HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jas37876@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (John A. Slagel)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Mode X and colors
Date: 5 Nov 92 01:07:54 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.Bx7xt8.813
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

stylian@aramis.uucp (Philip Stylianos) writes:

>When I access mode X, I get roughly half colors and half black or near-black colors.
>Can I set RGB values like in the normal modes, or am I stuck with the potpourri I'm
>given? Also, if I'm stuck, are these colors standard on every VGA?

    Mode X is a derivative of mode 13h.  Everything should be (and is)
    the same between it and the standard mode 13h.  In other words,
    you can change the palette colors using BIOS calls and any other
    setpalette routines you may have for any 256 color VGA mode.


-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
  John A. Slagel, email: jas37876@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: jas37876@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (John A. Slagel)
Subject: Re: Advice needed for fastest sort algorthm
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 23:21:58 GMT

   I know this is off the subject of QuickSort, etc, but...

   In one of my CS classes our teacher told us about a contest people
   had where you had to write the worst sort routine that was actually
   doing something... The winner was called the Neanderthal Sort, which
   can be explained by this:

   A caveman wants to sort some rocks.  He throws them in the air, and
   then checks to see if they're in the right order.  He continues this until
   they're in the right order. 

   I guess they actually calculated all the timings for this, but I
   didn't catch that part.  The best case is pretty good, though, since
   even for a badly ordered list, it could do it in 1 try.

   Anyway...

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
  John A. Slagel, email: jas37876@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
Xref: sparky rec.games.programmer:4629 rec.games.misc:18314
From: av5410@sjfc.UUCP (Alex Villamil)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer,rec.games.misc
Subject: Help needed with Aviator.1.8 demo on IPC!!!
Keywords: aviator IPC
Date: 11 Nov 92 19:46:38 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY


Hi.  After much aggravation, I've finally decided to post.

I'm new to Sun Workstations so please forgive me if I seem
ignorant of things obvious to you.
Let me tell you what I've done so that you can understand my
situation:

On the server (sunlab1):
sunlab1# whoami
root
sunlab1# setenv AVIATOR_HOME ...
sunlab1# install_aviator BIGFILE
...
...
...       (various setenvs)

Our lab consists of an IPX server and a few IPCs.  So, to run
aviator on the IPX:

sunlab1# echo "0x29a3e?w 2000" | adb -w
/usr/games/aviator/bin/aviator

Though the patch says I should get: 0x29a3e:        0x2005  =
   0x2000

I come up with:
0x29a3e:	0x2000 =	0x2000

This really doesn't seem like a big deal because aviator does
manage to run on the IPX (which, by the way has a monochrome
display.  The clients have color displays.  The IPX has 16mgs
RAM and IPCs 8mgs RAM.)

So, aviator is cool on monochrome, but I want color!!
So, on one of the clients:

sun6# rlogin sunlab1
...
sunlab1# setenv DISPLAY sun6:0
sunlab1# aviator

And then it hangs.  What gives?

Oh, another thing.  On the IPX I had to run OW3 instead of X11
to get it to run (otherwise the harddrive starts thrashing).

Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?  Is there too little
RAM?  Was aviator not meant for the IPC?

*Please* help me!!!

Alex
av5410@sjfc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: vputz@nyx.cs.du.edu (Victor Putz)
Subject: Re: Number of unique tiles in a game?
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 16:58:52 GMT

cat@wixer.cactus.org (Dr. Cat) writes:


>   If I remember right, Ultima III had 128 tiles, Ultima IV had 256, Ult
ma V
>had 512, and Ultima VI had 2048.  I might have some of those numbers wro
g,
>though, it's been a while since I worked on the series...  I'd say 256 s
ould
>be fine for your first game.  You'll be lucky if you can find the time t

>think up & draw that many unique shapes.

Ultima III had 128 tiles??  Hum.  I don't think so, if we are talking
about the same thing (which we must not be-- sounds like you know what
you're talking about).  I'm referring to tiles on the map, just in terms
of background (ie mountains, forests, etc).  I suppose considering the
different "border" tiles (ie different boundaries bwetween ocean and
land), I can see a fair amount but u3 just wasn't that graphically
complex.  Trees and other objects I can see as static actors (not tiles).

