HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ghost@next02csc.wam.umd.edu (.)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Getting A Job Game Programming
Date: 20 Nov 92 16:38:27 GMT
Organization: Workstations at Maryland, University of Maryland, College Park

In article <1992Nov20.131956.10514@nuscc.nus.sg> isc10144@nusunix1.nus.sg  
(CHAN NICODEMUS) writes:
> JAMES MCGINLEY (mcginle@obelix.gaul.csd.uwo.ca) wrote:
> : I assume the following questions have been asked hundreds of times but  
I'm new
> : to this group. Anyways, bear with me while I ask :
> : 1. Has someone compiled a list of addresses of companies that make  
games?
> :      If you could send it to me - or post it - I would appreciate it.
> : 2. What are the chances of getting hired at these companies?
> : 3. What is the standard background of most game programmers (i.e. Do  
you
> :      need a computer science degree? Do you need an art background?
> :      Are the big name programmers today the same people that started  
out
> :      programming commercial Atari games?)
> : 4. Do you need to have a shareware game to get looked at?
> : 5. Are there any computer game making companies in Canada?
> : 6. Do I have a hope in hell of getting into the video game industry?
> : 
> : Any information at all on anything (I'll even take unsubstantiated  
opinions)
> : would be fantastique. I (along with everybody else here I presume)  
would
> : love a job programming computer games.
> : 
> : Thanks a million,
> : Jim 'I'm doomed to work at a bank' McGinley
> : 
> : P.S. Thanks for all the help everyone gave me about redefining  
characters!
> 
> I think that I quite agree with him.  But what is the competition and
> marketableness of people like us?  I'm sure there are a lot of people
> out there looking for these type of jobs.  
> 
> 
> 
> Nico.
> Department of Information Systems and Computer Science,
> National University of Singapore.



gad! don't i *WISH* i could get a job doing what i would love!!
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: reznick@acf3.NYU.EDU (Daniel Reznick)
Subject: Cleanly Switching Video Modes
Organization: New York University
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 05:20:00 GMT

Hello.

I notice that everytime my code switches video modes (for example,
using Abrash's mode set code to switch to Mode X) my monitor 
crackles and clicks loudly.  Now, I know that this is something
that multisync monitors do when switching video modes, but I don't
think that I have ever seen a commercial game cause this.  Is
there some way to temporarily disable the screen during the actual
mode switch?  Or anyway to "cleanly" switch modes?  (Especially
in and out of Mode X.)

Thanks..

Daniel Reznick
reznick@acf3.nyu.edu
From: baylor@ut-emx.uucp (Baylor)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Is EGA diff than Mode X?
Date: 18 Nov 92 22:21:21 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin; Austin, Texas


	I still don't seem to have the hang of video modes.
	By my recollection, there are 8 pixels/byte in EGA mode,
and to get a color, you add the bits from each plane to get the
color (plane 3 seems to be the high value, so for value/color
1010, or 9 decimal, it's stored in say bit 7 of plane 3 as 1,
2 as 0, 1 as 1 and plane 0 as 0).
	Also, i thought that mode $13 used only one plane which is
why it could only access 64k. Also, the mode is linear (all 8 bits
are always in the same plane).
	But according to Ferraro (pg 147):
	"Mode 13 hex uses all four bit planes...The four planes are
chained so that sequential bytes in host memory are loaded into 
alternating bit planes."
	So does that mean that mode $13 is planar, but color bits
aren't split between planes? If that is the case, why only 64k?
I guess if you had 6 colors, 0, 5, 15, 6, 8, 16, they would be stored
with color 0 and 8 in plane 3, 5 and 16 in plane 2, etc.
	Also, how is Mode X,Y,Z,etc laid out? I would think they're
like EGA and have 2 bits per pixel, with the bits making a color
spread over several planes. But in staring at the linear_to_pbm
functions in my excellent Egg archives, all the function seems to
do is take every fourth pixel/byte and place them next to each other,
repeated at the end for each plane. That means all 8 bits for a color
are in the same plane, like they say mode $13 is, but completely
unlike EGA modes.
	I still don't understand using color planes, and i hope to 
fairly soon do both a demo game in both EGA and Mode X, and thought
that knowing planes for one obviously moved over.
	And what is this Chain 4 thing I've heard of? I have all
Abrashes code from ftp, but never got the text of the article.
	Can anyone help? I have lots of vga source code (no ega
code unfortunately), but very little understanding as to how they 
work.
	Thanks	
							- baylor


-- 
****************************************************************************
baylor@emx.utexas.edu   "There is no such thing as an innocent Kennedy"
I'm to sexy for $4.69 an hour...
****************************************************************************
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Advice needed for fastest sort algorthm
From: gjs@mustang.dsto.gov.au (Graeme Simpkin)
Date: 20 Nov 92 09:40:56 CST

f85-tno@nada.kth.se (Tommy Nordgren) writes:

>In article <1dj6jmINNder@tartarus.uwa.edu.au>, oreillym@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Michael O'Reilly) writes:
>|> John A. Slagel (jas37876@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu) wrote:
>|> : kds@phy.duke.edu (Stokes Kevin) writes:

In fact almost everyone writes.....

I am really interested in the answer to the original post here, but
there appears to be a rolling discussion (and great I encourage it),
but can I ask some kind soul to post an article at the end with the
header:

Fastest sort algorithm -> HERE IT IS

when the results of the debate are apparent ?
Thanks in anticipation,

Graeme Simpkin
gjs@asg.dsto.gov.au
(apologies if the above is bad net manners)

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: s009@brems.ii.uib.no (Arne Rivenes)
Subject: Game Lib wanted
Organization: University of Bergen, Norway
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 14:18:37 GMT

I've just read about Game Lib fot TP6.0. And want to get it.
It  has of cource been removed from the uploads dir, and I want to know where
I can get it now.

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This could be a signature, but who cares anyway.
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: alanf@cs.monash.edu.au (Alan Grant Finlay)
Subject: Re: Advice needed for fastest sort algorthm
Organization: Computer Science, Monash University, Australia
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 03:11:09 GMT

asu@panther4.panther.mot.com (Russ Trotter) writes:

>I hate to jump on this seemingly runaway train but.... 

>In one of my classes, I remember the teacher saying that it
>had been proven that O(n log n) was the best one could do
>for _comparison_ based sorting...  Is this a more correct assertion?

>I don't know much (at all :) ) about Radix sort  (only how to spell it :) )
>so I can't be sure if it disproves the statement above.

The problem with this question is that it is a non-question.
Its like asking what is the worlds fastest dishwasher.
Its depends upon the data and what you mean by fast.

Do you want fastest worst case, fastest average case, fastest "usually" case,
or fastest best case?

Do you mind if the algorithms worst case time happens when the input data
is already sorted?

What kind of machine architecture are you permitted to use.

How much data is there (an O(n^2) sort will beat most O(n log(n)) sorts
on less than a score or so of elements)?

Is the range of values being sorted small enough to fit in real or
virtual memory?
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: amead@s.psych.uiuc.edu (Alan Mead)
Subject: Re: Text Adventure Languages
Organization: UIUC Department of Psychology
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 01:34:37 GMT

Mark 'Mark' Sachs <MBS110@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:

>If you're using IBM, Mac, or Atari ST, "TADS" is probably your best bet.
>I'm no authority, but it's the most well-supported adventure
>language out there, has many nifty features including complete object-
>orientation, and is shareware.

Today I received the v2.0 announcement and they no longer support Atari
but promise to work with 3rd parties to support a lot more platforms.
While the focus on DOS and Mac may be frustrating, I think the reason
(because the author wants to support the game on all platforms) is
sound.

Also, I haven't played with ALAN but I like TADS because of the
interface it provides the user.  Version 2.0 also includes virtual
memory and multi-level undo among other things.  There is also a
source-level debugger.  All in all, it's the most complete system I've
seen and reasonable priced (albiet not free).
From: Eric.Kjellman@f99.n121.z1.FidoNet.Org (Eric Kjellman)
Sender: FredGate@p0.f99.n121.z1.FidoNet.Org
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Games and genetic algorithms
Date: 20 Nov 92  21:27:14 EST

 ACG> I have written several computer games using the 
 ACG> Borland Pascal compiler and
 ACG> would like to teach the computer to learn from its own 
 ACG> mistakes when it plays
 ACG> against a human opponent (a la War Games).  I am going to try to insert a
 ACG> genetic algorithm into the board evaluation subroutine so that the game
 ACG> strategies whose parameters produce the most successful games survive to
 ACG> the "next generation".  Is this a good idea?  If not, 
 ACG> what other method of
 ACG> computer learning should I use?
 ACG>   My first project will be to convert either Checkers, Othello, or Ataxx.


Hmmm. Well, if you do do something like that, I'd suggest you set it up so the computer can play the computer, instead of relying on a human to sit down through a few hundred games until the program gets good. If you have a fast computer and a lot of spare processing time, you could also try a "King of the Mountain" like method... for example:

Method 1 is randomly generated, it starts as king of the mountain. Then another method is generated (Method 2), and 3 games are played between the two. The method that wins the most games stays on, and the other method is erased. Then Method 3 is generated, and it plays the method that won best out of 3 games. Wineer stays on. Etc. Eventually you should end up with something that plays quite well... although it could take quite a long time...

(One more note... in a game like Chess where a draw is possible, a score of 1.5-1.5 could happen in a best of three series, so you might either have them keep playing until the tie is broken, or you could save both methods and have like a "Co-kings of the mountain")

hope this gives you some ideas!

        -Eric Kjellman


 * Origin: NineJackNine (1:121/99)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: m086414@pwa-b.uucp (Fred Comins)
Subject: Looking for source to SHRDLU ??
Organization: Pratt & Whitney Aircraft
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 14:06:03 GMT


I have never seen SHRDLU, but have heard it has a very
good plain English user interface.  I would like to
review for a project I am working on.  Any referances 
would be appreciated.  Thanks.
.

-- 
Fred S. Comins				 Pratt & Whitney Aircraft
Email: comins@pwfire.pweh.utc.com        400 Main St. M/S 161-05
Sun Workstation Support                  East Hartford, CT 06108
From: kludge@hardy.u.washington.edu (Kludge)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: MCGA 320x400x256
Date: 22 Nov 92 08:39:44 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Nov22.083944.17164
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

In article <1992Nov21.195314.21119W@skylark.edb.tih.no> thomash@edb.tih.no writes:
>!
>
>I've heard there is a standard MCGA 320x400x256 mode available on all VGA cards. Is this
>true, and if so -
>
>1) What mode-number is it? 
>2) How is the screen organized (bitmap/bitplanes)?
>3) Where must I write to change which bitplane/screen area to write to/read from?
>
>Thanks a lot -
>
>Thomas Hagen
>thomash@edb.tih.no

  Well... it's not exactly a standard mode.  For that matter, it's not a
mode at all - it's just a tweaked set of video parameters.  For that reason,
there isn't a mode number for it.  The screen is organized into... well...
byteplanes, I guess.  One byte corresponds to four pixels - the pixel number
(or numbers - more than one can be selected) is selected through a register.
This sounds confusing - a much better explanation than I'm capable of went
by a few posts ago.
  I'd suggest you pick up xlib04.zip off wuarchive.wustl.edu in 
pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS.  It's a great library of routines for tweaked VGA modes.

...by the way, there is one annoying "feature" of some tweaked modes - they
confuse monitors.  Sometimes they'll click and hum for a moment, or lose
the hold on the picture so you need to turn them off and on again.  Also,
in some tweaked modes (including 320x400) the picture is not the full
vertical height of the screen, so it needs to be adjusted.  Kind of
annoying, but it works.


								--Kludge
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: goss@micor.ocunix.on.ca (Timothy D. Goss)
Subject: code to read joystick values
Organization: LogiSoft Computing Services 
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 04:53:23 GMT
Keywords: joystick

Well here's my $.02 worth.  The routine to read the joystick values is written
in a mix of C and inline assembler.  The assembler is only used to actually
generate the INT (cause I hate int86 calls, why? I'll never know).  Anyhow, the
stuff is pretty easy to read and works.  If anyone has any trouble with this
please let me know and I'll try to find out what went wrong.  When in doubt
blame evil spirits, drool and sway from side to side.  (This doesn't really 
solve anything but people will stop bugging you if you do it).

Tim

-----[ cut here ]-----

#include <dos.h>

#define ERROR   0
#define SUCCESS 1

typedef struct {
   int x1, y1, x2, y2;
   int sw0, sw1, sw2, sw3;
} JOYSTICK;

JOYSTICK stick;

int ReadJoyStick(void)
{

   int buttons;

   asm mov ah,084h
   asm mov dx,0
   asm int 15h
   asm cmp cx,-1
   asm je error

   buttons = _AL>>4;
   stick.sw0 = !(buttons & 0x01);
   stick.sw1 = !(buttons>>1 & 0x01);
   stick.sw2 = !(buttons>>2 & 0x01);
   stick.sw3 = !(buttons>>3 & 0x01);

   asm mov ah,084h
   asm mov dx,1
   asm int 15h
   asm cmp cx,0ffffh
   asm je error

   stick.x1 = _AX;
   stick.y1 = _BX;
   stick.x2 = _CX;
   stick.y2 = _DX;

   ok   : return(SUCCESS);
   error: return(ERROR);

}

void main(void)
{

   while (!kbhit())
      if (ReadJoyStick())
         printf("%d %d %d %d\n", stick.sw0, stick.sw1, stick.x1, stick.y1);

}

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: woodam@aix.rpi.edu (Matthew G. Woodard)
Subject: Playing map....
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 18:22:59 GMT

I'm making a war game, but I don't want to use a "hex" or "square" territory
setup for the maps.  Instead, I'd like to use a map similar to that used in
board games such as risk, or Axis and Allies (ie. non-uniform shape).  I 
believe this might be done using a hard-coding technique, but I want the
game to have much more versatility than that (I'd eventually like to create
a map-generator to create custom battlefields).
	One idea I've had would be to implement an object-oriented approach,
but I haven't been able to think up a really good way to represent the map.

						Any advice would be a help,
						Matt (woodam@aix.rpi.edu)

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: vputz@nyx.cs.du.edu (Victor Putz)
Subject: Re: Getting A Job Game Programming
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 18:25:05 GMT


..well, as far as I can tell, it all depends.

Most likely with the big-name megacorporate companies like Origin, EA,
Sierra, etc you start out as a programming weenie and work your way up to
project amnager, etc.  I doubt you could work on your own project until
several years int he future.

OR you can try and start your own shareware distribution network from
scratch, write games because you love it, and accept that you'll never
make enough money from it to buy three loaves of bread.

Actually, anyone know how well shareware works?  Can one make a living at
it?  Jay Wilbur?  Apogee guys?  Whaddya have to say?

-->Vputz, warrior against megacorporate game-making borgeuis ((and against
correct spelling--chuckle))
From: sl8nl@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Cleanly Switching Video Modes
Date: 22 Nov 92 18:21:24 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

> I notice that everytime my code switches video modes (for example,
> using Abrash's mode set code to switch to Mode X) my monitor 
> crackles and clicks loudly.  Now, I know that this is something
> that multisync monitors do when switching video modes, but I don't
> think that I have ever seen a commercial game cause this.  Is
> there some way to temporarily disable the screen during the actual
> mode switch?  Or anyway to "cleanly" switch modes?  (Especially
> in and out of Mode X.)

There are a few different methods.  The one I use most for my games and demos
is as follows.

1) CLI.
2) Wait for vertical retrace.
3) Clear the palette to black through means of ports 3C8h and 3C9h.
4) Wait for vertical retrace.
5) STI.
6) Set new mode.

-Joshua Jensen
From: jwn@whq2-top.DaytonOH.NCR.COM (Bill Nunamaker)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: PD Source Examples in "C"?
Date: 23 Nov 92 17:05:34 GMT
Reply-To: jwn@whq2-top.DaytonOH.NCR.COM (Bill Nunamaker)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Corporate Customer Services  NCR Dayton WHQ-4E

I was wondering if there was any Public Domain code available for high speed
graphics/animation for examples, etc.  
-- 
 ============================================================================
 ===.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  NCR  -  -  An  AT&T  Company  .  .  .  .  .  .===
 ===. Bill Nunamaker  . Systems Analyst .  jwn@whq2-top.DaytonOH.NCR.COM .===
 ============================================================================
From: 00rbspelman@leo.bsuvc.bsu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: VGA
Date: 17 Nov 92 17:16:43 GMT
Organization: Ball State University, Muncie, In - Univ. Computing Svc's

In article <1992Nov14.142027.3539W@skylark.edb.tih.no>, thomash@edb.tih.no (Thomas Hagen,o91b) writes:
> In article <8715@dirac.physics.purdue.edu>, saxena@bohr.physics.purdue.edu 
>   (Virendra K. Saxena) writes:
> 
>>	Ok, I've got the code for placing a bitmap on screen in mode 13h. 
>>	How do I wait for vertical retrace?
> 
> In Borland C, you could do the following:
> 
>   #include <dos.h>
>   ....
>   void wait_for_retrace(void){
>     while (!(inportb(0x3da)&8));
>   }
> 
>   Thomas Hagen
>  
> thomash@edb.tih.no
> 
> 	
	Can the same thing be done with QuickBasic or VisualBasic?

Robert B. Spelman
00RBSPELMAN@LEO.BSUVC.BSU.EDU
From: blaisdel@ucrengr.ucr.edu (james blaisdell)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: speedup PutBlock
Date: 18 Nov 92 23:57:09 GMT
Organization: University of California, Riverside

>>  >        mov     ax, 320                 <<<-- change this to mov bx, y
>>  >        mul     y       ; AX = y * 320  <<<-- and this to add bx, bx
>>       then set ds, si for the table lookup by:  lds si, table

>>        then load ax with screen addr by          mov ax, ds:[si+bx]

>The way I usually do these things is:

>    mov    ah, y
>    sub    al, al
>    mov    bx, ax
>    shr    bx, 1
>    shr    bx, 1
>    add    ax, bx

>I remember comparing that with the table method, and this was faster,
>although I may be wrong. It probably also depends on what machine you're
>using.

Actually what you have written above won't even work.  The AX needs
to be shifted four times right, before being added to the BX.  Also
what if y is greater than 256?  

the following code should work, if you want to use shifts and y<256:

	mov	ah, y
	sub	al, al
	mov	bx, ax
	shr	bx, 1
	shr	bx, 1
	mov	ax, bx
	shr	ax, 1
	shr	ax, 1
	add	bx, ax	

however the table lookup is much more flexible and faster, the only
possible argument against the table look up is that it requires 400 bytes

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: drich@mas.uucp (Rich Dobry)
Subject: Re: Xmode Scrolling
Organization: Emtronix Inc.
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 15:11:45 GMT

> > Rich writes:
> >
> >  What I am wondering is how games do scrolling (smooth) with a static 
> >piece any other place on the screen, such as on the left.
> >  
> Baylor write:
>
> 	Honestly, they do it completely different then the way you think.
> 	They don't scroll anything onto the screen. Virtual screens
> are almost always to short for anything except demos and title screens
> (at which point it looks very nice).
> 	They define an array of screen tiles for background (not
> jill, alligators or such) and then do a putpic-type blit for each
> visible screen, that is, they constantly redraw it!
> 							- baylor

I figured that's how they must have done it but doing some preliminary
test shows me you can get, at best, about 30fps  because you are 
redrawing so much of the screen even using the fastest system to video 
copy routines.

  I have a crude smooth scrolling demo working using as much video memory 
as I can get and drawing and copying when you hit certain edges.  
This is running at 60fps but skips a little when the full screen is copied.  
I'm working on routies
that will fix this by drawing both in front of and behind where the current
physical screen is.  I'll post if it works.  

Thanks for the response...

Talk to you later...
                     Rich

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|    Richard E. Dobry Jr.        Central Maryland Multiple Listing Service   |
|      Systems Analyst                    Baltimore, MD 21217 (USA)          |
|      (410) 462-3836                 email: cmmlsd1!progrich@mas.uucp       |
|                                        or: drich@mas.uucp                  |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: pcellik@axion.bt.co.uk (Peter SPHINX Cellik)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: using video-ram in mde 13h (ibm pc)
Date: 18 Nov 92 10:28:19 GMT
Reply-To: pcellik@axion.bt.co.uk (Peter SPHINX Cellik)
Organization: British Telecom Research Labs


In article <BxK5rJ.9Ip@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, jas37876@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (John A. Slagel) writes:
|>     
|>     If you have FTP access, check out on wuarchive.wustl.edu in
|>     the pub/mirrors/msdos/ddjmag/xsharp15.zip file.  This is the
|>     complete 3D graphics package, with source. It contains fast 
|>     polygon fill routines.
|> 

I think its in mirrors/msdos/ddjmag/xsharp15.zip not pub/...
 

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Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer