HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: hde+@cs.cmu.edu (Herbert Enderton)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: seeking game publisher
Date: 19 Aug 92 19:40:14 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

I've written a go-playing program (i.e. a program which plays the
ancient Oriental game of go), and am now looking to make contacts
with companies that might be willing to help me port, polish and
market it.  Any advice would be most welcome.

  Bert Enderton
  hde@cs.cmu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: draper@ais.org (Patrick Draper)
Subject: Re: Map generation algorithms
Organization: UMCC
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 02:03:08 GMT

How about making a fractal landscape and "flooding" it to a certain level.
That is, display only the land units that are above a certain elevation on
the map?


------------------////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\------------------
| Patrick Draper           Disclaimer:  I can't control my fingers,        |
| draper@irie.ais.edu                   I can't control my toes! - Ramones |
| University of Michigan                                                   |
| Computer Club                We are a nation of laws, not people         |
------------------\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////------------------
From: warwick@cs.uq.oz.au (Warwick Allison)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: HELP: *.*
Date: 21 Aug 92 00:37:39 GMT
Reply-To: warwick@cs.uq.oz.au

mike@ftp.com (Mike Chapman) writes:

>Why don't you just ask everyone to write your whole program for you?


Because unlike Mike Chapman, who writes all programs from scratch using
a soldering iron with the top off his Apple IIe, this person perhaps thinks
it is sensible to learn from the experiences of others.  As for posting
multiple messages - that is the PERFECT way to post such questions.  What
would you rather - all under the same subject line "HELP", and have 5 threads
under that subject?


--
Warwick
[Of course, Mike Chapman might just think that hus humour is Above smilies]
--
  _-_|\      warwick@cs.uq.oz.au            /Disclaimer:
 /     * <-- Computer Science Department,  /  
 \_.-._/     University of Queensland,    /      void (if removed)
      v      Brisbane, Australia.        /
From: n9046319@rowlf.cc.wwu.edu (Jeremy Corley)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: fast VGA sprite routines
Date: 15 Aug 92 20:41:51 GMT
Article-I.D.: rowlf.n9046319.713911311
Organization: Western Washington University

bbs.brienv@tsoft.sf-bay.org (Brien Voorhees) writes:


>  I've been working on some graphics routines for VGA mode 13h to handle
>animating sprites while retaining the background and have managed to get
> 'em goin' pretty fast (about 25-35 fps on a 486) but that's without 
>much other overhead.  Once I add collision detection, sound, music, etc.
>I don't think I'm going to have enough cpu time to spare.
>  Does anyone know techniques to speed up graphics routines?  Here's an
>overview of how my routines work :
>  During any given cycle, the following things happen :
>  The Master copy of the background (in a 64k buffer) is copied into the
>work buffer (also 64k).
>  All sprites are written to the work buffer.
>  After all movement is done, the work buffer is copied into screen 
>memory
>with a REP MOVSW.  Predictably, this single instruction is where the vast
>majority of the CPU's time is taken thanks to the slowness of video 
>memory.


[ gobs of stuff deleted ]

>      Any help would be enormously appreciated!!!
>While I'm at it, does anyone have the specs to the .MOD music format?

> Brien "I Link Therefore I Am" Voorhees

>--
>Brien Voorhees (bbs.brienv@tsoft.sf-bay.org)

	At the company I am working for we are doing two adventure games in
mode 13h.  What we do is to break up the background into "tiles". If an animation
effects a tile ("dirtys" it), then it is redrawn.  To keep screen flicker to a minimum
you also might try "paging" by reseting the screen start address back and forth
, actually having to display pages that you work with.  If memory serves (no pun intended)
with 256k you can have 4 such "pages".  Don't quote me on this stuff, I only
regurgitate what I read and hear from our graphics guru.  I have done some of this
kind of work, but not recently.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
"Senator Kennedy, What are you going to do about the abortion bill?"
"Pay it, I guess."
				J. Corley
			n9046319@henson.cc.wwu.edu
From: exuhag@exu.ericsson.se (James Hague)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: VGA, Retraces, and DMA
Date: 12 Aug 92 13:26:58 GMT
Reply-To: exuhag@exu.ericsson.se
Organization: Ericsson Network Systems, Richardson, TX

Peter SPHINX Cellik writes:
>
>Why should he be.  What is more difficult than creating the low
>level graphics routines?  Movement?  Rotation?  Perspective
>rendering, possibly, but there is no use rendering an image
>if you are going to display it in a video mode that is slow and
>does not convey the information effectively.

Sigh.  Writing novels should be real easy, since you don't
need to do *any* low-level graphics routines.  And because the
video game consoles have built-in sprite hardware, etc., they
should be brimming with wonderful games, right?

>Besides, I was enjoying the current threads.  If you can not
>handle it, try rec.games.player, no tech stuff required.   :-)

I can handle it and sometimes it is interesting.  But it is
akin to a group of writers always talking about grammar.  Low
level issues are fundamental and necessary, but they are a
far cry from creating a novel or even a short story.

--
James Hague   
exuhag@exu.ericsson.se
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: tmkk@uiuc.edu (Khan)
Subject: Re: HELP: *.*
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 18:10:01 GMT


In article <mike.15.0@ftp.com> mike@ftp.com (Mike Chapman) writes:
>Why don't you just ask everyone to write your whole program for you?

'Cuz that could be done in only one posting, and he wants to waste
bandwidth, as well. ;-)
From: cyberman@toz.buffalo.ny.us (Cyberman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: vertical retrace inte
Date: 14 Aug 92 00:40:58 GMT
X-Maildoor: WaflineMail 1.00r


     -=> Khan spoke of "Re: vertical retrace inte" <=-
    To All at 08-11-92  13:04
 Kh> Whatever you say. ;-)

Thier is EXCEPT some companies have circumvented the problem

 Kh> Your explanation does make sense, but my observations would appear to
 Kh> disagree with it. Perhaps there is an alternate explanation? Might
 Kh> some clone makers have realized that this "flaw" existed in the
 Kh> original PC bus design, and designed their bus to correct it? Such
No then thier bus would not be standard.

 Kh> things are not unprecedented; the original IBM printer port required a
 Kh> hardware modification to become bidirectional, but most clone boards
 Kh> are bidirectional right out of the box.
Eh not all.  SOME, most maybe maybe not, thier are still some
that don't perhaps the ISA makers should make a chip set for
using the printer port "normally" and a high speed DMA chanel
also.  This would allow high speed SCSI controllers to be placed
on the port as well as other neato toys.

 Kh> Before you start flaming someone as a liar, you might want to check
 Kh> your own facts.
Before you start becoming an expert on PC hardware you should
check your facts. Point is in some circumstance you can share
interupts on the PC but these are because periferal/multi I/O
boards where designed to allow thier interupts to be shared and
has nothing to do with the PC bus.

I assure thier is no intention here to "spread lies" the fact
remains the hardware is unchanged.  Be sure you know what
hardware you are using also.  IE muli IO card.  As I said it can
be done but only on the INTRA card level not the INTER card
level. 

        Stephen Cyberman@Toz.Buffalo.NY.US
        Scripted at Thu  08-13-1992  15:23:22

... Docs? Why would I want to look at the Docs. Nurses are better :)
--- Blue Wave/QWK v2.10
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Help : Encryption Algorithms
From: ebolog@elaine.ee.und.ac.za (EDWIN BOLOGNA : THIRD)
Date: 20 Aug 92 13:42:50 +0200
Organization: Electronic Eng., Univ. Natal, Durban, South Africa


Does anyone out there happen to have PAS, C, or ASM source code to decode
and code good encryption algorithms.

Any information at all on any of these algorithms will be greatly appreciated.

        Desperate fellow programmer (And very Greatful for any information)

                E.B. (EBOLOG@ELAINE.EE.UND.AC.ZA)

PS : Please be kind hearted and Assist !
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: borgen@stud.cs.uit.no (Boerge Noest)
Subject: Discussing: Was: Re: VGA, Retraces, and DMA
Organization: University of Tromsoe, Norway
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 21:21:16 GMT


I have nothing against this discussion (PC - VGA - you name it), but I sure
wish it was happening in some more appropriate group.
rec.games.programmer.ibm ???


ObRGP:
How does people calculate their slopes for jumping persons, and how do you
test it against the background?
Do you use tile checking(16x16? 8x8x?) or do you have an extra bitplane
with stop-only bits, or do you make your stop-tiles objects that you can
test for rough collision(and fine if they collide)?
-- 
|/// borgen@stud.cs.uit.no (Boerge Noest) | Amiga B2000			 \\\|
|//  Box 218, 9001 Tromsoe, Norway	  | Remember to :-) when needed	  \\|
|/   The worlds northermost university	  | Life is worth living.	   \|
	_Tilbyr News/email til hele Nord-Norge: Ta kontakt_
From: mduffy@aludra.usc.edu (Michael Duffy)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: A home for VGA programmers
Date: 22 Aug 1992 16:31:42 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: aludra.usc.edu

 I hope that those of you who have all IBM hardware specific keywords in you
kill file will read this post too.

  I myself an an IBM PC programmer and have found the posts about VGA and other
IBM specific stuff VERY helpful in my own programming.  However there is one
fact that remains...... This is not the group for those kinds of postings.
Over the past couple of years that I have kept up with this board, the majority
of the IBM specific posts that are inappropriately on this board revolve around
the EGA/VGA cards as there is no other place on the net where these questions
could be delt with fairly (comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware has WAY too much traffic
and no other group is equiped to deal with this either).  IBM soundcards have
their own groups (comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard and alt.sb.programmer I think),
so the VGA card should also be handled this way.

  Therefore I am looking into the creation of alt.vga.programmer or perhaps
comp.sys.ibm.pc.vga.  Any help on how to go about creating a group would be
helpful, and I have already requested help on news.groups for the same subject.

I think that a group of this type would free r.g.p from the inappropriate IBM
posts, as well as the flaming noise that these posts generate.  When and if
a call for voting on this group comes about, I would also encourage non-IBM
readers to vote yes for its creation to get rid of those posts you all love to
hate.

Later,
Mike Duffy (mduffy@aludra.usc.edu)

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: kludge@hardy.u.washington.edu (MoonMan)
Subject: PC VGA: Unreal Demo
Summary: Wow.
Reply-To: kludge@u.washington.edu
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 20:23:46 GMT

  Ok, everyone, drop what you're doing, FTP to wuarchive.wustl.edu, and
grab unreal.zip from pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS.  It's... impressive... to say the
least.
  The texture-mapping part is great - in one place they map some guy's
face to a square and warp it around - now I'd like to see what kind of
modified Bresenham algorithm did *that*!  :)
  They also managed to (on a SoundBlaster Pro) play ~20 voices of music
in the background.  Anybody have any idea how they were able to get it to
run so quickly?
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Help : Compression Algorithms
From: ebolog@elaine.ee.und.ac.za (EDWIN BOLOGNA : THIRD)
Date: 20 Aug 92 13:40:16 +0200
Organization: Electronic Eng., Univ. Natal, Durban, South Africa


Does anyone out there happen to have PAS, C, or ASM source code to decode
and code LZH, or other good compression formats.

Any information at all on any of these formats will be greatly appreciated.

        Desperate fellow programmer (And very Greatful for any information)

                E.B. (EBOLOG@ELAINE.EE.UND.AC.ZA)

PS : Please be kind hearted and Assist !
From: v101q4ct@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Brian M McNamara)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: How would you spell Genetic Algorithm
Date: 14 Aug 92 16:46:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

It sounds like an incredibly neat idea, but where do you even begin
choosing what genes are going to compose the DNA of your NPC's and 
monsters.

Also, would you do it in a simply dominant/recessive manner, i.e. a
binary XORed type deal? Or would you allow more than an on-off state
for the "gene"? This would translate to something of a percentage chance
of doing something with the percentages being weighted through learning.

Just wondering...

BMc
From: cprem@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Ross E Milward)
Subject: Computer Controlled Players & GAs
Organization: James Cook University
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 03:17:54 GMT

For those people who are interested in the discussion of CCPs
using genetic algorithms here are a couple of references which
could be useful.
I'm also posting this to the group as I've had a number of 
requests for information, and mail does not seem to be gettting
through.
I have a several other references, so if you would like some
more info try e-mail again.

1.	author = "Gregory J.E. Rawlins",
	title = "Foundations of Genetic Algorithms",
	address = "San Mateo California",
	publisher = "Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc",
	year = "1991" 

2.	author = "Lawrence Davis",
	title = "Handbook of Genetic Algorithms",
	address = "New York",
	publisher = "Van Nostrand Reinhold",
	year = "1991" 

3.	author = "Lawrence Davis",
	title = "Genetic Algorithms and Simulated Annealing",
	address = "London, England",
	publisher = "Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc.",
	year = "1987" 

4.	author = "David E. Goldberg",
	title = "Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization, and Machine
		 Learning",
	address = "United States of America",
	publisher = "Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.",
	year = "1989" 

5.	author = "John H. Holland",
	title = "Genetic Algorithms",
	volume = "267(1), July",
	pages = "44--50",
	journal = "Scientific American",
	year = "1992"

This last paper is a good introduction to GAs and the book by Goldberg
(4) is also pretty good.

Ross.
-- 
Ross Milward,   ross@coral.cs.jcu.edu.au, cprem@marlin.jcu.edu.au
Honours Student - Comp. Sci. Dept.,  James Cook Uni, Qld, 4811, Australia.
"The way the rain comes down hard, that's how I feel inside." - The Cure

-- 
Ross Milward,   ross@coral.cs.jcu.edu.au, cprem@marlin.jcu.edu.au
Honours Student - Comp. Sci. Dept.,  James Cook Uni, Qld, 4811, Australia.
"The way the rain comes down hard, that's how I feel inside." - The Cure
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: amitp@owlnet.rice.edu (Amit Jayant Patel)
Subject: Re: Computer-Controlled Players (New, Great Thread!)
Reply-To: amitp@owlnet.rice.edu
Organization: Rice University
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 13:53:45 GMT

In article <Bsx9rB.F6H@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, tmkk@uiuc.edu (Khan) writes:
|> 
|> >Has anyone tried using genetic algorithms for CCP's?
|> >
|> >I'll bet you have to play thousands of games to train a good one, unless you
|> >prime the pump with abover average players first.
|> >
|> >Any comments?
|> 
|> Ooh, a neural net computer opponent, which would learn from the
|> programmer and beta testers while they play test the game, so by the
|> time the actual release occurred, it would be TOUGH. As a player, I
|> wouldn't want ALL the computer opponents to be like this, but perhaps
|> one or two, which appear later in the game (towards the end of the
|> puzzle chain) or which "guard" certain key pieces of info/puzzle, would
|> add quite a bit to the game.

With genetic algorithms, you might run the for GA 10,000 generations (???),
and you could pick out easy opponents at 3,000, and then medium level ones
at 7,000 and then the toughies at 10,000.  

Now... has anyone done this?  I'd really like to do something like this
but I couldn't come up with parameters (genes), and I haven't ever written
a GA program before.  Perhaps I'll use a really simple game (like the 
prisoner's dilemma) and try a GA on it, and then if it works well, I
can try a more complex game.  

Ideas?  Comments?  Please respond!  We can drown out the VGA questions!  ;)

	Amit

-- 
/\\ Amit J Patel, amitp@owlnet.rice.edu
\\/ I think I'm at Rice University
From: slmt9@cc.usu.edu (Joshua Dinerstein)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Computer-Controlled Players (New, More
Date: 15 Aug 92 16:25:01 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <5731@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at>, mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at (Markus Stumptner) writes:
> From article <1992Aug13.182150.184@exu.ericsson.se>, by exuhag@exu.ericsson.se (James Hague):
>> I don't think most people want to play against undefeatable opponents.
>> They'd prefer oppponents with different styles, etc.  Remember, the
>> computer can "see" everything perfectly (it can access internal data
>> structures). 
> 
> This depends on how you program "the computer".  Nobody forces you to
> write an opponent that has perfect knowledge (say, about the position
> of an opponent in a maze). I would even say that for strategy-based
> games, this is a bad idea.  It does not produce an interesting
> opponent, just a cheating opponent.  The computer player should
> definitely NOT have access to everything.

	Exactly. Ever played Star Control from Accolade? The enemy ships in
that game always know right where the planet is, even when it is not on the
screen and you can't see it, and then it never misses your ship at all. A shot
from across the screen will seemingly always hit! :(

	Still it is a great game to play with a friend!

	Joshua
	SLMT9@cc.usu.edu

> -- 
> Markus Stumptner                                mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at
> University of Technology Vienna                 vexpert!mst@relay.eu.net
> Paniglg. 16, A-1040 Vienna, Austria             ...mcsun!vexpert!mst
-- 
**************************************************************
*                     *                                      *
*  Joshua Dinerstein  *  Nothing matters and what if it did? *
*  SLMT9@cc.usu.edu   *            - Who Knows!!!            *
*                     *              Anyone?? Anyone??       *
**************************************************************

If it's a raincoat why does it have to be dry cleaned?
        - Some Guy on some comody show
From: bell@beethoven.cs.unc.edu (Andrew Bell)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: UNIX share-ware games
Date: 19 Aug 92 17:50:32 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

In article <TOMS.92Aug18113427@pdx069.intel.com> toms@pdx069.intel.com (Tom Shott) writes:
>My understanding is most shareware never
>really makes any money but it does stiffle improvments.  It's information
>hoarding.

This isn't true of shareware per se; it's true for shareware where the
source is not distributed.  You could do UNIX crippleware,  but I doubt
anyone would not distribute the uncrippled version.

>Let's hope there is never a good way to provide shareware on UNIX.

There is;  distribute the program with the request for bucks if the user
likes it.  It may not bring in a whole lot of money,  but shareware games
rarely do -- especially considering the size and nature of your audience.
A large percentage of the UNIX users I know would be willing to write or
help write games themselves, with only the time commitment as a possible
obstacle.  What with xtank, xbattle, crossfire, nethack, empire and the
like, there doesn't seem to be a shortage of people interested in writing
UNIX games for free already, so I doubt shareware is going to do very
well.

   -Andrew Bell
bell@cs.unc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer,comp.os.msdos.programmer
From: Ross Ridge <ross@zooid.guild.org>
Subject: Re: fast VGA sprite routines
Organization: ZOOiD BBS
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 15:10:42 GMT
Followup-To: comp.os.msdos.programmer

bbs.brienv@tsoft.sf-bay.org (Brien Voorhees) writes:
>
>  I've been working on some graphics routines for VGA mode 13h to handle
>animating sprites while retaining the background and have managed to get
> 'em goin' pretty fast (about 25-35 fps on a 486) but that's without 
>much other overhead.  Once I add collision detection, sound, music, etc.
>I don't think I'm going to have enough cpu time to spare.

>    mov   cx,ywidth  // Set outer loop to run <ywidth> times
>rowloop:             // once per row (duh)
>    push  cx         // save what row we're on
>    mov   cx,xwidth  // Set inner loop to run for each pixel on this line
>subloop:  // There are actually two loop instructions that goto this 
>label
>    lodsb            // grab a pixel
>    cmp   al,0
>    je short itsblank  // if it's 0, skip it
>    stosb              // otherwise, write it
>    loop  subloop
>    jmp short endsubloop  // Jump outta' here. Don't wanna' fall thru to  
>                          // the other subloop section!
>itsblank:
>    inc   di              // Keep the destination index in sync
>    loop  subloop         // Ready for the next pixel
> 
>endsubloop:             
>    add   di,nextlineoffset  // Set destination pointer to proper offset 
>                             // for beginning of next image line
>    pop   cx              // Where were we?
>    loop  rowloop         // Ready for next line

loop instruction lose on '386 and better CPUs, and you're going to a bit of
trouble to use them.  The stosb instruction isn't much of a win either.
Try this:

	mov dx,ywidth
	mov bx,xwidth
loop1:
	mov cx,bx
loop2:
	lodsb
	or al,al
	je skip
	mov [es:di],al
skip:
	inc di
	dec cx
	bne loop2
	add di,nextlineoffset
	dec dx
	bne loop1

It's probably faster on 8086's too if your sprites don't have many
zero's in them.

							Ross Ridge

-- 
Ross Ridge - The Great HTMU					     l/	 //
								    [OO][oo]
ross@zooid.guild.org						    /()\/()/
uunet.ca!zooid!ross						     db	 //
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Help : Music File Formats
From: ebolog@elaine.ee.und.ac.za (EDWIN BOLOGNA : THIRD)
Date: 20 Aug 92 13:39:46 +0200
Organization: Electronic Eng., Univ. Natal, Durban, South Africa


Does anyone out there happen to have PAS, C, or ASM source code to decode
.MOD, .SAM, .SND, or .ROL music formats.

Any information at all on any of these formats will be greatly appreciated.

        Desperate fellow programmer (And very Greatful for any information)

                E.B. (EBOLOG@ELAINE.EE.UND.AC.ZA)

PS : Please be kind hearted and Assist !
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer