HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: draper@ais.org (Patrick Draper)
Subject: Re: Computer-Controlled Players (New, Great Thread!)
Organization: UMCC
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 01:58:36 GMT

In article <BsxD9p.Mt8@rice.edu> amitp@owlnet.rice.edu writes:
>Now... has anyone done this?  I'd really like to do something like this
>but I couldn't come up with parameters (genes), and I haven't ever written
>a GA program before.  Perhaps I'll use a really simple game (like the 
>prisoner's dilemma) and try a GA on it, and then if it works well, I
>can try a more complex game.  
>
>Ideas?  Comments?  Please respond!  We can drown out the VGA questions!  ;)
>
>	Amit
>

The first GA program that I wrote (and the last too :-)   was a reproduction
of the "flib" program described in Scientific American's Computer
Recreations column. I don't have the reference for thouse who want to look
it up (sorry).

Anyway, the thing has stuck in my head all these years, and I'd like to see
if it can be put to practical purpose (yeah, right, games are practicall :->
).  I *have* read about the genetic techniques being used for the Prisoner's
dilemma, and it seems that the best scores come from a "tit for tat" style.
That is, whatever your opponent did on his last turn, you do on your current
turn.

Another classic game is the tradgedy of the commons. It's where farmers can
graze their sheep on a commons that is fixed in resources. Eventually, the
commons becomes over grazed and everyone suffers because of it. I wonder how
the GA's would solve that one! Perhaps they would cycle like the
predator/prey model in a feast-starve cycle. Or, perhaps they would grow to
modulate themselves so that they feast to the point of starvation. Probably
a lot will depend on what conditions of action are allowed to the
computerized genes.


------------------////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\------------------
| Patrick Draper           Disclaimer:  I can't control my fingers,        |
| draper@irie.ais.edu                   I can't control my toes! - Ramones |
| University of Michigan                                                   |
| Computer Club                We are a nation of laws, not people         |
------------------\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////------------------
From: kds@phy.duke.edu (Stokes Kevin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Sounblaster Development Kit
Date: 20 Aug 92 22:52:08 GMT
Organization: Duke University Physics Dept.; Durham, N.C.

In article <8118@dirac.physics.purdue.edu> saxena@maxwell.physics.purdue.edu (Virendra K. Saxena) writes:
>
>	Hello.  I am thinking of getting the devloper's kit but I was wondering
>	what some of the features are. 

  I have heard that the driver they provide you with has bugs which cause
crashes, and that Creative Labs won't admit it.  I've always had bad luck
with their hardware and support.  I have a Thunderboard now (100% compat),
and have had no problems.  Too bad they don't have a programmer's kit.
I called them and they said to just buy the Creative Labs one.
  I have a drive which is supposedly shareware, but unfortunately I only
have part of the package, so I don't know how good the docs are anything.
                                                      -Kevin

-- 
	Kevin Stokes
	Duke University Dept. of Physics	kds@phy.duke.edu
	Durham, N.C.      27706			
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: dpn2@po.CWRU.Edu (Damien P. Neil)
Subject: Re: Alternatives to score in text adventures
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, (USA)
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 92 20:35:20 GMT


I think that a scoring system is a good idea, just to give the
player a sense that something is being accomplished. Of course,
there are times when it becomes obvious in the game that things
are being done; in Monkey Island, for example, you are supposed
to complete three tasks at the start. Completeing a task does
not need to give you points, because you KNOW you have done 
something.

However, in Adventure, without points it would be very difficult 
to tell how well you were doing. Just dumping the rug in the
house would give very little satisfaction without the reward of
a few points.

I feel that a game should be completable with less than max
points, just like one can pass a test without scoring 100, or
even an A.

A very good points system exists in Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade. Points are scored in the traditional fashion -- as
rewards for actions. HOWEVER...not only is it possible to 
complete the game with less than max points, it is impossible 
to do so. The game keeps two score counters...one for points
in the current game, and one for points across all games. In
this fashion, points are awarded for each path through a puzzle,
and to get max points, one must complete every path through every
puzzle. i.e. -- You can flee Germany by taking the zeppelin or
by taking an airplane.

Just my humble opinions.

	- Damien
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: cd2a+@andrew.cmu.edu (Court Demas)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: PC: background scrolling using virtual screens
Date: 14 Aug 92 15:36:06 GMT
Organization: Sophomore, Math/Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA


I almost forgot: It does support split-screen drawing, so you can just scroll
around the top half of it.  Double-buffering is an issue though - it would
complicate things because you would have to update tiles on both screens
at once (pain) - I don't think it's really needed.  I'll have to see once I
start  drawing sprites.

And drawing sprites is really easy - just do a normal abrash-style masked
copy, and when you're done just redraw a tile or two right on top of it.


-court
court+@cmu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: tmkk@uiuc.edu (Khan)
Subject: Re: inappropriate postings [was Re: VGA, Retraces, and DMA]
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 12:37:49 GMT


In article <1992Aug12.185557.2113@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) writes:
>In article <62430018@acf3.NYU.EDU> reznick@acf3.NYU.EDU (Daniel Reznick) writes:
>
>>I
>>have nothing against discussions on non MS-DOS platforms, but the fact
>>of the matter is, NO ONE has tried to start any.
>
>That's because most non-MSDOS people have stopped reading the group.
>How about putting 'PC' in the subject of all PC-harware-specific posts
>so we can mass-kill them?

[Preface: This is not a flame.]

Granted, much of the nitty gritty specifics of PC stuff may be useless
to you, but surely you could learn SOMETHING from these sorts of
postings? Some things are more hardware-dependent than others, and a
good idea is even better if you can figure out a way to port it to your
platform of choice. Mass kill PC-related postings if you want, but IMHO
you'll be missing out on a potential learning opportunity. I'm certainly
not above stealing a good idea from an Amiga or Atari newsgroup (in
fact, I've done just that).

BTW, to those who want to mass-kill PC postings, I think you can do a
pretty good job using strings like "VGA," "EGA," "CGA," "Hercules," etc.
Then, after you have filtered out all such posts, you can easily find
the remaining non-PC-specific posts which remain.

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: bas@phys.uva.nl (Bas de Bakker)
Subject: Re: UNIX share-ware games
Organization: Institute for Theoretical Physics, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
	<TOMS.92Aug18113427@pdx069.intel.com> <4741@news.duke.edu>
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 21:11:58 GMT

>>>>> On 20 Aug 92 22:45:30 GMT, kds@phy.duke.edu (Stokes Kevin) said:

sk>   It would be nice if everything in the world were free.  If I
sk> wrote programs and gave them away for free, and I lived off food
sk> given to me by farmers for free, and GM gave me cars for free.
sk> However, this is not human nature.

sk>   In reality, I would NOT write programs and distribute them with
sk> no payback.  I might write a few small programs to amuse myself,
sk> but would never spend any time on trying to figure O]out what the
sk> people want.

Ah, but the point is that the people contribute what they want ! Take
a look at GNU Emacs, for example. Much of it has been written by users
needing a certain feature.

If I find a bug in the system software, all I can do is call IBM, who
has to spend time and money to fix it (*if* they fix it). On the other
hand, if I find a bug in free software I have installed, I usually try
to make a patch to send to the author.

The result is: much free software is much better than commercial
equivalents.

Bas de Bakker.
From: jczhelp@tamuts.tamu.edu (John Zurawski)
Subject: PC: background scrolling using virtual screens
Organization: ~/lib/organization
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 07:34:01 GMT

 
  I am trying to create a horizontal scrolling background.  I believe
that to do this I create a virtual screen that is larger than the physical
screen and pan across the virtual screen.  I place the tiles on the off-screen
portion and then pan to the right to smoothly reveal them.
 
    Visible portion of virtual screen
    |       +----- Placement of new tiles
    \/      \/   /------- End of virtual screen
+---+-------+---+
|   |       |X  |
|   |       |X  |
+---+-------+---+
 
 
I then continue the process of adding new tiles and panning to achieve
the scrolling effect.
 
My question is, what do I do when I reach the end of the virtual screen.
I want to have the illusion of an inifinitely long background.  I have tried
panning past the end of the virtual screen, the left side wraps around
successfully, but I loose the top line of the background each time.
 
Also, provided there is enough video memory left over, is it possible
to implement double buffering/page flipping AND panning AND/OR a split
screen for smooth animation of any objects?

--John C. Zurawski
 

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: reznick@acf3.NYU.EDU (Daniel Reznick)
Subject: Re: inappropriate postings [was Re: VGA, Retraces, and DMA]
Organization: New York University
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 17:18:00 GMT

This IS rec.games.programmer, NOT alt.flame.  hey guys, take it outside.

Games are probably some of the most machine specific pieces of software
to program.  You CAN'T write an enitre game in ANSI C and port it
everywhere.  (And I'm not talking about games like Moria or Rogue..) I
have nothing against discussions on non MS-DOS platforms, but the fact
of the matter is, NO ONE has tried to start any.  If you don't like
whats being discussed, then start your own threads and ignore the ones
that you don't care for.  There is plenty of space here for discussion
of whatever you want.  It just so happens that the majority of
discussion has been about the VGA and IRQs and such, but that is because
no one has been discussing anything else.  So stop wasting time and
start some threads that YOU (everyone who doesn't like the current
threads) deem pertinent.  

Daniel Reznick
reznick@acf3.nyu.edu

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: jerry@connection.prospect.com (Jerry Shekhel)
Subject: Re: Hobbes ModeX Library
Organization: Molecular Simulations, Inc.
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 18:49:26 GMT
X-Posted-From: connection.prospect.com
X-Posted-Through: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

Court Demas <cd2a+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>
>Given the enormous response (>70 in 2 days) to my previous post I have sent
>the source and binaries of the Hobbes ModeX Library to alt.sources.  It
>should be available via FTP soon too.  Sorry about the confusion..
>

I just tried to get this, but uudecode complained, and unzip couldn't unpack
the results.  Could you please re-post?

>
>-court
>
--
+-------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------+
| Jerry J. Shekhel  | Molecular Simulations | Time just fades the pages      |
| Drummers do it... | Inc.  Waltham, MA USA | in my book of memories.        |
|    ... In rhythm! |     (617) 890-2888    |              -- Guns N' Roses  |
+-------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------+
|           ...! [ princeton mit-eddie bu sunne ] !polygen!jerry             |
|                            jerry@polygen.com                               |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: baylor@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Baylor)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Sprite basics
Date: 21 Aug 92 17:57:24 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX


	Say, anyone want to give me a quick explanation of how to do
sprite animation?
	I actually have code out the wazoo, and yes i can and have
broken it down (eight pages of pure assembler - yuch!) with highlighters
underlines and all, but even though i can do it, it seems hard to describe
in theory. 
	So could someone just explain the basics like step one, find a way
to do this, two do this kinda thing, etc?
	Also, i have quite a few sprite techniques/pages of code, and
can't quite figure out if they're all similar or substantially different in
most regards. Is there only one good way to do animation, or are there
several different techniques?
	And for the non-IBMers, I would LOVE a description of how other
platforms do graphics, specifically the amiga (i kinda know how to do the
mac already)
	Oh yeah, my basic understanding so far - load image from disk
(haven't found a good way to store and recall images though) and place into
a virtual page (high stuff uses pointers but i don't see a way just to 
store this stuff in a pointer without actually putting the image on 
some of the screen memory). Then, when animating, check your index of
images to see where this image is and copy it onto the visible region of the
screen (ok, copy it to a page then make that the visible region - some people
page flip back and forth, others use teh extra page(s) as scratch paper
then move the whole screen over).
	And see, i never had to talk about byte aligning, bit masking or
loading latches (try explaining that to an editor someday :( )


Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: ghost@openage.openage.com (Glenn Host)
Subject: UNIX share-ware games
Organization: Open Age, Inc.
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 01:51:26 GMT
Keywords: shareware

I get a little tired of seeing all of the MSDOS shareware games
and was wondering if anyone found a good mechanism for
implementing shareware games for UNIX?

I would not want to give away the source but UNIX binaries are not very
transportable.

I have thought of one solution - a source for the 'engine' which
would drive the game but the details would be in the game files
and I would not distribute the game generator, just the data files.
The first min-game data file would come with the engine.

Someone could backward program the game generator but it would be
difficult since all of the local variables and function names would
be stripped of meaning (i1, i2, i3..., f1, f2, f3...) and otherwise
purposely garbled.

I have also talked to a couple of bulletin boards about running
it on it and charge per game or minute but I a leary about this since
many of the bb's are known for distributing cracked software.

Any other ideas?

I have a dungeon generator already created which allows you
to move around in the dungeon, map, pick up items, etc and
are working on the puzzle insertion right now.
The game will sort of be the cross between a rogue and a text game.

[ Please do not ask me for the source - obviously since I do not want
to release it until I have completed it with the encoding I am
not going to give away the source ]
-- 

Very grateful guest of Openage - the best SCO service shop in the area
************* my views represent no one - not even myself. ****************
From: sxmlk@acad3.alaska.edu (KIENENBERGER MIKE L)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: VGA memory address
Date: 22 Aug 92 11:46:00 GMT
Organization: University of Alaska - Fairbanks
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41.UAC

In article <92234.142558KSADEGH@auvm.american.edu>, Kayvon Z. Sadeghi <KSADEGH@auvm.american.edu> writes...
>hi out there,
> 
>I am trying to write a program that reads the screen buffer and changes
>the contants. It works with monochrome display machines as I use the
>adress 0xB000; but when it comes to VGA or any other monitor, it gives me
>some trouble. I am using the address 0xB800, I think thats the right one
>as I have checked it in many ways.
>BTW, I am using C, if that matters.
> 
>Can anyone give me a hint?
>------------------------------------------------------------
>KAYVON Z. SADEGHI                  K.SADEGHI@IEEE.ORG

Yes, post to some IBM group.
This has as little to do with games programming as asking a
question on how to use the "printf()" statement in C.

THESE are the kind of postings that don't belong here.
Yes, many hardware questions do have some relevence, but questions like
this one have no place in this group!
=============================================================================
-Mike Kienenberger                       SXMLK@ALASKA           (BITNet)
 University of Alaska Computer Network   SXMLK@acad3.alaska.edu (Internet)
 University of Alaska-Fairbanks
From: mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at (Markus Stumptner)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Splitting the group
Date: 21 Aug 92 14:24:12 GMT
Organization: DB and ES Subdivision, TU Vienna

From article <1992Aug21.121637.17491@news.uit.no>, by bjoerns@stud.cs.uit.no (Bjoern Stabell):
> hardware specific questions, I'm simply saying that those postings had more
> to do with PC hardware programming than with games theory.

Games programming is a lot more than games theory.  Note that there
are lots of topics that have a game background (such as sprites, fast
scrolling, texture mapping, to name some neverending stories), but
tend to become somewhat hardware-specific if taken to extremes. I'm
not a graphics freak, but I don't mind if these postings have a place
in this newsgroup.  Anyway, they don't belong in ibm.pc.hardware, nor
do they belong in ibm.pc.games, which is about games, not games
programming, and has much more traffic than rec.games.programmer
anyway.

And yes, the fact that there are more PC-related postings would show
that there are more PC-related people interested in this newsgroup,
regardless of their intelligence.

-- 
Markus Stumptner                                mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at
University of Technology Vienna                 vexpert!mst@relay.eu.net
Paniglg. 16, A-1040 Vienna, Austria             ...mcsun!vexpert!mst
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: draper@ais.org (Patrick Draper)
Subject: Re: Computer-Controlled Players (New, More Appropriate Thread)
Organization: UMCC
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 01:47:59 GMT

In article <Bsx9rB.F6H@news.cso.uiuc.edu> tmkk@uiuc.edu (Khan) writes:
>
>In article <BswJE8.261@ais.org> draper@ais.org (Patrick Draper) writes:
>>Has anyone tried using genetic algorithms for CCP's?
>>
>>I'll bet you have to play thousands of games to train a good one, unless you
>>prime the pump with abover average players first.
>>
>>Any comments?
>
>Ooh, a neural net computer opponent, which would learn from the
>programmer and beta testers while they play test the game, so by the


Actually, I was thinking about a GENETIC type learning approach. If you
define control strings for enemies, then battle and score them, you can
determine the best battlers among them. Then you randomly cross a couple,
mutate a couple, throw out the bad ones, and try them all out again.

In that way, the best ones survive to get "crossed" in the next breeding,
and the bad ones are eliminated.


------------------////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\------------------
| Patrick Draper           Disclaimer:  I can't control my fingers,        |
| draper@irie.ais.edu                   I can't control my toes! - Ramones |
| University of Michigan                                                   |
| Computer Club                We are a nation of laws, not people         |
------------------\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: u895027@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au (Mark Mackey)
Subject: Copyright question
Organization: University of Tasmania, Australia.
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 06:16:33 GMT

	Sorry if this is in the "wrong" newsgroup, but I couldn't find alt.free.
legal.advice :). I'm in the middle of writing a fairly simple game which is 
basically a takeoff of the reasonably well-known "CrystalQuest" game for the 
Mac. If I release a (very) similar game for the IBM am I violating the 
copyright on the original game? I haven't hacked/used any source code from 
the original (in fact, I don't have the original and am just going on memory
of what the game had), but what with the new spate of lawsuits on the "look
and feel" of programs (ie Lotus vs just about everybody in the US at present)
I'm not sure if this is enough to be legally safe.
	Anyway: can I sell the game? Release it shareware? public domain? Can I 
call it "CrystalQuest"? Any and all help on these and any other legal matters
I've forgotten are welcome. 


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Mackey                       | "I think therefore I am" - Descartes.
u895027@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au     | "I think I think therefore perhaps I am"
E-mail should be accompanied by   |   - a more cautious philosophical outlook.
$1000 in unmarked $5 notes,       | "I drink to unthink, which proves that I
preferably in a brown paper bag.  |   think" - not the famous Ly Tin Wheedle.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: bjoerns@stud.cs.uit.no (Bjoern Stabell)
Subject: Re: VGA memory address
Followup-To: alt.newbie
Organization: University of Tromsoe, Norway
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 20:32:34 GMT

In article <92234.142558KSADEGH@auvm.american.edu>, Kayvon Z. Sadeghi <KSADEGH@auvm.american.edu> writes:
] hi out there,
] 
] I am trying to write a program that reads the screen buffer and changes
] the contants. It works with monochrome display machines as I use the
] adress 0xB000; but when it comes to VGA or any other monitor, it gives me
] some trouble. I am using the address 0xB800, I think thats the right one
] as I have checked it in many ways.
] BTW, I am using C, if that matters.
] 
] Can anyone give me a hint?

No.

Really.

-- 
                                                  Bjoern Stabell
                                                  University of Tromsoe
                                                  (+47) 83 44 053 / 83 75 164
                                                  bjoerns@staff.cs.uit.no
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Contents of r.g.p
From: Hamish_Hubbard@kcbbs.gen.nz (Hamish Hubbard)
Date: 13 Aug 92 20:54:50 GMT
Organization: Kappa Crucis Unix BBS, Auckland, New Zealand

I could see this one coming - an r.g.programmer identity crisis, as 
happens in several newsgroups (please dont let it overtake this one).

My personal opinion: The code, discussion about VGA/DMA/Texture mapping 
and so on I have found extremely useful, and I am grateful to the people 
who have posted it, and their willingness to discuss their efforts or 
ideas via e-mail. Yes, I am using it in a game which I am programming 
recreationally (hence rec.games.programmer).

Idea: Those of you who want to see talk about game concepts as opposed 
to tech stuff, start talking about them. The reason low level IBM hardware 
has become a popular topic is because a lot of people want to talk about 
it. Presumably, there are going to be a lot of people out there who 
are interested in talking about your ideas for basing a game on. Posting 
a complaint will just get people who have no complaints about the newsgroup 
mad. So, instead of take take take, try something like "I think that 
this group has been too tech-oriented lately, so {here are some ideas 
I've been working on|does anyone have any ideas on game design they 
want to share with us}". You wont make anyone made, and will save a 
stupid flame war.

Thanks for your time,
--
Hamish_Hubbard@kcbbs.gen.nz          Auckland, New Zealand