Playfield Variable Generator

[RetroFiends]

What's new in 0.0.0.2

-New GUI

-Sounds on adding and removing playfield blocks

-Message Box which reads you status updates (Copy to Clipboard Confirmation)

-While the button for saving is there, and it gives you a confirmation message, saving to text is not implemented currently, but will most likely be in the next build.

________

I seem to use playfield variables a lot, and manually tapping ones and zeros into a text editor was starting to get tedious, so I decided to take a day off from developing my batari game to make this little tool. Maybe someone else here can benefit from it as well.

What this does, is let you draw your playfield, much like Visual bB's playfield editor, but it then allows you to copy the playfield you've drawn to your clipboard to be pasted directly into your bB program. PFVG automatically takes care of the reversed bit order rows so you don't have to worry about it, and it automatically formats your variables into the 11 default visible rows. So, in theory, all you need to do to use pfvars is to draw, copy and paste.

The program as a whole is very bare bones but it appears to do the job so far. Please do report any bugs you may potentially find with it.
Please Note this is for Windows OS only at the moment, the program is built in GameMaker Studio, and I have a Mac export, but no mac to test it with

Considerations for future versions:

-button press animation for copy to clipboard button

-save playfield to text file, load from text file(Likely in next build)

-Zero Removal (remove sequences of 00000000 from copied string)

-Make Sounds not overlap.(If you draw too fast and have your speakers up load, yer gonna lose your ears.)

-Give Disable Sounds Option.

Below is a picture of the program, and it being pasted into a bB program.

Latest Build:

 

PFVG-0.0.0.2.zip

screenshot: http://imgur.com/QJeDlRb
Previous Build:

PFVG-0.0.0.1.zip

Edited December 29, 2013 by RetroFiends

[+Random Terrain]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something, but there are already various ways to get the data from a playfield you have drawn into your program.

 

One way is to drag and drop:

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-vbb.html#playfielddraganddrop

 

 

Another way is to right click with your playfield loaded into the playfield editor and select one of the options under Copy Playfield Contents:

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-vbb.html#playfieldedgrab

[RetroFiends]

The difference is that this writes the playfield variables var0-var43, which can be stored outside of the last bank, not unlike converting a playfield to a data file.
It does pretty much the same thing as a data file, but I feel a binary representation is a lot easier to read if you ever need to make small changes.
Next version will also have an option to remove redundant 0's so that you can simply clear the playfield instead of wasting time removing zeroed playfield variables should you wish.

I'm open to any ideas or criticisms.

[+Gemintronic]

The more ways to edit playfield data the better! I think you left out one other method R.T. Didn't you make a web based playfield data editor too? I can't find the links.

[+Random Terrain]

The more ways to edit playfield data the better! I think you left out one other method R.T. Didn't you make a web based playfield data editor too? I can't find the links.

 

Yeah, but it kind of sucks:

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-tools-toys.html#playfieldtoy

 

And I didn't really 'make' it. I cobbled together free JavaScripts that I needed to make it work. I don't actually know how to make anything with JavaScript.

[+Gemintronic]

There was something else you made. It converted rows of playfield data into 8-bit integers. It was awesome. I just can't find the link. sigh.

[RetroFiends]

New Build:

-New GUI

-Sounds on adding and removing playfield blocks

-Message Box which reads you status updates (Copy to Clipboard Confirmation)

-While the button for saving is there, and it gives you a confirmation message, saving to text is not implemented currently, but will most likely be in the next build.

Screenshot:

http://i.imgur.com/QJeDlRb.png

[+Random Terrain]

There was something else you made. It converted rows of playfield data into 8-bit integers. It was awesome. I just can't find the link. sigh.

 

Oh, that one. It's right above the tool I linked to on the same page:

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-tools-toys.html#playfield_variables