HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: djmst19+@pitt.edu (David J Madura)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: PC Sprite Engine
Date: 13 Oct 92 19:59:06 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Originator: djmst19@unixd2.cis.pitt.edu

Well this Sprite Engine is not a new idea and I had proposed it to more
than a few people years ago when the Genesis came out and inspired me.

The idea of RAM, you have to have onboard display RAM, no way around it.
The Genesis & SNES have only 64k of display RAM and they are able to
make great use of it.  Having 256k would be a bonanza.. The display
memory need not be directly accessible, both the SNES & Genesis
read/write to the display memory through a single RW port , but they
can DMA to/from the display memory very fast and that is a great
advantage, more so than complete linear accessibility.  Also remember
that sprites are made up of 8x8 character sets and because of repetition
in backgrounds and sprites it saves a lot of memory.

My idea was that the sprite card would genlock with whatever VGA card
in use and that way, programmers could use the VGA as a background with
the sprites in the foreground (eliminating the need for backgrounds in
the sprite board and concentrating on sprites only).

A meg of RAM would bump up the cost too much and would be overkill.
Remember, the sprites do not need a continuous bitmap. including
64k-256k of RAM is practical, more than enough and would keep cost down
significantly.

Mind you, I think you people in no way even come close to starting this
project (Like the killer graphics lib, sprites lib, etc...) but maybe
somebody from some company will read these ideas and make them reality.
From: mxb8@po.CWRU.Edu (Matthew Bakaitis)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Extended Mem use on IBM clones using C/C++
Date: 9 Oct 1992 03:45:43 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
Reply-To: mxb8@po.CWRU.Edu (Matthew Bakaitis)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


-Sorry about the first (no subject) message...I though this one would
be a little more clear when scanning thru the subject list.

	Currently, I'm using an IBM clone with 8 meg of extended memory
to do some statistical analysis for some (boring) classes...I decided to
try to use a big sample size, but naturally ran into a problem with making
my arrays larger than allowed than the Turbo C++ 1.0 compiler I'm using.
	I tried to use the command _OvrInitEms and _OvrInitExt given in
the library reference manuals, but I couldn't get either of them to work.

So, two things:

1)  Are there any books out there that are specifically aimed at programming
	in C/C++ that deal with using this memory?
2)  Are the library functions given in the Borland manuals not the thing to
	use?  Are there better PD libraries to use?  etc.

	Notes:
	I am a decent programmer, but it is not my true vocation it seems.
I am competent in programming in T-C++ for an IBM, but that's about the
limit of it.  I _am_ pretty good at this little niche, however.
	I am crossposting this to a few groups, so take note.  The post
is to rec.games.programmer thanks to a note I read about a PBM game that
had four million planets in it.  I figured that equaled either an incredible
amount of disk access (that I would like to avoid) or some hefty memory
use...

Thanks,
Matt
-- 
Matt Bakaitis
mxb8@po.cwru.edu		
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: emuly@chinet.chi.il.us (brian schmidt)
Subject: Re: real sprites
Organization: Chinet - Public Access UNIX
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 19:43:39 GMT

In article <1992Oct7.002801.2610@cam.compserv.utas.edu.au> scarnie@esk.compserv.utas.edu.au (Stuart George Carnie) writes:
>
>IBM on the video card, thus giving it power never imagined before. With 32-bit
>machines becoming more common, imagine, not just the arcade style games, but the
>3D, VR sort of games, giving the processors more time for calculations.  
>Anyway, I hope other programmers agree (Ok gamers aswell)

This may be a great idea in theory, but implementation may be difficult
Not for any hardware problems, but the "chicken and egg" software problem.

You will have a very hard time selling sprite boards unless there is
software that uses it, but you won't get the software developers to
develop for it unless there are a LOT of theme out there.  
One more problem is that most of the bigger software companies' games
have to support their products on lots of different platforms, and have
the games play basically the same on all of them.  The general 
philosophy tends to be "the game has to play on a very basic system.  If
we support 'cool' hardware (eg. MT32 audio, svga, etc) it will make the
game look/sound cooler, but will not affect the basic play of the game.
I.e. we won't do a game that REQUIRES a player to have some extra 
hareware."  
However, that might be a neat project for a small software house, maybe
packeged with the hardware....just a thought.....

-Brian Schmidt (free-lance sound developer for arcade/cartridge games)
A
From: cyberman@toz.buffalo.ny.us (Cyberman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: PC Sprite Engine
Date: 16 Oct 92 02:15:02 GMT
Organization: The Tower of Zot - (716)8338-616

kennehra@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (Rich"TheMan"Kennehan) writes:
> The amount of smoothness is dependent upon the type of processor you
> have and how fast it runs.  Perhaps you were running Commander keen on
> a 386?  Try running it on a 16 MHz 286 and write back to me.  Also
> note that Commander keen only has one background.  The sprite engine
> is going to be able to scroll multiple backgrounds independently.

run commander keen on a 12mhz 286 and it looks good.  Try looking at duke 
nukeem.

> For great examples of what the sprite engine will be able to do what
> the NO IBM can now do, look at these games:

The sprite engine should work integrally with the VGA adapter.  
I must also point out that VGA supports smooth scrolling in HARDWARE.  As 
well as split screen operation.

Cyberman/Stephen  
 


************************************************************
* Cyberman@TOZ.BUFFALO.NY.US                               *
*   "Life is what you put into it" - Cyberman              *
* Optimistic - running through a barn of manure looking    *
* for the horse!  /\ [] ( )                                *
From: tmkk@uiuc.edu (Khan)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Using Atari 2600 joysticks on the IBM
Date: 9 Oct 92 18:37:38 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.BvvAEr.ACy
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana


In article <kennehra.718571861@craft.camp.clarkson.edu> kennehra@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (Rich"TheMan"Kennehan) writes:
>djmst19+@pitt.edu (David J Madura) writes:
>
>>	WHy not just buy a Gravis PC GamePad? emulates the Analog stick
>>with only 8 directions and all the buttons.

[Reasons omitted.]

Well, I think it CAN be done. All an IBM joystick is is a couple of
variable resistors hooked to the joystick. When the stick is full left,
one pot is 0 resistance; when it's full right, the pot is 200k ohms (or
something like that - I don't have the exact specs in front of me).

All you would need to do would be to re-wire the PC board inside the
Atari stick such that full left went straight through, a full right went
through a 200k resistor, and analogous connections for up and down.
You'd also have to rig some way for the stick to read 100k ohms in each
channel when centered.
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: kennehra@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (Rich"TheMan"Kennehan)
Subject: Re: Using Atari 2600 joysticks on the IBM
Organization: Clarkson University
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 19:17:41 GMT

djmst19+@pitt.edu (David J Madura) writes:

>	WHy not just buy a Gravis PC GamePad? emulates the Analog stick
>with only 8 directions and all the buttons.

1) Because I don't want to spend the money
2) Because I want to increase my knowledge in electrical engineering
3) Because I want to be able to share the information on how to build
   one over the net
4) Because I want to use my old atari joystick, nothing else!!  That
   thing can get run over by a truck and still work! Its
   indestructible!  And if it DOES break, do you know how much it will
   cost to replace?  FIVE BUCKS.

- Rich
  kennehra@logic.camp.clarkson.edu

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: vputz@nyx.cs.du.edu (Victor Putz)
Subject: Re: Oops...icon.arj...heh...
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 92 17:56:57 GMT

vputz@nyx.cs.du.edu (Victor Putz) writes:



>Some updated info for icons.arj: you do need the decompresser arj239a.ex
,
>also located in teh pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS directory.  To decompress DM256.zi
,
>I believe that was compressed with pkz193 (alpha or beta test); I will
>upload that today under pkz239a.exe and pkuz239a.exe.

>Sorry if this inconvenienced anyone!  Did not mean to frustrate.

>A note on xlib03: how do compiled bitmaps work?  On my 386  at work the
>speed increase was about 5x; on my 486 at home they were the same speed.

>Am I being limited at home by the speed of my display card (trident 8900
?

>jes' curious0--->Vputzx

PKZ193A.exe is a self-extracting executable; it has all the pkzip files in
it and has just been uploaded to wuarchive.wustl.edu /pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS

If arj239a.exe is not in the MSDOS_UPLOADS directory, I'll try and upload
it too.

Sorry this is so confusing! ANOTHER NOTE ON THE ICONS.ARJ DEMO PROGRAM A
(sorry caps lock) animap.exe: it will appear that this is only one screen,
which wraps around as necessary.  The map size can be up to the max array
size dos can handle (pretty huge).  Yes, right now the map is wraparound. 
If there is enough demand, I could try to code one that automatically
loads in a new map array and links them, allowing unlimited size,. when
people reach the edge of the map, but that's a little ambitious for now.

-->vputz@nyx.cs.du.edu

note: to look at a bigger map, change the constructor

animap mymap (15, 15, ...) or whatever

to

animap mymap(25,25...) where 25 and 25 are the new xwidth and yheight.

A new version of icons.arj should be up soon, including a normal/fast
switch for icons (using compiled bitmaps), event class (run anim and
remove from map; ie explosions), maybe facing-actors, hopefully
moving-actors (that are still unless moving, then "walk" the appropriate
way).

Hope it helps__>Vputz

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: southern@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Southern)
Subject: Re: real sprites
Organization: Syracuse University
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 92 21:47:32 EDT

>This may be a great idea in theory, but implementation may be difficult
>Not for any hardware problems, but the "chicken and egg" software problem.
>
>You will have a very hard time selling sprite boards unless there is
>software that uses it, but you won't get the software developers to
>develop for it unless there are a LOT of theme out there.  
>One more problem is that most of the bigger software companies' games
>have to support their products on lots of different platforms, and have
>the games play basically the same on all of them.  The general 
>philosophy tends to be "the game has to play on a very basic system.  If
>we support 'cool' hardware (eg. MT32 audio, svga, etc) it will make the
>game look/sound cooler, but will not affect the basic play of the game.
>I.e. we won't do a game that REQUIRES a player to have some extra 
>hareware."  
>However, that might be a neat project for a small software house, maybe
>packeged with the hardware....just a thought.....
>
>-Brian Schmidt (free-lance sound developer for arcade/cartridge games)
>A
>
>

I'm not the one to do it, but from what I understand it would be possible
to design a sprite accelerator card to go along with an existing VGA card.
The sprite card would have it's own memory and would control video memory
directly. With a good deal of thought it could be compatible with all 
current video modes. I would guess that a card like this would cost around
$80-$100 since the technology for it would be basic. I would bet that at
that cost the card would gain enough popularity to interest software 
companies into designing games around it. There are 100s of Window's
Applications that require Windows and Windows itself costs a bit. I 
would definately buy a sprite card once it gains popularity. Imagine
if the card could only cost $40.. I bet everyone would have one within
a month or two of good advertising. If I owned Creative Labs I'd shell
out a fortune to design this kind of card. If anyone here ever has anything
to do with the design please put a nintendo controller adapter in it. 


Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: olsen_jo@cc.uvcc.edu
Subject: Re: Tile systems that work?
Organization: Utah Valley Community College
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 22:54:49 GMT

In article <71405@hydra.gatech.EDU>, ccastej@prism.gatech.EDU (Eric Jensen) writes:
> I am writing a tactical wargame in C++, and I was wondering 
> what people's experiences with hex-maps vs. square-based maps 
> have been.

You'll be best off doing one of two things.  If you use square cells, you
will want to do sub-cell positioning.  Otherwise you will want to use hexes.
Movement on squares will be more even (no distance advantage to moving
diagonally), but some games don't lend themselves to the sub-cell position
technique.  Tactical games tend to be the sort where only one unit can 
occupy a cell, so sub-cell positioning gets tricky because you would then
need to track sizes and proximity on a much finer level.

Some time soon the net will be seeing ComSim, a game that's been under 
development since the first of '89 and active use/testing for about a year
and a half.  It's a military combat simulator that uses square map cells and
floating point unit locations.  The floating point was sort of dictated by
some non-obvious design decisions, and has worked out quite well.  Here's
a quick rundown of features for those interested:

	X and Motif based (can be played with no keyboard usage)
	Realtime
	Complex instruction set can be used to set actions for each unit
	Multi-player, players may disconnect and reconnect leaving units live
	Some unit types can hold others (to several layers)
	User specifiable and definable set of units/cities
	"cron"able, can save and restore based on time
	Multiple alliance levels
	Private and public text messages
	Built-in help system

A new release has just been made to the "testing team", so with a bit of luck
it will go to one of the sources groups within a month or so.  Some friends
of mine at HP have taken over most of the updating and maintainance while
I have been netless for most of the past year.

As a quick example of what you can do with the point-n-click instructions,
you can set a city up to create bombers and forward them to a waiting
aircraft carrier which refuels them and sends them on to attack an enemy
city.  You can also set up patrol loops, select run/ignore/attack when enemy
units are sighted, and a bunch of other nifty things.

Start sending me hate mail if it hasn't shown up on the net by Dec 1. :^)

John Olsen
olsen_jo@uvadm.uvcc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: dmatiske@larson.helios.nd.edu (David Matiskella)
Subject: Re: Calling all graphics artists!
Followup-To: rec.games.programmer
Organization: University of Notre Dame
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 21:23:36 GMT

In article <Bw2o7y.C06@csugrad.cs.vt.edu>, jgreen@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (John
Green) wrote:
> 
> mucds@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Corey D. Stinson) writes:
> [
> >  Greets all,
> 
> >      I am working on a traditional-type role playing game but I have a
> >small problem.  I really can't draw that well!  Is there anyone out
> >there who is a good artist, able to draw people and monster pictures?
> >I'm not looking for anything fancy at all.  The game I'm working on will
> >be shareware.  Is there anyone who would like to contribute?
> [clip rest of article]
> 
> In relation to this is an idea I've been thinking about recently - how about
> starting a collection of bitmaps suitable for tile-based RPG's or arcade
> games.  Could be organized by genre, game type, etc.  That would give
> programmers who can't draw some more incentive to get their games done.
> Ideally, such a collection (along with an index of some sort) would be
> stored on an FTP site somewhere.
> 
> Another code-fiddler with no artistic talent,
> John Green
> jgreen@csugrad.cs.vt.edu
	On a related note what is the legality of using images taken from PD
source like GIFs in a Game? 
 What about using old classical music from the 1800's in a game?
From: vancleef@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Extended Mem use on IBM clones using C/C++
Date: 16 Oct 92 07:06:30 GMT
Article-I.D.: ohstpy.14254.2ade31b6

In article <1b2v97INN6pj@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, mxb8@po.CWRU.Edu (Matthew Bakaitis) writes:
> -Sorry about the first (no subject) message...I though this one would
> be a little more clear when scanning thru the subject list.
> 
> 	Currently, I'm using an IBM clone with 8 meg of extended memory
> to do some statistical analysis for some (boring) classes...I decided to
> try to use a big sample size, but naturally ran into a problem with making
> my arrays larger than allowed than the Turbo C++ 1.0 compiler I'm using.
> 	I tried to use the command _OvrInitEms and _OvrInitExt given in
> the library reference manuals, but I couldn't get either of them to work.
> 
> So, two things:
> 
> 1)  Are there any books out there that are specifically aimed at programming
> 	in C/C++ that deal with using this memory?
> 2)  Are the library functions given in the Borland manuals not the thing to
> 	use?  Are there better PD libraries to use?  etc.
> 
> 	Notes:
> 	I am a decent programmer, but it is not my true vocation it seems.
> I am competent in programming in T-C++ for an IBM, but that's about the
> limit of it.  I _am_ pretty good at this little niche, however.
> 	I am crossposting this to a few groups, so take note.  The post
> is to rec.games.programmer thanks to a note I read about a PBM game that
> had four million planets in it.  I figured that equaled either an incredible
> amount of disk access (that I would like to avoid) or some hefty memory
> use...
> 
> Thanks,
> Matt
> -- 
> Matt Bakaitis
> mxb8@po.cwru.edu		

If you want to access beyond the 640K MS-DOS limit, you really need to
run in protected mode (286+ 24 bit processing 8088 20 bit processing
also known as real mode). I use PharLap 286 Dos Extender. Screw EMS and
the rest, this is the best (you can also run from Windows if you know
how to do it, Windows is a protected mode operating system).

Expect newer operating systems a few years from now to feature protected
mode programming, there is no reason on earth that a 286+ shouldn't
be able to have a contiguous 16MB of memory from base. This is why I think
MSDOS 5.0 is a joke. Big deal if I get an extra 120K or whatnot. I want
access to all of the machines memory, and playing tricks with interrupt 12
is bogus.

-Garrett
From: behrenss@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Soenke Behrens)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: no-so-random numbers...
Date: 16 Oct 92 20:39:48 GMT
Organization: Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany

gtd543a@prism.gatech.EDU (death) writes:

>Does anyone know of a random number generator, publicly available, or
>a good algorithm for some?  It will be implemented in C.

random() (possibly in connection with mrandom()) and drand48() are publicly
available. I do not have exact figures on their randomness, though.

>25861 Georgia Tech Station        | "Only sheep need a leader"

Baahhh!

Soenke
-- 
===========================================================================
More than silver, more than gold, I need   !    behrenss@informatik.
electricity. I need it for my dreams.      !    tu-muenchen.de
(RACTER)                                   !  FIDO: 2:246/13 Soenke Behrens
From: amitp@owlnet.rice.edu (Amit J Patel)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: wishlist for the ultimate role-playing adventure? [poll]
Date: 16 Oct 92 12:38:38 GMT
Reply-To: amitp@owlnet.rice.edu
Organization: Rice University

In article <1992Oct15.214453.28392@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>, vputz@nyx.cs.du.edu (Victor Putz) writes:
|> baylor@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Baylor) writes:
|> 
|> >	Am I correct in assuming everyone loved the Ultima format?
|> >	Me personally, I can't stand it - it was too complex, mouse or no,
|> >and I couldn't do anything. I don't want to have to read a tome of 
|> >instructions before i can enjoy a game.
|> >	For me, it wasn't intuitive, it was just confusing. Maybe i'm just
|> >not game-minded, but i couldn't get into the game because of it's interf
|> ce.
|> >							- baylor
|> >ps - this isn't an IBM specific question - how neat
|> ..
|> Hmm... I don't think Brian was referring to the clumsy, confusing
|> which-button-does-what interface of Ultima7, just the quasi-isometric view
|> where you look down on the characters.  This is surprisingly easy to do
|> (see my icons.arj demo; now about 5x faster with xlib03) and looks great!
|> 
|> -->Vputz
|> 

I also liked the look-down view; it makes the game more
two-dimensional.  If you look at Nintendo games, they are somewhat two
dimensional, but the vertical dimension just doesn't give you
everything --- the movement is basically left or right.  In Ultima,
you get much more out of the screen space, and you can walk in circles
more easily.  :)



			Amit,
			waiting to get home to try icons.arj

-- 
/\\ Amit J Patel, amitp@owlnet.rice.edu
\\/ Is it just me, or did OS/2 2.0 adopt Ultima Underworld's mouse
    button behavior?  (Quattro for Windows, too!)
From: cyberman@toz.buffalo.ny.us (Cyberman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: using atari 2600 joys
Date: 11 Oct 92 01:40:25 GMT
X-Maildoor: WaflineMail 1.00r


   Rich"theman"kennehan was espousing about 'Re: using atari 2600 joys',
   on [10-10-92  01:07] to All!
 Ri> Please realize that I KNOW THAT I WILL ONLY HAVE ONE BUTTON!!!  (I've
 Ri> got more than enough E-mail from people telling me what I already know!
 Ri> :) What the Adapter is going to have to do is add some resistance to
 Ri> the circuit when the joystick is pushed up or to the left (No problem)
 Ri> but is going to have to ADD some voltage when the joystick is pushed
 Ri> down or to the right.  I think I'm going to need a few transistors to
 Ri> do this.  Any suggestions?

    Let's see here you have 3 states in each direction correct?

    Left - nothing - Right

    Up - nothing - Down

    The nothing state is 50% of the total resistance.   The
    output of the Atari joystick gives you 8 states

    for convention sake let us say UP and LEFT are full
    resistance, and down and right are zero resistance or very
    low.

    Up and down generate 2 bits and left and right generate 2
    bits

    SO
    with up and down
    UD
    00 - nothing
    01 - Down
    10 - up
    11 - impossible

    with Left and Right
    LR
    00 - nothing
    01 - right
    10 - left
    11 - impossible

    I sugest using 2 4052 dual quad analog multiplexors.

    Unfortunately they don't have seperate inputs so you HAVE to
    use 2.

    here is how to use them
    LR - inputs
    ||
   +-------+
   |       +- output (to joystick port)
   +-------+
   0|1|2|3|     R1 - 100k trimpot
    R | R 5     R2 - 200k trimpot
    1 | 2 V
    +-+-+
      |
      other circuitry

    The up down part is a mere copy of this.  Up for left down
    for right.  it requires 2 chips 4 resistors.

    If I had a better diagram of the PC joystick I could give a
    better design.

            Stephen Cyberman@Toz.Buffalo.NY.US
            Scripted at Sat  10-10-1992  15:46:20

... An optimist: a person who looks for the pony in a barn full of manure.
--- Blue Wave/QWK v2.10