Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store  

CyranoJ

+AtariAge Subscriber
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    7,144

  • Joined

  • Days Won

    217

Blog Entries posted by CyranoJ

  1. CyranoJ
    I haven't updated this in a while... not because we haven't been busy, and not because there's nothing to report, but because, well, I've just not felt like it lately.
     
    Many, many non-Jaguar (or even hobby) related things are happening at this time, both with myself and with the other guys in Reboot, so much so that 'Reboot' is taking a back seat to reality (as it should) and things have slowed down.
     
    But, there is a heartbeat, if you listen closely enough.
     
    We have in the wings....
     
    2 x 100% completed titles - these are mini games, and we're undecided what to do with them at this time. I suspect they'll end up as RAPTOR examples, although that is still to be fully discussed.
     
    1 x 80% complete title (code) with no graphics - this one is a lot of fun to play, and I'm sure we'll get it out there for everyone once it's been 'skinned'
     
    We're also working towards another game, which has it's engine almost complete and some test level data in there, which is shaping up quite nicely. This will be announced in due course, and hopefully be our first cart release.
     
    Rebooteroids is on extended leave. I don't have my Jaguar set up for development, which is needed at this stage as I cannot progress further with this one via emulation. On top of that, both myself and sh3 simply do not have the time to work on this at present, although we are both very, very keen to complete this one - there's about a solid months work to get to the finish line on this one.
     
    RAPTOR - I'm picking at the library here and there in my free time when I get the urge, it's coming along. We've also accepted a few new people to the beta team, so you might hear something from them as well.
     
    The ST ports. I'm completely undecided on these, should they even be released? Although Bubble Bobble Jaguar is a lot of fun.
     
    On top of all the above, there are also several projects in various states of completeness. Who knows where they'll lead to?
     
    While I'm here, I'd like to thank everyone who supported us by purchasing 'Full Circle: Rocketeer' - I've been wanting to remake that for 20 years, and I'm very happy with what came from the project. Many thanks also to Heavy Stylus for handling all the boring 'retail' side of things.
     
    Anyway, I think that's enough rambling for now....
     
    CJ.
  3. CyranoJ

    Plodding along....

    By CyranoJ,

    More slow progress. Time is really limited lately, and the time that is available seems to be spent saying things like 'golly gosh darn it's a tad bit brisk this evening. I can't jolly well feel my fingers it is so blummin' chilly and make no mistake!' (Or slightly more colourful versions of the previous sentence....)
     
    [edit] ColoUrful is not a typo, Atari Age!!!! Silly Americans missing letters out of words. [/edit]
     
    Anyway, the bonus pickups now decay away back to regular mode, the background maps look trippy as all hell, you can hear the samples on the title screen once more, and then Mythbusters came on the telly and work stopped for the evening!
     
    As usual, more when we can be bothered!
  4. CyranoJ

    Progress report!

    By CyranoJ,

    Things are still moving forward. This week we've seen some major work done on Rebooteroids for the first time it what feels like ages. Off and on over the last few months I've dabbled with the code, but recently sh3 has been able to spend some time working the graphics and we have had several discussions regarding game play and mechanics which has resulted in a much improved new build. If you are all very, very good you may even get some screenies soon
     
    I know we also said we were taking the menu that we have previously shown out, but it looks like we might even put that back in again. Jury is still out on this one, so don't sue me if it doesn't end up here!
     
    All the 'pots and pans falling down a staircase' sound effects have been replaced with proppa sounds now, the bullet shot rate has been increased, the controls have been tweaked, the powerups have all been implemented, and its playing a lot tighter!
     
    More news as and when we can be bothered to update this!
  6. CyranoJ

    Hiatus

    By CyranoJ,

    Well, real-life elbows its way back into things. For the next few months Reboot will be busy doing non-Reboot things, however we will be back. RAPTOR development will be continued by Matmook in the meantime, and hopefully I'll get some time here and there to help out.
     
    See you all on the other side of this short intermission!
     
    CJ.
  8. CyranoJ

    Boxing things up

    By CyranoJ,

    Sorry for not posting recently.
     
    It's been a while, and to be honest, not much has been done recently due to 'real life things' getting in the way of 'making fun games happen'. Anyone writing code as a hobby will understand that one.
     
    However, this week some stuff did happen.
     
    Boxes are really boring. But if you join lots of them up you can get some interesting shapes that don't really resemble boxes any more.
     
    That'll do for now. More laters!
  10. CyranoJ

    Zoom! Zoom!

    By CyranoJ,

    Spent some time this week optimizing the code a bit more. This has resulted in MOAR BULLETS which makes the game a lot more fun, as I have increased the fire rate for the ship dramatically.
     
    It's also allowed me to add zooming scores that fly up off the explosions as you rack up points, which looks really nice and gives the screen a more action packed feeling. Plus it was very nice to get some new artwork from the sparehead three, who has been understandably busy recently.
     
    More changes and enhancements to come. I'm having fun with this. Gotta keep pressing the buttons (and now, spinning the rotary!)
     
    Also, nice to see another Jaguar emulator in the works - Jagulator. Hopefully we get to see frequent updates on this one and it progresses nicely, maybe even with a public release? Either way, another emulator for this machine can only help the community.
  11. CyranoJ
    Phew... long weekend with Roids with nothing 'new' to show for it, but a complete rewrite of the asset I/O subsystem and the file data structures.
     
    Begone, all the 'work' folders with stupid names... Begone, all the data files that are not used anymore... To use a phrase from our website "A new brush sweeps clean and all that" - and now we can progress much more easily.
     
    Things are much nicer to work with now - these changes were also required to enable the CD asset loader which will allow us to make expansion discs for the game with new worlds and levels.
     
    In other news, ggn won this years game competition at Outline with "Fear" - a game for the Atari ST. Hopefully, you can read more about this when the pages appear on the Reboot website. Congratz to you ggn!
     
    Reboot victorious two years in a row at Outline, can we make it a hat-trick next year?
  12. CyranoJ
    Most definitely "whine", With that spelling.
     
    Yes, Doctor Who is back! Yes Steven Moffat delivered again! Yes, We have to wait till next week to find out what happens next. But that is not the twisty, turney things I'm talking about. And, unlike the current season of Doctor Who, "Silence will NOT fall" on the progress of our new game.
     
    Rotaries - what fun they are. Ever tried to write a user interface that needs UP and DOWN with one tho? We've let a few people play the build we previewed with a rotary, and our initial solution of using A/C for up and down, and B for select... well, it just doesn't feel obvious to some people. It's like an old quote from Black Adder.
     
    "Well, opinion on the matter is divided m'Lord. All the other captains say it is. I say it isn't."
     
    I think we'll go back to using a cursor configuration on the number pad if rotary control is enabled, because, to quote Black Adder again, "we're not at home to Mr Cockup!" (Sorry, remow!)
     
    So what's happened today? Well, I've spent some time coding up the "Challenge Screen" - it's currently working (yes, even with a rotary) and showing the current challenge, difficulty, locked, unlocked, etc correctly. Cool. "Just" need to tie the selected options back into the game engine, and define up some test levels. Things are progressing!
     
    I'll get a video or some screenshots of this new screen up once we're all good and jolly well satisfied with how it looks. That's it for now! More updates when they happen!
  13. CyranoJ

    ...and so it began

    By CyranoJ,

    So, flashback, if you will, to a time last around the middle of last year. We'd just released Superfly DX and were feeling pretty good about things, but also wondering what to do next.
     
    We threw several ideas around, including maybe going back to Project One. Now, this might sound like a good idea, but to be honest there were several huge barriers preventing this from happening - barriers that to a certain extent still exist today.
     
    One of the issues is with the bullets. They never did quite what we wanted them to do. This is because the bullet engine is basically flawed. It's designed with the bullet co-ordinates as integers, and their trajectories and velocities also as integers. What this means is that the bullets can only realy move at certain angles and certain speeds. You need sub-pixel accuracy to fix this.
     
    I set about writing a new bullet engine, one that could handle 360 degree movement, any velocity, twists and turns - all the things we love in insane shooters. It worked, and it worked really well. I showed it to the rest of the guys and at that point the realisation that we were never, ever going to work on Project One again finally hit home. There were just too many bad memories of that project. None of us wanted to return to it.
     
    So... I had this bullet engine sitting around doing nothing, and over the course of the next few weeks I started playing with the idea of maybe doing an Asteroids clone. The basic version of this was up and running quite quickly.
     
    Note: We might even include this fully playable version on the cart somewhere as a bonus
     
    At this point, real life and another side project interjected. Both took up considerable ammount of time. The side project evolved into a full game engine, which hopefully you might see in the near future.
     
    Anyway, the months went by and I returned back to Rebooteroids. We toyed with the idea of just shoving the small version out as a mini and calling it done, but SH3 convinced me that it deserved to grow to a full game.
     
    Over the next two months, the small playable demo game evolved into the previewed demo shown in the video and at AC11.
     
    I'll breakdown some of its features in the next post
AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2021 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...