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eric_ruck

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Posts posted by eric_ruck

  1. Posted

    I have a spare Alien Brigade, I think I have the instructions spare as well, definitely no box. Offers? I'm interested in a few Vectrex items, plus I might take a bunch of 2600 carts, but it better be a bunch, or accompanied by something else. And money is always good.

     

    By the way Alient Brigade is a great game but you really need the XE light gun to appreciate it, playing with the stick is not the same,

     

    Eric

  3. Posted

    I was kidding about losing mystique. Anyone who wants to be a programmer should have to write a game for a classic system. No matter what tools you're using, you have to have an understanding of the machine. It's a background that would serve even the highest level Java programmers well.

     

    I guess one thing the tools are good for is the frustration factor. The faster you can get stuff up on the screen, the more likely you are to follow through.

     

    That's why I'm working on a Lynx project -- low frustration factor. The Lynx is insanely easy to program, at least for the not-so-challenging project I decided to start with. At least I'm taking notes as I figure things out so my experience might one day be helpful to someone else.

     

    Anyway, can't wait to see how your project progresses.

     

    Eric

  5. Posted

    Good luck with the project, but don't make 2600 programming too easy, that wouldn't be right.

     

    It should also be some good Java practice for you -- I personally like doing exercizes that kinda work with my hobby but keep the real skills sharp.

     

    Just out of curiosity, why aren't you working with the 1.4 JDK? I'm not super-fluent in Java or anything but I do know it has a lot to offer, especially if you want your application to print.

     

    Eric

  7. Posted

    Also what is safer around children? having a gun hidden on the top shelf? or having a stun gun or taser laying around?

     

    How about the very protective 200lb Neapolitan Mastiff we have? Big lug loves the kids. We also have a Great Dane as a backup.

     

    (Note: The dogs pictured aren't actually my dogs but very similar. Also our Dane is from a rescue, but a different one.) If you want a dog, visit a rescue!)

     

    Eric

  8. Posted

    I actually get more packages shipped reasonably well than not, although the "not" category is much higher than it should be. I tend to pack things a little too well, maybe adds less than $1 to the shipping cost.

     

    Occassionally I get something that I consider "creatively but effectively" wrapped. The sort of thing you have to spend 20 minutes with a pocket knife with, to get through 12 layers of bubble wrap and duct tape.

     

    Eric

  12. Posted

    Actually, since you put semicolons after everything except closing braces, it's not too bad, except...

     

    You do put a semicolon after the closing braces for a class. That's the one I routintely forget, never mind the fact that I've been using C++ since 1992. And the worse part about it is that pretty much every compiler gives you some unintelligible and semi-arbitrary error in the *next* header file after the one with the error.

     

    Which is another tip -- if you get an error that makes no sense naer the top of a header file, find that header file in the source file being compiled, and check for the semicolon at the end of the class in the prior header file.

     

    Eric

  13. Posted

    I have an extra 800XL that's not the most attractive specimin but it works. If you're interested I could check it out to make sure it's ok, it hasn't been plugged in for a very long time. I can also probably spare a floppy drive for it and maybe a few joysticks and games.

     

    On the trade side, I'd be interested in any of your stuff that's *not* Atari or Dreamcast (have plenty of that) that would include a console, hooksups and at least one game.

     

    Let me know...and before you get ready to commit, I would like to check the stuff out so I know everything's still good. Also I can supply pictures on reqeust.

     

    Eric

  14. Posted

    I could see it flying in a number of ways. I would see it like a 1st person "Descent" point of view. I would probably give the player a heads-up display in their armor that might provide a rear view mirror and/or some sort of radar so you could get an idea what's around you.

     

    Eric

  15. Posted

    You'll see me there infrequently under the user name "Velarium". I've had my XBox Live Beta kit for about a month and finally got around to setting it up.

     

    For the record, the Linksys WET11 wireless bridge works fine with the XBox although setting it up from my laptop was not glitch-free.

     

    Whacked was fun, especially with the voice support, so long as no one was using the stupid voice masking option, which doesn't work all that well. It doesn't take too long to get a game together. Funny thing is that the key diagrams in Whacked are for the S controller, so there was a bit of confusing for me getting a game started as host with my standard controllers.

     

    But whacked it pretty funny. Nothing like beating the crap out of a total stranger with a baseball bat, or stapling them to the ground.

     

    Didn't get a chance to try Madden and MotoGP yet.

     

    Oh, one other thing, getting your screen name is going to be like AOL revisited. There are something like 150,000 beta testers, so the good names are already hard to come by. Better start thinking about your screen name now.

     

    Eric

  16. Posted

    The problem isn't really learning it, it's remembering it all when you put on another project for six months were you are not using C++.  Then when you come back to C++, you'll be asking yourself "How do I pass a address again?" or "What is the syntax of a contructor?"   :?  

     

    WRL

     

    Nah, that's what instant messaging is for. Ok, that used to be what reference books are for but I've gotten lazy. I'm in the same boat with Java -- learned it but there's just too darned much stuff to remember. Recent IM with a friend who actually still responds back:

     

    How do you compare strings case insensitive?

    While I have you, what does jaxp.jar do?

    Hey, can you remind me how to open a database again?

    ....

     

    You get the idea. I'm always quick to answer other people on C++, Windows, HTML and JavaScript questions because I bug people to no end about Java.

     

    Eric

  17. Posted

    Now that I'm done rereading my post-zilla, I guess I thought maybe I should summarize. I guess what I'm trying to say is:

     

    Hang in there! You need to know a lot more before it really comes together.

     

    Eric

  18. Posted

    My question is this:

     

    Since it appears that class can do what struct can, and then some, is  there any reason at all to use struct?

     

    Heh, now that is a good question indeed, and part of the problem with the 24 series of books (not to be confused with 24 starring Kieffer Sutherland on Fox).

     

    First for the simple part of the answer. In C++ struct and class do the same thing.

     

    Now let's get a little more complex and discuss one very important difference between C and C++. C++ has constructors and destructors, which is code in a class that automatically is called when you create a class (constructor) and destroy a class (destructor). This means that you can (and should) write code for every class that initializes all of its values. This will prevent programming errors when you forget to initialize a value, or if you add a value later and forget to update your old code.

     

    A constructor is a function in the class with the same name as the class and no return value (not even void). The destructor is similarly named, but preceded by a tilda "~" character. The constructor can have parameters, and you can have multiple destructors with different sets of parameters. If you don't code in constructors and destructors to your classes, the C++ compiler adds a simple one for you.

     

    (Now that I think about this, this is something like 100 pages worth of materials. I'll keep going for a bit, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. While you can implement something like a class in C with structures, C++ is really about enhancing programmer productivity, through style, code safety and the big 3 of object orientation: encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism. You really need to use C++ for awhile before it really dawns on you what this stuff really does for you.)

     

    Also you need to remember that C/C++ is a fairly low level language. Consider strings for instance. A string is an array in memory of characters. If you have to char* arrays, and you say a=b, you're really just copying the pointer to b into a, not the actual data. You can use C++ constructors to code the difference:

     

    class MyString

    {

    MyString( char* src )

    {

    mydata = new char[ strlen( src ) + 1 ];

    strcpy( mydata, src );

    }

     

    operator char*( void )

    { return mydata; }

     

    char* mydata;

    }

     

    The tought thing is that the above incomplete class really includes a ton of concepts and is not as simple as its short length implies. That's sort of where the experience comes in. In your early C++ day you'll wind up copying a lot of code or doing things by the book without really understanding why. Then one day you'll be stuck in traffic somewhere and *BOOM* it'll just sort of hit you.

     

    Just constructors and destructors along offer a ton of power. You'll see polymorphism and inheritance in constructors and virtual destructors, for instance. And you'll also see some neat designs you can do by making constructors and destructors private or protected. And then there are really neat tricks like making class factories, runtime class names and self-registering objects. It makes ones head spin, but it's really cool stuff. Imagine objects that can automatically save and load themselves from files (or any other data stream).

     

    The funny thing is that I've been going on about constructors and destructors. You can begin to imagine the power you get with classes, in terms of programmer productivity. Plus all sorts of cool tools like container classes, templates, namespaces... it makes you wonder how anything ever got done in C.

     

    Eric

  19. Posted

    my list of people I need to kill and steal their atari stuff grows :)

     

    Seriously. Makes you think twice about bragging rights. I always want to say, "Yeah, I have a one of a kind xyz prototype, and two large dogs."

     

    So anyone got friends in a chip fab plant? :)

     

    Actually I think there are a bunch of people here in the semiconductor industry. Too bad I don't still work for Nanofab.

     

    Eric

  23. Posted

    Heh, I really liked the Final Fantasy movie though...anyway...

     

    Reminds me of something tangentially related. I remember working out with a friend, practicing punches on a heavy bag. Used a floor standing bag with my friend behind it, holding it so it wouldn't slide. I had to make him step to one side, since I couldn't stand punching the bag with his head hovering over it...too much like punching him.

     

    Video games may face that issue. OK, I've been playing Hitman 2, but it's not really realistic. When Hitmat 27 crosses Saving Private Ryan, I think that's when I hang up the modern systems for good and limit myself to just Breakout and Tempest.

     

    Eric

  24. Posted

    Hmm, let's see if I can find 2 cents....(clink)...

     

    OK, I bought both systems on launch (and actually worked on a PS2 project for a bit) and....

     

    I really, really dislike my PS2. Why? Really, really low quality hardware for one thing. In 25 years of playing video games, I have never seen such fragile hardware. I've never broken anything except pretty much every Sony-made controller. My PS2 is completely incapable of playing any DVD movie all the way to the end. When I got it on release it was broken, which brings me to...

     

    Sony support. Had to mail it back to Sony at my expense. They took a month to get me a new unit. Promised me a free game, which turned out to be an ancient PS1 title, then they never actually sent it to me.

     

    Then there's the games. Simply put, they neither look nor play as well on the PS2 as they do on the XBox. Heck, at release I thought the games didn't look any better than the Dreamcast games.

     

    Then there's the games. Who cares of there are hundreds more titles when you're counting NFL 2001, NFL 2002 and NFL 2003 as three titles, or 15 of them are hockey games?

     

    So far I've been nothing but disappointed with the PS2. Last game I bought for it was Spy Hunter, before they announced the XBox port. And yet again I'm disappointed since the PS2 version isn't as good as the XBox version, and has the famous PS2 load time issues.

     

    Game-wise, XBox has the games I want to play, which is important. Lately I've still been playing Project Gotham Racing, as well as the newly acquired Hitman 2. I also got an XBox Live beta kit last week but haven't had time to hook it up yet.

     

    Eric

  25. Posted

    Why just clone a POKEY? Why not whack 4 DACs on there and have 4 channel sampled sound? Or a SID? or a YM chip? Surely any chip that makes a sound and can be interfaced to a 6502 would do?

     

    I agree, I'm no expert but I would guess all you'd have to do is work up some interface between the 8-bit bus and the sound chip.

     

    How about a 7800 board with a sound chip and an FPGA that serves as both the game ROM and the interface?

     

    Eric

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