HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: exuhag@exu.ericsson.se (James Hague)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Discussion starter
Date: 2 Oct 92 16:56:24 GMT
Reply-To: exuhag@exu.ericsson.se
Organization: Ericsson Network Systems, Richardson, TX
X-Disclaimer: This article was posted by a user at Ericsson in North America.
              The opinions expressed are strictly those of the user and
              not necessarily those of Ericsson.

Tim Hollebeek writes:
>
>two types of games:
>	1) Powerful, inventive, nifty, well-thought out games with
>	      excellent story lines
>	2) Graphically attractive, colorful, simple games

I don't think these subdivisions are complete.  There are some
games which are wonderfully simple yet are very fun and playable
because of the excellent design.  Tetris comes to mind.  There are
lots subtleties and nuances to the game which aren't first
apparent.

Then there are graphically spectacular games which are not just
simple, they are thoroughly simplistic.  Police Quest III is
an example, IMO.  Often, these games try to make up for not
having a solid, playable concept by just adding stuff--things
to do, more graphics, intermissions, etc.

--
James Hague   
exuhag@exu.ericsson.se
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: galt%peruvian.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Greg Alt)
Subject: Re: UPDATE: Open Arch Games
Date: 2 Oct 92 09:02:12 MDT
Followup-To: rec.games.programmer
Reply-To: galt%peruvian.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu
Organization: University of Utah, CS Dept., Salt Lake City

In article <gate.9PPZRB1w165w@toz.buffalo.ny.us>, cyberman@toz.buffalo.ny.us (Cyberman) writes:
>It's ME again with a slight update:

Sounds like a great system.

>        7: 320x200 x256 color (of a palette) resolution MINIMUM.

Why 320x200?  A TV can do better than that.  Why not do the maximum
vertical resolution and then pick a horizontal that makes square
pixels on a TV?

Now, here's the real question:  Is this talk some kind of fantasizing
about what we would like, or does anyone have some ambitious goals?

Here's the other problem:  Adding a keyboard and disk-drive wouldn't
increase the price significantly (An extra $100 or so), so why not?
They could be add-ons at least.  So now it becomes a home computer
instead of a video-game system--is that a bad thing?
From: jas37876@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (John A. Slagel)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: High Resolution Graphics Modes
Date: 30 Sep 92 22:27:27 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.BvEx1s.40z
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

omega2@eng.umd.edu (Wilbur S. Peng) writes:


>If this is an old question refer me to the proper sources,
>   I'm looking for a graphics mode on the IBM that has the following:
>   1) 640 x 480 x 4 bit or ( better yet ) 640 x 480 x 8 bit
>   2) More importantly, supports double buffering. (at least)

>   Currently, I'm using 640 x 350 x 16 (EGA), but the distortion due to the messed up
>aspect ratio is no good.  Does SVGA( either ET-4000, VESA or ATI VGAwonder ) support such 
>a mode?

    All SVGA's support this mode in 4-bit or 8-bit.  VGA does have a
    640x480x16 color mode, but no double buffering. You can also used
    a tweaked 640x400 VGA mode with double buffering.  I saw that in a
    Doctor Dobbs magazine last year in the Graphics Programming column.
    If you want to use SVGA, you can use 640x400x8 bits to get up
    to 4 pages on a 1MEGSVGA card.
    I'd recommend using VESA modes.

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 John A. Slagel     "My old man used to tell me, before he left this
 j-slagel1@uiuc.edu  shitty world, never chase buses or women- you
                     always get left behind." -The Marlboro Man
From: court+@CMU.EDU (Court Demas)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Where to get X mode library Hobbes ?
Date: 5 Oct 92 06:16:55 GMT
Organization: Junior, Math/Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA


Hobbes can be found on nic.funet.fi in /pub/msdos/games/programming/

-court
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: haasec@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (Chris "Beta" Haase)
Subject: Xwindows
Organization: Clarkson University
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 16:12:05 GMT


   Hello to everybody out there.. I have a question which for some reason I
don't expect to get much response for but what the hell.  Does any body
have any small programs written to run under Xwindows (UNIX for RS6000)
that have sort of commented code on opening windows, creating them, etc..
  I have been trying to pick up a few things here and there, but I can't
seem to get it down..I keep getting core dumps from the system.  I can 
program in C and C++ so that part is fine, I just need help with some
of the commands.. Any help would be appreciated..

  Thanks
Chris Haase 
  Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering 
  Clarkson University
haasec@logic.camp.clarkson.edu
haasec@craft.camp.clarkson.edu

P.S.  The response doesn't have to be mailed directly too me, I read the
group a lot so I can talk it off the group if it is easier for you.
From: odlin@reed.edu (Iain Odlin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: xlib - Smooth scrolling update
Date: 1 Oct 92 00:09:15 GMT
Article-I.D.: reed.1992Oct1.000915.25079
Organization: The Stuffed Animal Trauma Team  (We're Trained Professionals)


  *sigh*

  Well, the new scroll looks very pretty, but when I hit the spacebar to end
  the section, the whole shebang freezes up and bingo, powerdown required.
  So, anyone with extra time know what's wrong?  (And I hope it's not just
  me...)

  The extra info: 386SX-16, vanilla VGA, Orchid 8/16 memory board w/ 5 Megs 
  and a SoundBlaster 1.0.
-- 
 --------------------------------- Iain Odlin ---------------------------------
                  10 Crosby Street, Level 3, Portland ME 04103
                                 odlin@reed.edu
 ----- I am the cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me. -----
From: iantw@castle.ed.ac.uk (Ian Tweedie)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: VGA MODE 13h Questions. Simple Ones!!
Date: 29 Sep 92 11:38:32 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: Edinburgh University

I have been mucking around with mode 13h for a short while now doing
really simple stuff like scrolleys and such like. But certain things
have come to light.

Like is it impossible to access each plane in turn?
Can you use the set_address_high and set_address_low to pan the screen
around?

Can you use page flipping?

I have the feeling that the answer to all these questions. If so then
why would anyone want to use this mode? My current scrolly is so
processor consuming that I can't do anything else!! 

Should I use Mode X from now on? I believe you can do the above
questions with  this mode, right?

Thanks any help will be much appreciated.
 

Ian.

-- 
Ian Tweedie Yes! THE Ian Tweedie |"There is a justice higher than that of man,
AI,CS Undergraduate		 |      I will be judged by him." Misery 1991
Janet    : iat@dcs.ed.ac.uk      |"My cousin was a Harley Davidson"
Internet : iantw@castle.ed.ac.uk |      Johnny Five, Short Circuit 2 1991
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: u910826@bruny.cc.utas.edu.au (Louis        siuoL)
Subject: CGA 160x100x16
Summary: CGA 160x100x16
Keywords: CGA 160x100x16
Organization: University of Tasmania, Australia.
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 03:20:49 GMT

I saw a question in here the other day, as to info on the above mode.
I have some.
unfortunately, it only works on register compatible CGAs (NOT VGA repeat NOT VGA or EGA).

I can post it if any one really wants it.
--
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |           Louis Solomon - a student at The University of Tasmania           | |                    e-mail: u910826@bruny.cc.utas.edu.au                     |
|                                                                             | |             "If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets" - Dune              |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: nuthing@mcl.ucsb.edu (Russ Ethan Rohrer)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Help: Need VGA/MCGA detection routine!!
Date: 27 Sep 92 20:16:52 GMT

I am writing a game which uses Mode 0x13 (320x200x256).  The problem is, 
I don't know how to see if the computer is capable of working with this mode.

I Have heard of an "equipment byte" or whatever, but I can't figure out how
to use the information there to tell me if Mode 0x13 is valid or not.

Please help!

Thanx,
Ethan
nuthing@mcl.mcl.ucsb.edu
From: ianf@aifh.ed.ac.uk (Ian Frank)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Next Computer Olympiad
Date: 3 Oct 92 11:09:58 GMT
Reply-To: ianf@aifh.ed.ac.uk (Ian Frank)
Organization: Dept. of Artificial Intelligence, Univ. of Edinburgh.

In article <8yapjzm@lynx.unm.edu>, bill@baku.eece.unm.edu (William Horne)
writes:
# In article <717967636.0@selene.FidoNet.Org>
Eric.Kjellman@f99.n121.z1.FidoNet.Org (Eric Kjellman) writes:
# 
# >  Hey there! Could you tell me what the Computer Olympiad is? It sounds
# >  really neat, but I've never heard of it before.
# 
# From what I understand its a competition that pits computer programs
# against one another on specific games: backgammon, othello, and I assume
# chess amongst others are played.

Correct. This years' event involved a set of paper presentations
as well as competitions between computer programs playing over a
dozen different games including: Awari, Backgammon, Bridge,
Chess, Chinese Chess, Gin Rummy, 9*9 Go, 19*19 Go, Go-moku,
Othello, Scrabble, and Renju. Other attractions included a 
presentation of the PC Therapist III program which recently
convinced 5 out of 10 judges that it was a human in a restricted 
Turing test in America. Unfortunately, its display in London 
was less impressive, with the Times newspaper describing its 
output as ``bizarre and erratic ramblings''. A sample from their
article reads:

  ``Asked yesterday by Heinz Wolff,...,whether the computer had 
slept well last night, it replied, somewhat schizophrenically:
"At night there is no such thing as an ugly woman."
   When asked who its father and mother were, Therapist,...,
took a few seconds of reflection before flashing its reply on the 
screen:"God could not be everywhere so he created mothers...happiness
is just around the corner...why do you ask?"''

# By the way, I still have not gotten a definative response as to when
# the next Olympiad is....  although one person sent me email and said
# that it was probably going to be in London during August.

At the end of this year's conference it was announced that next year's
Olympiad would be held in Berkshire from July 11th (I think), in 
conjunction with an event which was described as the ``Mind Olympics''.
Apparently, this will involve competitions in any thinking game, with
over 1500 competitors. This sounds like an event not to be missed.

# Again, if there is someone out there who knows.... please post or
# send me email.
# 
# Bill

Hope the above helps.

	- Ian.
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: angelrat@next12pg2.wam.umd.edu (...a gruesome)
Subject: Re: Discussion starter
Organization: Workstations at Maryland, University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 18:17:30 GMT

In article <BvpHo5.8Gn@rice.edu> amitp@owlnet.rice.edu (Amit J Patel)  
writes:
> In article <1992Oct5.140559.26283@ringer.cs.utsa.edu>,  
sorourke@lonestar.utsa.edu (Sean J. Orourke) writes:
> |> >	Actually, I thought that in early Ultimas, the only way to
> |> >solve puzzles was to kill lots of monsters and get cool magic
> |> >weapons so you could bash bigger monsters.  (*BIG* frown)  As the
> |> >Ultima series increased in size, the story line became more and more
> |> >important to the game, the player could interact with people in
> |> >cities (thumbs up!), people would go to sleep at night, etc.  Some
> |> >people might not be impressed by this, but I certainly was at the
> |> >time...
> |> 
> |> I am/was impressed by this too, except when I'm waiting for someone  
to come
> |> home or to wake up. :)
> |> 
> 
> If you cast awaken, or if you make lots of noise, they'll wake up and
> (acting sleepy) start yelling at you for waking them up, or act somewhat
> annoyed at the least.  Sometimes they'll tell you to get out of the room
> so that they can sleep...  :)
> 
> I love playing Ultima 7 not to "win" but to interact with the hundreds
> (thousands?) of people, selling & buying food, talking, stealing a
> cow, etc.  :) You can get a job at various places; if you talk to some
> farmer, he will hire you to pick pumpkins for him; if you talk to some
> baker, he'll teach you _how_ to make bread, and then he'll offer you a
> job as an assistant baker.  You can use the wells & buckets to get
> water, mix it with flour, put the dough in a bowl, put the bowl in an
> oven, turn on the oven, and a few minutes later, you have bread!  In
> U6 I think, you could milk cows, get milk, put it in a churner and get
> butter...
> 
> In RPGs, you just fight monsters & try to accomplish some goal; in  
Ultima,
> you can do whatever you want!  ("Top Adventurer retires and becomes a 
> farmer!")
> 
> 	:)
> 
> 
> 	Amit
> 
> -- 
> /\\ Amit J Patel, amitp@owlnet.rice.edu
> \\/ I think I'm at Rice University 



yeah!!!...i loaded up my Ultima6 game just to use the secret cheat menu
and interact with people and stuff!.....i love those type of games like
that (very few..) where the entire programming in the game is not
dedicated to finishing/winning the game...i got Ultima7 just
for the bigger (better ?) graphics, interface and to 'watch the world
go 'round..')

 
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: psmith@esk.compserv.utas.edu.au (Paul Jeffrey Smith)
Subject: Re: what do you want to know?
Organization: University of Tasmania at Launceston
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 03:34:27 GMT

Joshua,

Thanks for the reply.

My friends seem to have worked out the landscape part, or at leasthow to plot the points.  

The World Vector portion (the one with all the 3d ships) is something that I would like to do.  I can't understand how all these occur in a single fram:

1.) rotation of all the objects.
2.)remove hidden surfaces
3.) calculate shading based on position to light source.
4.) put the star field on as well.

I apologise if I appear ignorant, but it seems that it can't be all calculated on the fly that quick ( I have a 486-33 though).  What I want is some code to determine the bounding boxe for each object (apparently you rotate the box rather than the whole object).  How the the hidden surface is removed, and the code for determining the shading based on light sourc postion would be nice too.  I sure some one found out how to do it, then told some one else, etc.  Can someone tell ME! PLEASE!  

Once I have this, and can do atleast something of the sort of Unreal, then I can die a happy man.

regards
Paul Smith
psmith@esk.compserv.utas.edu.au

p.s (no not me) I will get round to making a decent signiture later.
From: jamesc@netcom.com (James Carter)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Real Sprites
Keywords: VGA
Date: 27 Sep 92 23:45:16 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)

Hi!
	Can anyone tell me about "real sprites". I think it's in the hardware
standard for VGA. Its supposed to let you draw sprites to the screen without
have to redraw the background. Please send all replies via email. Thanks
in advance.

jamesc@netcom.com

-- 
"Test tag line..." "
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: ematias@csri.toronto.edu (Edgar Matias)
Subject: Mode X Questions
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Date: 28 Sep 92 16:54:50 GMT


Hello all,

   I'm a (very) novice C programmer, and I've got some questions/comments
regarding the undocumented VGA Mode X and its applications shown on this
newsgroup:

1) Are there any tutorial or reference books outlining what this mode is,
how to access it, how to implement it in C code, etc.?  I don't want to
pester you net.users with silly questions... or at least not before I know
what I'm talking about.  :-)

2) Is there a FAQ for this newsgroup?  There are many tips, tricks and terms
which have been mentioned here, and it would be SO helpful for a novice like
myself to have these compiled into a handy reference.  If there isn't a FAQ,
would anyone be interested in at least getting the ball rolling?

3) I grabbed the XBLT02.ZIP code/demo and noticed that the typical
Turbo/Microsoft C graphics routines like "registerbgidriver()",
"initgraph()", etc., can be bypassed entirely.  If this is the case, then
how can I use the built-in graphics functions like "getimage()",
"floodfill()", "line()", etc.?  Would I have to roll my own routines or use
some other graphics library that works with Mode X?
   (By the way, I recompiled the XBLT02 "game.exe" demo with Borland C++
v2.0 and noticed that it would only work with the "compact" memory model, as
someone had pointed out earlier.  With all other memory models the
background and animation would work correctly, but the kite sprite would
simply be a jumble of different colours.)

   Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!  You can either post your replies
for all to see, or e-mail me at one of the two addresses below.  Or better
yet, do both, since both postings and e-mails sometimes fall into a
bottomless void here on the UofT systems...  :-)

Thanks,

     - Mark Rosteck -
(g1marker@cdf.toronto.edu)
(ematias@csri.toronto.edu)

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: scarnie@esk.compserv.utas.edu.au (Stuart George Carnie)
Subject: Re: real sprites
Organization: University of Tasmania at Launceston
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 92 00:28:01 GMT


Well, I couldn't agree more!!, I have toyed with the idea myself, not to
build, but surely it would be possible to approach companies that produce
computer hardware. I mean hardware already exists like this, take for example
the Amiga (I don't own one, and don't want to), it has a graphics chip dedicated
to (I wonder what???) graphics. Surely something similar could be placed on an 
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)
-- 
Stuart Carnie

scarnie@esk.compserv.utas.edu.au
From: baylor@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Baylor)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Sprite gen/Adv. Games/tiled bckgnds/xblt!
Date: 27 Sep 92 17:23:02 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

>
>Sprite editing: I will distribute DM256 sometime next week (sorry for the
>delay, but we just got a new dog and time is at a premium).  It's a sort
>of cheap dpaint clone with fairly good handling.  If I have time this
>weekend I will try and put it in a package with Mr. Slagel's xblt02 and
>Egg's Xlib xmode packages with appropriate C++ .libs and header files.

	Hey, neat.

>
>Adv. gGmaes: what is lacking in the vast majority is story.  Story, story,
>story!  What sense is an adventure game without the adventure?  Graphics
>alone don't make a game emotionally gripping.  Sure, the Guardian in
>Ultima7 was threatening and a good bit of atmosphere <but> nothing yet has
>compared (to me) to the death scenes in "planetfall" and "stationfall"
>where floyd dies.  No graphics--gripping stories.
>

	Well, 2 approaches. You either make a game for your own enjoyment
(i do things just to see what i cn do) or else get serious about a game,
at which point realize that everyone has their own forte - hire someone
to do mindless programming and hire one of those poor starving liberal
arts students to write a story.

>
>Tiled backgrounds: I am curious about the possibility of animated terrain
>in a tile-type adventure game a la Ultima7.  The idea I had was to create
>a animicon structure containing a pointer to a bitmap and a pointer to the
>next animicon such that calling animicon.draw() would draw the bitmap and
>advance to the next Icon.  Will this work, and will it be fast enough for
>any sort of scrolling?

	Well, experts, will it? I don't know. Seems neat, but then
your going to have to rebuild that structure every game, because you
can't exactly write pointers out to a file and have them be reusable.
	I also don't know how you plan to implement it. I guess it
could be done, and make coding easier, but probably not any faster, 
except minutely so if your icons are already on order, whic they shouldn't
be if you have a decent sized game.
	Keep in mind that most speed is wasted in block transfers to the
screen memory. Most other code is just negligible unless your using some
kind of on-the-fly nterpreter and strange memory manager. Write everything
but graphics in unoptimized fortran and you still get a decent game.
From: exuhag@exu.ericsson.se (James Hague)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Game Design Issues(Randomness, Windows, Wom
Date: 28 Sep 92 15:58:26 GMT
Reply-To: exuhag@exu.ericsson.se
Organization: Ericsson Network Systems, Richardson, TX
X-Disclaimer: This article was posted by a user at Ericsson in North America.
              The opinions expressed are strictly those of the user and
              not necessarily those of Ericsson.

WILLIAMSON, JOHN EDWARD writes:
>
>First, why is there never any variation in the Nintendo-type of scrolling
>games (Mario, Street Fighter, Commander Keen, and the like)?  By variation
>I am not refering to the genre itself (though that too could use some new
>ideas), but rather the lack of variation in the number and location of 
>villians you are supposed to attack.  Or is memorizing the exact and predictible
>location of each villian part of the fun of the game?

Nintendo entered a completely decimated video game market in 1984
and could pretty much do what it wanted.  They chose to target the
younger set with games that little kids could "beat" through rote
memorization and repetition, etc., to cut down on frustration and
to make kids feel pretty good about playing.  This is all IMO, by
the way.  Unforunately, this sort of thing was blindly cloned and
now we're pretty much stuck with it.  I know several people who
refuse to play games that can't be memorized.

A second reason is that it is easier to design a game when all
possible actions are known.  The Joust designers, for example, 
created a "live" universe which operates according to various
rules.  They didn't realize that there was a "hole" which allowed
you to easily kill the supposedly difficult pterodactyl.  (For
the record, I think memorization games are b-o-o-o-ring.)

>And finally, what are you doing as designers in an attempt to lure women
>to play your games (and spend their money).  Aside from the Barbie Design
>Studio and the Laura Bow series I haven't seen any big ticket attempts to
>attract women into computer gaming (forgot about Ms. Pacman).

It is generally accepted that attempts to specifically target
audiences which don't normally play games fail miserably (see the
Journal of Computer Game Design for lots of rambling on this).
From what I've seen, non-game players are not attracted to the
incrementally improved versions of genre games which fans of
the genres seemingly never tire of.  Take a non-game player into
an arcade and they'll comment "all of these games are the same."
It takes a Tetris or Pac-Man or Donkey Kong to pull in new
players.

--
James Hague   
exuhag@exu.ericsson.se
From: brol@xerox.com (Paul Brol 71629 - ESO)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: Nintendo: Crystaliis help needed!!!
Date: 30 Sep 92 22:20:06 GMT
Reply-To: brol@xerox.com
Organization: Xerox Corporation, Webster NY


Can someone till me where you find the psycho shield??


Thanks.

==========================================================================
||   Paul Brol <brol@eso.mc.xerox.com>    ||   
Newsgroups: rec.games.video