I think we're agreed, though-- 256 is PLENTY for a first game, and with
256 colors, 256 tiles can go a long way (and take up a LOT of time).

-->Vputz

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: rick@sed.stel.com (Frederick Duske)
Subject: Joystick question...
Organization: SED, Stanford Telecom, Reston, VA
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 92 15:49:50 GMT

Greetings:

I have a question I was hoping someone might be able to help me with.
Where can I find information on programming the joystick from C or
C++?  I have been looking around for a while and cannot seem to locate
any information on joystick programming.  I would like to use a
joystick as an alternative input device with a functionality similar
to a mouse.  I have seen the program joymouse, but I am more
interested in how it is done as opposed to just using someone else's
code.  Any help is appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

Rick Duske

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Rick Duske         |  "The two most common things in the Universe
     rick@.sed.stel.com     |       are hydrogen and stupidity."
                            |                -Harlan Ellison
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: s026@brems.ii.uib.no (Paal K Holmberg)
Subject: using video-ram in mde 13h (ibm pc)
Organization: University of Bergen, Norway
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 10:22:02 GMT

 i am currently writing a game which uses mode 13h, with no page swapping. instead
i draw into a buffer i ordinary ram , and copy this to the screen. I would like to have
this buffer in the unused part of the videoram, but i cant seem to be able to access it.
is it possible? btw can you write as fast polygonfill routines  in modex , with the 
bitplanes and all ?
any information appreciated.

-- 
 Paal Krebs Holmberg
 UiB
 Norway
 
 "To program, or not to program - thats not a question " ;-) 

                               |                          
                               |                           
                               |              
                              (n)             
                   X-----====(.i.)====-----X  
                      X       +++       X    
                               ~             
  		   Good flying,and check six
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: tsullivan@trentu.ca (God)
Subject: Re: EGA CARDS
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Trent University Computer Services Department
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 15:19:00 GMT

In article <1992Nov11.063956.20790@wariat.org>, erica@wariat.org (Lady of the BitMode) writes...
> 
>Hello. I have a question. I want to make a little game and put it on the
>shareware market. I was thinking about using the EGA card because it's 
>supported by vga too. But there are two standards of EGA; 64K and 128K
>which one should I support. Since it's just a simple game to get me up to
>speed I was thinking about 64K but I really want 128K but it's a little
>more worthwhile with 2 pages at 640 x 350 graphics mode. I'm hoping that
>a lot of people have EGA 128K, or VGA, memory boards so that they can run my 
>program on there machine if I decided to support EGA 128K, which I think I
>will..

  To paraphrase Michael Abrash, "The 64k EGA is about as widely used as the 
PC's tape port." The number of <256K EGA boards installed are insignifigant 
enough that you have no need to worry. There very few pieces of EGA 
software around that do support them (I guess that in itself in a reaon to 
write on for 64k, eh?)...

   Tim Sullivan
   tsullivan@trentu.ca
   cstes@blaze.trentu.ca

A Disclaimer? Yeah, and people BELIEVE what I write, too...
---
 "Virtual Reality has NOTHING on Calvin."
       - Suzy, from Calvin and Hobbes

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: colin.buckley@rose.com (colin buckley)
Subject: SB Programming
Organization: Rose Media Inc, Toronto, Ontario.
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 09:59:36 GMT
X-Gated-By: Usenet <==> RoseMail Gateway (v1.70)


Date Entered: 11-13-92 04:51
EM>   However, I did get a number of helpful tips, and I'll summarize the
  >packages as follows:

You probably would have recieved more responses if you asked in
Alt.SBProgrammer.  The one conference you missed in your cross post.  And
probably the most important.  Then again most posts about info seems to
be ignored (atleast publicly).  Probably most of the IBM game programmers
here follow there aswell.  It's got such a low traffic flow I don't see
why not...
---
   RM 2.00 : RoseNet<=>Usenet Gateway : Rose Media 416-733-2285
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: drich@mas.uucp (Rich Dobry)
Subject: Xmode Scrolling
Organization: Emtronix Inc.
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 14:30:45 GMT

Hello,  I've been reading the newsgroup for about 2 months now and have seen
a lot of stuff on the xmode scrolling.  I have effectively implemented a
scrolling algorithem using 320x240x256.  You can scroll in any direction 
smoothly.  Also, I have used the split screen hardware option in the VGA
card to have a static bottom score keeper.  This works very well.  

  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.
  
  I have seen it done on Jill of the Jungle.  The left side of the screen
is kept static while the rest scrolls very smoothly.  Is this done through
hardware, or is the entire screen scrolling and the left side being
redrawn every frame (I hope not because this would seem VERY slow...).

  If someone knows how it is being done, please help me out... I am 
trying to finish up my library of Xmode routines (which include
scrolling backgrounds, sprite animiation, collision detection, etc).  

  When it it finished, I will be releasing it to anyone who wants to use
it.  It will be very easy to implemnt into any type of game (hopfully...)

                     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                  |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: blakely@triton.unm.edu ()
Subject: Aspect ratio in mode X 
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 21:47:18 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Distribution: usa


When I use the modeX 320 x240 resolution I am not getting a square aspect
ratio.  It seems to be squashing the screen.  I'm using borlandc and
the twk bgi library.  I was under the impression that this mode was designed
to have a 1:1 aspect ratio.  Any ideas and help would be greatly
appreciated.

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: vputz@nyx.cs.du.edu (Victor Putz)
Subject: Re: The Yak is Back...
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 92 15:57:49 GMT

cclark@trentu.ca (J. Chris Clark) writes:

>In article <1992Nov4.214158.17392@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>, vputz@nyx.cs.du.
du (Victor Putz) writes...
>>Secondly: I would like some information on name generation for
>>role-playing games.  Anyone have references/ideas/algorithms/code?

>Um..  What do you mean by this?  Do you mean generating monster/NPC/plac

>names?  If so, I thought the programmer just made them up!  :)

>>-->Vputz


>Sorry to be sarcastic, but I'm just not sure what you mean...
>Chris :)


Indeed I do mean generating monster/npc/place names.  However, name
generation is used for petty names (like monsters you are going to kill)--
par example, a friend of mine is setting up a mud.  It is much more
engrossing to run into a room and attack Herzog, Graash, and Turmak the
orcs (with associated messages, ie "Herzog slashes at you") than to walk
into a room and see "three orcs" with associated messages ("orc slashes at
you").

But I can see where this would have applications in computer RPGs as well.
 The nameGen the mud uses just assembles (for example) pairs from two
wsets of possible syllables, but I was wondering if there is'nt a better
way (this generates some impossible names if the syllables aren't all
compatible; it's only so much fun to take a wild blow at Hzzt)

-->Vputz

Xref: sparky rec.games.programmer:4656 comp.sys.ibm.pc.games:21545
From: harrison@lclark.edu (Mark Harrison)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
Subject: Re: Epic...
Date: 12 Nov 92 22:01:21 GMT
Article-I.D.: lclark.1992Nov12.220121.19447
Organization: Lewis & Clark College, Portland OR

In article <rdippold.721594966@qualcom> rdippold@qualcom.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) writes:
>colin.buckley@rose.com (colin buckley) writes:
>>Date Entered: 11-12-92 05:42
>>SL>BTW, be watching for Epic MegaGames new releases!
>
>>Why?  Are they distributing one of yours?  I think Epic's games are
>>no competition for Id or pure Apogee games so far.  Jill wasn't all that
>
>One reason I can think of to look forward to some Epic releases is
>that they now have Renaissance doing games for them.  Those have the
>potential to be incredible, especially with the new members they have.

Another reason to look forward to new Epic MegaGames releases is to look
at so Apogee releases.  No, not Keen/Cosmo/Wolf/etc.  I'm talking about
OLD Apogee releases.  Monuments of Mars is one good example.  There are
plenty more that I can't think of right now.  They didn't start off
releasing top notch stuff right at the beginning either. 

-- 
=============================================================================
Mark Harrison           |  "We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx
harrison@sun.lclark.edu |   Our great computers fill the hallowed halls."
              -- Me     |                                    -- Rush
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: marshall@tfh.enet.dec.com (Hunting the Snark)
Subject: Re: Windows Programming
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 21:55:11 GMT


In article <BxKuI1.162@mach1.wlu.ca>, wool8657@mach1.wlu.ca (john woolsey 9209 U) writes...
>I just got a copy of Turbo Pascal for Windows second hand, because I wanted
>to do some windows programming. I used to program in pascal before I moved
>to C. There are a lot of things that I am not very impressed about, but the
>most annoying is that there is almost no documented support of using the
>actual windows routines for creating windows. 

Go out immediately and buy Tom Swan's "Turbo Pascal for Windows 3.0
Programming" (approximate title). Everything you need to know to get started
with TPW in very clear language and lots of sample code.



Sm
From: dank@calvin.usc.edu (Dan King)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Advice needed for fastest sort algorthm
Date: 11 Nov 1992 08:39:34 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Distribution: world
Reply-To: dank@usc.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: calvin.usc.edu


In a previous article, warwick@cs.uq.oz.au (Warwick Allison) writes:
|> 
|> >A radix sort has a time complexity of O(N), which means that it
|> >operates in linear time on N units of data.
|> 
|> Gee, I'm sure the theoreticians would LOVE to see the algorithm,
|> since it has been PROVED long ago that sorting takes O(N log N)
|> time OPTIMALLY.

Quoting from The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 3 (pp176-178):
"[r]adix sorting is usually more efficient than any other known
sorting method for internal sorting."

Speaking about his example program, Knuth says,
"A p-pass version of the program would take (11p-1)N+O(pM) units of
time." [p is the number of keys and M is the number of radix piles]

Finally, in the theoretical analysis of the algorithm (p178), Knuth
finds that, if p=2 and M > sqrt(N), the average sorting time is O(N)
instead of order NlogN.  

|> >This integer may then be
|> >represented as the path in a binary tree, with the higher order
|> >bits represented as paths near the root and the lower order bits as
|> >paths near the leaves.
|> 
|> Guess what?  The number of bits will be of the order LOG N !!!!!!
Better check your references.

|> Let's rename this group to rec.games.!programmer, and succumb to the
|> community's belief that "games programmers" aren't real programmers
|> at all.  All the Windows programmers and DOS device driver programmers
|> can then cross there arms smugly and shake their heads at us non-
|> programmers, who can only write GAMES, saying "gee, they've discovered
|> SORTING"...

Better yet, how about renaming it to "alt.games.programmer.cant.read"?

DOS programmers are "real" programmers?  (snicker)  (I'm only kidding,
guys!)

|> Come on people, games programming is definately an art-form, but we
|> really must learn to hold our mallet and chisel correctly.  (Of course,
|> asm programmers only need to learn to hold the chisel, since they use
|> their head to supply the force).

Yep, games are an art form.  So is the process of not reinventing the
wheel. It involves a bit of research. Maybe you should spend a little
more time at the local library?  :)

Assembly programmers don't use mallets.  They use toothpicks and
simply hit them 90,000 times in the same time a mallet could strike
once.  This works really well until they discover that they're
striking the wrong piece of rock...

|> Warwick
dank
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: urciuoli@dbsun.uucp (urciuoli)
Subject: Re: DM256 
Organization: BioMerieux-Vitek, St. Louis Mo.
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 21:36:59 GMT

Does anybody know if modex or modey will work on 256 color LCD screens?
-Steven Urciuoli
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: ssalter@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (-=[SLS]=-)
Subject: Re: Epic...
Organization: OFSA
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 13:37:27 GMT

colin.buckley@rose.com (colin buckley) mentions:

>Why?  Are they distributing one of yours?  I think Epic's games are
>no competition for Id or pure Apogee games so far.  Jill wasn't all that
>impressive, so what if it was VGA the game had no background and the
>sprites were tiny.  Only a few actually looked good.(the Rainbow bird

You mean the sprites in the "world view", right? The "arcade" screens
had nice sized sprites.

>I played Cosmo longer than any shareware game I've tried (which is basically
>all.  I've been researching) so it's probably my favorite (A favorite shareware

Well, my ALL-Time favorite was JumpMan on the Commodore 64. On the IBM
platforms (and others?) I liked the Duke's, the Keen's were so-so,
Cosmo was too busy, Wolf3D was simple but horribly addicting..(I
had to play all the way through all the games and then start over at
Death Incarnate level.), the Jill's were ok except they kept crashing
on my machine.


>Kilo had nothing on Galatix either.

Kilo was so so for that sort of game...

>conference, (All three are long gone or silent upon success.) had a good laugh
>once they saw it.

Well, Tim did learn all this stuff from scratch and put the first Jill
out by himself...that was a good accomplishment. I would be tickled
pink to do something like that. MY first game, due to come out in a
couple months if I can ever stop working overtime, is only 320X200X256
vga but will have all the digital sound and combine overhead maps with
"arcade" sideways screens and some screens/levels that will look
amazingly like the Wolf3D screens...:), or close at least. I am
learning an amazing amount as I do this stuff...I can understand Tim's
enthusiasm.

I also think Epic may be putting out stuff that will overshadow not
just Id and others but the big name commercial companies....there is a
lot of talent in that group. Let's wait and see.

Steve
From: gford@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Software Pinball Machine
Date: 6 Nov 92 03:44:57 +1300
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

>In article <Bx8H5G.Gt7@cs.vu.nl>, mgemmel@cs.vu.nl (Martin Gemmel) writes:
>> Writing a pinball simulator is what I've been thinking of for a long
>> time, too.
>> 
Could be fun.

>> f110019@hamlet.ucdavis.edu (Julian Burger) writes:
>> 
> } In other words, you would have a pinball-table description language which
> } would be parsed and a table created from it.
> 
A good idea, I think

>> The idea sounds good, but for the moment the most important question
>> is just how to calculate ball motions and the effects of the various
>> objects on the ball(s). 

The ball is moving on a sloping table, (slope in y direction). The x component
of the velocity remains constant. And the y component  vy(t) = vy(t-1) + a
where a is a fraction of gravitational acceleration. 
Two approaches to ball motion:
	i)  calculate the trajectories as you go, using the above equation.
		
	ii) precalculate the trajectories (I'm not sure how to do this, but..)
		Bresenham has a fast incremental algorithm for drawing 
		an ellipse that will step one pixel at a time. This may be
		faster than method (i) and guarantees a reasonably smooth
		trajectory. The ellipse would be a suitable approximation
		to the parabolic path of an object moving in a uniform
		gravitational field, I don't know what the best way to 
		initialise the algorithm would be, but I suspect a table 
		lookup would save calculation.
		Note that, although the shape of the trajectory is 
		pre-calculated, the actual position is calculated 
		incrementally, so there is no problem with collision
		detection. 
	
You could handle collisions, by treating each object as a collection of
surfaces of unit size, give each surface a position and an angle, and then
when the position of the ball coincides with that of an object then
calculate the deflected velocity of the ball.(I'm not sure about the 
trig formulae but I think it looks like:
	Vy(t+1) = Vy(t)cos(S + 180) + Vx(t)sin(S)
	Vx(t+1) = Vy(t)sin(S + 180) + Vx(t)cos(S)
). 
My guess is that only a few angles will suffice to give the appearance of 
infinite variation (particularly as the ball travels
in a curve), so just specify the angle as an integer multiple of the minimum
angle size (say 15 degrees) so the calculations can be done using a table
lookup for sin and cos. eg  VAR sin : ARRAY[0..23] OF INTEGER ; (scaled 
appropriately).


*		- Greg				E kore e ngaro, he kakano
*		gford@waikato.ac.nz		i ruia mai i Rangiatea

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer