember ever playing digdug - although it reminds me a bit of the game 'Repton' which I played along time ago on the Atari ST. Definitely has a retro feel to it - nice no-media drawing work, too

Phaelax
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Posted: 11th Feb 2007 20:01
DigDug came out after Repton. At least I think I know which game you're talking about Ric. A lizard moving around underground?

Ric
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Posted: 11th Feb 2007 20:34
That's the one. Seem to remember that eggs had something to do with it too.

Phaelax
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Posted: 11th Feb 2007 20:58
Well, since I don't really plan to enter this challenge thought I'd make some stuff others might find useful in their games.

So here's a demo of some rotating coins falling from the sky.


Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 12th Feb 2007 02:28
Here is a spin on Pong... More like table tennis really...


Any thought for getting accurate/realistic spin? I know I could hack it using factors like movement of paddle upon contact - but I mean REAL spin...

I'm really please with that though - could make a neat 20 liner I reckon...

[center]
Brain111
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Posted: 12th Feb 2007 04:31
Thanks, Ric. I agree that it does make it a little easy with the insane speed of the bullet. It is not totally instant though, i actually have a streched out sphere object moving toward the enemies. All i have to do is change a number to make the bullet a little slower.

And here it is:


I also made it so you can't shoot the bullet when it's already just been shot (this wasn't an issue before when it moved really fast). And, i made the rate that the enemies speed up at a little lower.
Ric
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Posted: 12th Feb 2007 11:59
@Brain: That does the job - nice one!

@Nick: I like the idea, and I like the ball movement already - I wonder whether adding spin to a hit will actually make the return from the opponent more unpredictable - in other words, trying to slice the ball on your hit may be shooting yourself in the foot. Looking forward to seeing some computer AI in it!

p.s. Nick, I have emailed you on another matter.

Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 12th Feb 2007 12:23
Yeah - currently the game can get a little monotonous - but i think spin and power could add a new level of skill. I think you could get some great rally's too! I might allow 1 bounce rather than it just falling to its death.
I received your email too - i'll reply in a bit.

[center]
gadgetfreak 66
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Posted: 12th Feb 2007 13:37
I got 20600 on Snipe Invaders. One of the best remakes of space invaders i've seen to date. I love the 3D enemies and how they turn. Maybe you should make the score go down if you miss though...it seems as if the best way to do it is to hit the first one in a group, and because the others behind it slow down or stop for the first to fall out of the way, you can just mash the mouse button as they slowly go past.


omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latina
Phaelax
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Posted: 12th Feb 2007 19:16
I think the bullet collision on snipe invaders needs work. I'll time my shots but it randomly decides when shooting early works or aiming directly on the alien works. I'm used to baddies dying when i shoot with the cursor right on top of my enemy. The 3D enemies looked cool, along with their motion.

Hmm, nobody liked my medialess rotating coins? That's it, I'm remaking Tank from Atari!

Ric
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Posted: 13th Feb 2007 00:38
Just took a look at your coins - not bad! That's a lot of 2D ellipses drawn each loop, though - I'm sure using sprites or planes would be more efficient (maybe not quite as clever though!)

Look forward to playing Tank.

Brain111
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Posted: 13th Feb 2007 04:37
Yeah, i love the pong! That really has potential to become something awesome.

I think the problem with the collision detection in my snipe invaders is that sometimes the bullet can fly right through little "holes" in the enemies, like the eye hole things, or the space between the claws or something... I can fix that pretty easily by adding invisible limbs. I'm working on adding some other stuff right now too... I'll just go ahead and attach it to the end of this message once i'm done.



And there it is... The enemies shoot at you now. You can shoot their bullets to stop them, though.
Phaelax
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Posted: 13th Feb 2007 04:44
Probably would be way quicker to make a sprite and just resize its width.

Brain111
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Posted: 13th Feb 2007 21:08
Just looked at the coins thing, that's really neat, it looks like a better animated version of mario. If you do remake it with sprites, make sure that the color is different when you're looking at the backside of the coin though, that's one of the best parts of the effect.
Ric
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Posted: 13th Feb 2007 22:23
The coins reminded me of 'Bloodmoney' - but I doubt many people remember that.

Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 13th Feb 2007 23:55 Edited at: 14th Feb 2007 10:23
Here is an update to mine:


Updates:
Separate controls - now 2 player (rather than controlling both paddles). Also moved control's to keyboard... Left Shift/Ctrl for Player 1 (left side), Right Shift/Ctrl for Player 2 (right side)
Ball speedup. No longer is it a slow(ish) game... You can get some real heat going now!
A floor - you can bounce the ball off the floor (and your paddle) as many times as a you like on your go
Score - to score, get the ball off the opposite side of the screen (not in the gap to the left or right of the floor - has to go clear off the edge.

Any comments? I actually think this is quite good fun! Might turn it into a "proper" game after this - its quite inspiring.

EDIT: Updated the code - made the paddles go further up as it was possible to pin the ball below the paddle against the floor, thus building up a lot of power to lob the player on server. Now the paddle goes all the way up, you can power blast it back down. I'm tempted to put a roof on it too...
Also reduced default res from 1280x1024x32 to 800x600x16. Its a black and white game - it doesn't need 32bit!

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Spopovich
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Posted: 16th Feb 2007 19:14
The entries are looking cool, I like the twist on space invaders, and Star Castle, has a great arcade feel to it. Anyway I had a snow day on Thursday so I decided to try and make another game. I really have no idea if this game was popular when it came out, so hopefully some of you know it. It's called River Raid. The arrow keys move, and space fires. Avoid the green blocks (land) and the red blocks are fuel which you need to collect every once in a while (monitor your fuel level to make sure you don't get too low.) Any suggestions would be appreciated.


Do not ask what the forums can do ask what you can do for the forums.
Ric
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Posted: 18th Feb 2007 13:39 Edited at: 18th Feb 2007 13:41
Don't forget, the deadline for this is tomorrow (Monday 19th)!


@Nick: Nice. I do think a roof is a good idea, as if you get the ball trapped under the paddle, and get it bouncing a few times before it is released, it can build up so much power that it goes flying off the top of the screen and takes ages to come back down again! Althoug it's two player, it's actually quite fun just trying to get a good rally going by controlling both paddles. Still looking forward to the AI though!


@Spopovich: Seriously retro, man! I thought my PC had turned into a Vic20 for a moment there! Nice work.

Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 18th Feb 2007 13:54
@Ric - thanks

I might try to further this one after the challenge - I'd like to get Ben's Tempest multi-player thing working. AI is gonna be a bitch to get working, but a roof is a definite "in" - although I could just make the paddles go flat against the floor...

[center]
gadgetfreak 66
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Posted: 18th Feb 2007 15:42 Edited at: 18th Feb 2007 15:52
The deadline has caught up with me, so I haven't got around to cleaning it up or optimising it or anything. Regardless of that, here's my entry, the 3D tetris is was talking about before. The aim is to create a perfect rectangle on a particular plane containing at least 6 blocks. The controls need a bit of getting used to, but they come natural after a bit of playing.

arrow keys : move shape
shift + arrow keys : rotate shape along x and z
shift + control + arrow keys : rotate shape along y
control + arrow keys : rotate clump along x and z
enter : drop shape quickly
space : pause
mouse : move camera

You can also use the mouse buttons instead:
lmb = shift
mmb = enter
rmb = control

You can change options to do with the shape preview with enter and backspace while paused.





omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latina
Darth Vader
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Posted: 19th Feb 2007 03:54
Spopovich it says
"Cannot grap image at line 10 due to an illegal area code"
or something similar antway what do you think is the problem? Pleas fix it I remember this game on our old atari. We still have got it somewere! I might try and find it!


Phaelax
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Posted: 19th Feb 2007 04:13
Quote: "The coins reminded me of 'Bloodmoney' - but I doubt many people remember that."


I've might've already said this elsewhere, but I'm actually working on recreating blood money, pixel for pixel. Even managed to find a small bit of an original ai script they used for the enemy movement. Although, I've had a small set back recently. My primary storage drive for all my music(200gb) died a week ago. I had already collected most of the music and sfx from the game and they were on that drive. I'm hoping I have a mod file backed up on the mac.

@Spopovich,
I'm also getting an error with not able to grab image at line 31.

gadgetfreak 66
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Posted: 19th Feb 2007 07:41
just push the screen res up to 800x600


omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latina
Phaelax
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Posted: 19th Feb 2007 09:46
I kept dying for no reason. I won't touch anything and it just resets me.

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