HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: nak@cbnews.cb.att.com (neil.a.kirby)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Calling all graphics artists!
Date: 15 Oct 92 18:03:30 GMT
Organization: AT&T

In article <1992Oct14.095505.24308@hellgate.utah.edu> galt%peruvian.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu writes:
>In article <dmatiske-131092162120@archmacconsultant.architecture.lab.nd.edu>, dmatiske@larson.helios.nd.edu (David Matiskella) writes:
>>	On a related note what is the legality of using images taken from PD
>>source like GIFs in a Game? 
>> What about using old classical music from the 1800's in a game?
>
>If the GIFs are truly public domain, then there shouldn't be any problem.
>Also, any music written before 1922 is fair game, as copyrights run out
>in 70 years (or maybe its 50...).  Anyway, anything written before the 
>1900's can be used with out any problems.
>
>In fact, the neat thing about using music that is old is that you get
>professional quality music without having to pay anyone royalties.  


Be careful here.  Sure, the music is now PD.  But most recordings, say of
Bach, will be much newer and the RECORDING is copyrighted, even if the
music that was played is not.

Yes you don't have to write your own music.  But you do have to be careful
about how it gets performed.  

Neil Kirby
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: southern@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Southern)
Subject: Re: Sprite Engine News, VOL #1
Organization: Syracuse University
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 92 22:19:41 EDT

In article <kennehra.718763368@craft.camp.clarkson.edu> kennehra@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (Rich"TheMan"Kennehan) writes:
>
>Maybe IBM defined a display memory just because they're IBM!  Think
>about it, their joysticks stink, and so do their video cards!  That's
>why we're trying to build the sprite engine!  To make up for their
>mistakes!  BTW, much of this project is weighing on whether or not the
>sprite engine can read DOS memory fast enough to send to a monitor! 
>Adding about a meg of ram to the sprite engine will drive up production
>costs considerably and might affect its marketablility!  If the sprite
>engine CAN read dos memory fast enough, then this card should'nt cost
>more than 50 bucks!!!  And that would be GREAT!!!
>
>- Rich
>  kennehra@logic.camp.clarkson.edu
>
>

I believe that there may be even a greater market for this card if it did
contain it's own memory. The card should be able to act as extended memory
so it would have more use for programs that don't use sprite graphics. 
Could someone here calculate the possiblilities of this in terms of speed
and compatibility? As an example, the Soundblaster card reads and writes
memory using DMA. That is exactly what this sprite engine would do. 
Maybe someone could hack a SB card to do R/W with video memory and system
memory with DMA transfers.. That would really be something especially if
it was a simple hardware modification. It would be quite useless though 
unless you were to have very large sprites because you would have to
reprogram the card for every offset change in the sprite. Of course the
sprite engine card would calculate these offsets in it's own hardware and do
the DMA transfers hopefully faster than a 486/50 can plot a pixel.
							
southern@Mailbox.syr.edu
From: dmatiske@berlin.helios.nd.edu (david matiskella)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Sprite Engine News, VOL #1
Date: 11 Oct 92 17:28:09 GMT
Reply-To: dmatiske@berlin.helios.nd.edu (david matiskella)
Organization: Univ. of Notre Dame

In article <kennehra.718763368@craft.camp.clarkson.edu>, kennehra@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (Rich"TheMan"Kennehan) writes:
|> 
|> >    Ask yourself this one little question:
|> 
|> >    If a video card could read from DOS memory (ie.. over the bus) fast
|> >    enough to send to a monitor, then why is there such a thing as
|> >    display memory?????? We could use extended memory to act as a frame
|> >    buffer.
|> 
|> >    You guys should buy a book entitled "Programmer's Guide to the EGA
|> >    and VGA Cards", 2nd Edition by Richard Ferraro.
|> 
|> Maybe IBM defined a display memory just because they're IBM!  Think
|> about it, their joysticks stink, and so do their video cards!  That's
|> why we're trying to build the sprite engine!  To make up for their
|> mistakes!  BTW, much of this project is weighing on whether or not the
|> sprite engine can read DOS memory fast enough to send to a monitor! 
|> Adding about a meg of ram to the sprite engine will drive up production
|> costs considerably and might affect its marketablility!  If the sprite
|> engine CAN read dos memory fast enough, then this card should'nt cost
|> more than 50 bucks!!!  And that would be GREAT!!!
|> 
|> - Rich
|>   kennehra@logic.camp.clarkson.edu
|> 
|> 
	Well I think your card is dead :). If the main memory was fast enough to supply all the data why is there such a major push for local bus? If main memory is fast enough why do other computers like apple use it? Besides a meg of ram only costs about 30 bucks.
From: isc30108@nusunix1.nus.sg (AMBAT SASI S/O PALISSERY P)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: EGA Memory Map
Date: 13 Oct 92 00:08:33 GMT
Organization: National University of Singapore
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

programming in 16 color graphics modes requires u to access the card
not just the display memory as the color bitplanes r in use.
on initialising the mode by dos intr all planes r set to enable.
So writing to 1 bit, writes thru to the 4 planes giving u white
(b^1111).
refer to VGA.DOC for card reg info.
it's scattered all over internet.

sasi.
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: kalkan@ramz.ing.tu-bs.de (Ove Kalkan)
Subject: How to write a parser - books wanted!
Organization: Mechanikzentrum, Technische Universitaet Braunschweig, Germany
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 07:12:51 GMT

Hello, I just have one question. Does anybody know some good books
about writing a parser, especially for text adventures.

Send me a note or post it here.

Thanks in advance, Ove
 
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: vputz@nyx.cs.du.edu (Victor Putz)
Subject: Re: Tile systems that work?
Keywords: graphics, tiles, easy, good
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 21:52:13 GMT

ccastej@prism.gatech.EDU (Eric Jensen) writes:

>I am writing a tactical wargame in C++, and I was wondering 
>what people's experiences with hex-maps vs. square-based maps 
>have been.  If you've written a game using a tiled map system,
>and you have thought long about this choice, I would really
>appriciate it if you sent me mail or posted here, telling me
>what your experiences with this have been.  I just need some 
>pros and cons to help me decide.  
>   From what I can tell, the hex-maps are better for true 
>distance movements, etc.  While the square based system should
>be much easier to deal with.  (Square array and all.)
>All constructive replies are quite welcome.
>    Eric Jensen

>-- 
>Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
>uucp:	  ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!ccastej
>Internet: ccastej@prism.gatech.edu
>Correction: There is no deck 'Helllllllpppp.......'  Please select anoth
r.

Yes!  At last someone who has agonized about this as well!  I'm doing much
tthe same (tile-based wargame), and finally decided on the square format
with a twist or two.  Each piece on a square has it's in-square position,
so the game acts as if it's on a much finer grid than the map of tiles. 
Distance becomes a little easier, since it's absolute, pythagoras-style
distance.

However this does make conversion from hex format dicey at best.  If
you're converting a popular hex-based wargame, maybe hexes would be
better.  However, they're harder to draw.  One quick and easy way to fix
this is just to have a grid (square) of map squares and offset each
vertical or horizontal row by 1/2 the width of the squares.  This gives
you sxquare "hexes", each touching six other square "hexes-- ie the hex
pattern iwthout the hexagonal tiels.

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

(sorry about the typos... netlag makes corrections prohibitive)

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: vputz@nyx.cs.du.edu (Victor Putz)
Subject: Oops...icon.arj...heh...
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 92 15:23:30 GMT



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

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

A note on xlib03: how do compiled bitmaps work?  On my 386  at work the
speed increase was about 5x; on my 486 at home they were the same speed. 
Am I being limited at home by the speed of my display card (trident 8900)?

jes' curious0--->Vputzx
From: sl859@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Calling all graphics artists!\
Date: 14 Oct 92 22:15:17 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <1992Oct14.204347.20785@news.nd.edu>, dmatiske@dvorak.helios.nd.edu (david matiskella) writes:
> In article <1992Oct14.155255.29116@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>, vputz@nyx.cs.du.edu (Victor Putz) writes:
> |> 
> |> No need to be rude, laddie; I think the concept of a PD tile library
> |> is a pretty good one, impractical though it be.  It doesn't have to be
> |> good, wonderful, production-quality art.  It's the idea that's the beauty
> |> of it.
> |> 
> |> -->Vputz
> 	Why not shareware clipart. If you use it in a shareware game you pay 
> the author a little cash.
> 	I think that their are some type of art ( explosions come to mind) 
> having a PD clip art section would be possible. Other types of art are 
> probraly too game specific. Why doesn't some one try to find a FTP site 
> and see if anything gets uploaded.

	Actually it might even be a good idea.  I think that if there were a
way to associate aperson with their work it might work better.  I know of
professional artists that put thier art up... things like HiRes J-Pegs and what
not...  I just doubt it would be useful for games, since they are usually done
in low res, like 320X200X256 color.  I have some drawings that I did a while
ago, back on the amiga in 32 color, but I never used them and have converted
them to IBM format.  They are simply pictures of monsters and Bards Tale type
creatures... I haven't found much use for them, and could probably upload them. 
Unfortunately, They are my first attempts at DPaint.  (Since then I have
learned tons...) They are also only one frame, since I never got around to
doing multiple frames for them, with the exception of one picture which needs a
touch up...  Anyhow if someone has a spare FTP site out there I suppose I could
upload those if they were of any use.  
	My contention is that few artist do game specific art unless hired to
do so, and then they know the particular genre to choose and so forth...

					wReam...
				Ultimate Ninja of the LNH!!

P.S.  Now if I had a machine on internet I might even set it up for an ftp
site!  Anyone want to donate one to my worthy cause!!?!  (Oh and throw in a
color scanner while you're at it!)

:)  <--- Typical disclaimer.
From: jas37876@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (John A. Slagel)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: vga
Date: 14 Oct 92 20:12:24 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.Bw4o4p.MAp
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

thomash@edb.tih.no (Thomas Hagen,o91b) writes:

>Is is possible to adress a VGA 320x200x256 screen using
>bitplanes, as opposed to the MCGA (bitmap)? And, if so,
>HOW? 
 
     Yes, use mode X.                       

>Page-swapping won't be needed, so using mode x seems a
>bit unnecessary.   

     If you don't need page swapping, then why would
     you want to use bitplanes?  The idea of ModeX is
     to support many non-standard VGA resolutions at
     other than 320x200 and to be able to use all of
     the 256K of video memory.  If you want to use these
     features, use ModeX. If not, mode 13h will be
     faster and simpler.  And, at this point in time,
     there are better and more complete libraries for
     ModeX than there are for mode 13h.

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
  John A. Slagel, email: jas37876@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
From: southern@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Southern)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: MCGA Vertical Panning/Windowing
Date: 9 Oct 92 20:44:12 GMT
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Originator: southern@rodan.acs.syr.edu


Some games I have seen seem to scroll through a buffer in a window on the 
screen. I have experimented with the Start Hi/Lo registers and so on, but
I can't figure out how they can scroll in a window like that.. What I'd
like to be able to do is have a vertical scroll in say a 300x150 window
centered on the screen. What is the best method to update the buffer for
the scrolling? I have tried storing a long image in memory and moving it
one chunk (4 rows of 320 pixels) at a time to the invisible part of the
buffer during the scroll. I can't find a better way to do it. I'd really
like to learn more about this sort of programming and this newsgroup has
been the best place to learn.
From: sl859@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Calling all graphics artists!\
Date: 14 Oct 92 12:11:07 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

>     Well, surprise your my friend... because many people have.  And what
> I was asking for was not: 
>       A.  Someone to do something for me so I could make money from it.
>       B.  Ask anyone to work their ass off.
> 
>    But, there seem to be quite a few people out there who *were*
> interested in contributing.  I don't know yet what kind of montery gain
> could/will come from something like this, I've never done it before,
> but I will be sure to split it among everyone who contributes. 
> 
>    Fortuntely, not everyone in the world is a bragging dickhead like
> yourself.
> 				Corey
> 

	I had not intended to come across as bragging and my point wasn't
directed to you.  It was to the suggestion that we open an ftp site with
graphics on it.  It has been done, but gee, wouldn't it be neat to get a whole
slew of games with the same graphics...  

				wReam...
			Ultimate Ninja of LNH

P.S.  I can see you're mentality by your lovely closing statement.  There's
nothing like profanity to demonstrate your lack of intellectual prowess.
From: Brian.Wehrle@f99.n121.z1.FidoNet.Org (Brian Wehrle)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: wishlist for the ultimate role-playing adventure? [poll]
Date: 7 Oct 92 01:46:38 GMT

Hey, ya' know I think Eob was the worst game I've ever played..
Yet Pool of Radiance was one of the best ever.
Huh.  Well, I'd like the game to be more of an ultima format...looking down
upon the characters...the interaction between characters...Don't make it too
graphical, make a good story line, rich characters,  less KILL EM ALL combat scenes because thats lame (ie Pool Of Darkness (lame shit))
More quest (like ultima v,vi,vii)
Things like Wolfenstein are kinda lame, to me, just because...i dunno,
I think it a bad format for an enjoyable game.  Definitely have real world interaction...looking at everything, descriptions...(oh, yeah, I guess this would be a fantasy game, something really hard core cyberpunk would be rad,
similar along the lines to Wasteland...fun, kill em all, but not to the extreme
That fits you like a glove. )  Remember, not all of US are rich and can afford a 486 33 with 200 meg hard drives, disk space and operating speeds must be tolerable, some games like Stygian Abyss were a real drag because my piece o crap computer couldn't crunch numbers that fast.
Thanx

(Shouting out Peace to Borg the Merciless)
YaS}7vwwww?zNnzK


 * Origin: NineJackNine (1:121/99)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: budverst@nyx.cs.du.edu (Bing Udverst)
Subject: [PC:VGA][ftp] ...erm...about that upload...
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix @ U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 20:33:01 GMT


A guy logged into my account today and uploaded a demo to wuarchive
*without* setting transfer-type to binary...ha ha what a jerk glad it
wasn't me no sir clean livin' that's my type no mistakes like that
poor ass man I could laugh all day.

OK...I goofed. Thanks to those who screamed at me. (I made a note of
your e-mail addresses...heh heh...we'll get you, come the revolution!)

To be brief, the file landscap.zip in pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS has been
updated. This one works. Honest...I tested it.

Hey guys it was a joke geddit a joke come on I knew all the time yeah
that's right hey guys where you goin' wait for me guys hello?

Feel free to say "gee, what an easy mistake to make",
Bing.


|\    N. Bing Bradshaw [comp sci]   |   Morality *out*!  
|/\   nbradsha@cs.strath.ac.uk      |

"...he is on a prune diet and secretly wishes he was bing crosby..." -tarantula
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: galt%peruvian.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Greg Alt)
Subject: Re: Using Atari 2600 joysticks on the IBM
Date: 7 Oct 92 11:23:59 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 <kennehra.718319941@craft.camp.clarkson.edu>, kennehra@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (Rich"TheMan"Kennehan) writes:
>Hi.  Is there any kind of adapter that I can build that will allow me
>to use my atari 2600 joystick on the IBM??  This would be for gaming
>purposes only where only 8 directions are needed (Like Gauntlet 2,
>commander keen, sopwith, robotron 2084, etc) Thanks in advance! 

One problem is the fact that the 2600 joysticks had only 1 button.
Some had two though, and you could just wire them separately.

I've been thinking about this too (also wiring a nintendo controller).
The analog joysticks have two potentiometers, with 100 ohms all the 
way to one side and 300k on the other (or something like that).  What 
you need to do is attach some resistors to a digital stick so that
left gives you 100, right gives you 300k, and center gives you 150k.

If there is anyone out there that has the knowledge maybe they could
figure it out, or maybe someone could find a newsgroup where hardware
hackers hang out and post a description of it there for some help.
From: jas37876@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (John A. Slagel)
Subject: Re: Sprite Engine News, VOL #1
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 20:33:27 GMT

kennehra@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (Rich"TheMan"Kennehan) writes:


>THE SPRITE ENGINE ALGORITHM:

>The sprite engine will do this constantly:

>2)  X and Y will be checked against every element in a "Sprite Queue." if X and
>    Y fall within fields 1 through 4 of the table mentioned below, it will 
>    fetch a byte from a sprite definition table in DOS memory and display that 
                                                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    Ask yourself this one little question:

    If a video card could read from DOS memory (ie.. over the bus) fast
    enough to send to a monitor, then why is there such a thing as
    display memory?????? We could use extended memory to act as a frame
    buffer.

    You guys should buy a book entitled "Programmer's Guide to the EGA
    and VGA Cards", 2nd Edition by Richard Ferraro.

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
  John A. Slagel, email: jas37876@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
  "After God created the woman, weren't the thorns a little repetative?" 
   -Me, after falling in love and getting dumped for a pig farmer.
From: mucds@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Corey D. Stinson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Calling all graphics artists!
Date: 13 Oct 92 15:17:33 GMT
Organization: Educational Computing Network



  Greets all,

      I am working on a traditional-type role playing game but I have a
small problem.  I really can't draw that well!  Is there anyone out
there who is a good artist, able to draw people and monster pictures?
I'm not looking for anything fancy at all.  The game I'm working on will
be shareware.  Is there anyone who would like to contribute?

      Since I'm just putting this together now (not much code has
actually been implemented) I can't tell you gain you would get from
something like this.  But, you would at the least get your name in the
credits :)

      If this peaks anyone's interest, please respond.  Also, if anyone
has tips for drawing characters, humans in particular, or just drawing
in general let me know.
                                 Thanx in advance,
					Corey Stinson
From: sl8nl@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: getting the palette from a PCX file
Date: 14 Oct 92 16:57:17 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

>            blockread(PCXfile,PaletteVar,768); <-record size is 1
> 
> Any suggestions as to what the problem might be would be much appreciated.

You need to divide everything by 4 (or shr 2).  The palette values are stored
from 0-255, but the VGA card expects 0-63.

Josh

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: vputz@nyx.cs.du.edu (Victor Putz)
Subject: Curse you Themie Gouthas! (joke)
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 22:06:47 GMT


..congrats to Themie & associates for a very elegant solution to the
bitmapped graphics problem.  A new version of my icons.arj library will go
up to wuarchive soon, and I will try and upload xlib03.zip ther ASAP if
it's not already.

Thanks again, mr. Gouthas-->vputz@nyx.cs.du.edu
From: cyberman@toz.buffalo.ny.us (Cyberman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: using atari 2600 joys
Date: 11 Oct 92 01:40:14 GMT
X-Maildoor: WaflineMail 1.00r


   Khan was espousing about 'Re: using atari 2600 joys',
   on [10-09-92  18:37] to All!
 Kh> Well, I think it CAN be done. All an IBM joystick is is a couple of
 Kh> variable resistors hooked to the joystick. When the stick is full
 Kh> left, one pot is 0 resistance; when it's full right, the pot is 200k
 Kh> ohms (or something like that - I don't have the exact specs in front of
 Kh> me). 
 Kh> All you would need to do would be to re-wire the PC board inside the
 Kh> Atari stick such that full left went straight through, a full right
 Kh> went through a 200k resistor, and analogous connections for up and
 Kh> down. You'd also have to rig some way for the stick to read 100k ohms
 Kh> in each channel when centered.

    Thier's a MUCH better way of doing this.  Each of the contact
    switches in the Atari joystick represents a bit pattern.  All
    you have to do is use one of the parrallel port output pins
    to provide the TTL logical HIGH.  Then wire the joysticks
    outputs to 4 pins to 4 of the printer ports inputs, Busy, Out
    of Paper, Error and On-Line.  The joystick button can be
    wired to the printer port ACK signal that way whenever the
    button is pushed it CAN generate an interupt.  If you wire it
    correctly you can use the STRB to supply power to the
    joystick.  What does this get you?  Well it allows you to use
    the printer port for printing whenever your not using the
    joystick.

    This requires the use of some added circuitry however.

            Stephen Cyberman@Toz.Buffalo.NY.US
            Scripted at Sat  10-10-1992  13:05:30

... Laugh at your mistakes, Everyone else does!
--- Blue Wave/QWK v2.10
                                                                                                                         
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer