Drop Slicer - Simple gaming fun!

[TerryRitchie]

Oh, so close!

May I add this excellent game to the tutorial as well?

You're very welcome to

I'd be completely screwed without your tutorial by the way! I left it long enough to forget most things before I came back to do Poly Blaster and I imagine I'll forget it all again before I make my next project whenever that may be. It really is an awesome tutorial!

Excellent, I'll add the game shortly.

You know, I find myself using the tutorial as a reference all the time too. That darn _PUTIMAGE command is one sexy beast and using it properly in certain situations, such as clipping images from a sprite sheet, can get confusing very quickly. I recently referenced the tutorial section on sprites to see the example I wrote on clipping images from a sprite sheet to refresh my brain for the spinner game demo I recently posted.

According to Google Analytics the tutorial has been averaging around 4700 users per year across ~150 countries since it went online. I'm happy so many people are getting good use of it.

[Dimster]

Actually Terry that could just be me, ditto with the wiki

[TerryRitchie]

Actually Terry that could just be me, ditto with the wiki

I agree, I always have the wiki open in a browser tab ready to go when I begin a new project. The wiki is an awesome resource.

[Dav]

Yeah, I look up PUTIMAGE often too. Embarrased to say, but I sometimes have to look up really basic commands also because i forget the order of parameters. Even ones ive used over and over for years, like INPUT$ (file read). Is the filenum the first or second parameter? Things like that i forget sometimes.

- Dav

[TerryRitchie]

Embarrased to say

- Dav

Nothing embarrassing about that, I have to look up all kinds of common use commands all the time. That's why the wiki is always in a browser tab waiting for me when I code.

[Dimster]

Perhaps we could use an AI associated with the WiKi, with voice.. The greeting could be "You again!". It could keep track of our age and at some point just write the code as we dictate what we want the code to do. Somewhere along the line the AI could access your tutorial's Terry and really hammer home the HOW TO of it all. The WiKi with a voice and Spriggsy to set up the responses. Puts a new level to learning.

[PhilOfPerth]

Yeah, I look up PUTIMAGE often too. Embarrased to say, but I sometimes have to look up really basic commands also because i forget the order of parameters. Even ones ive used over and over for years, like INPUT$ (file read). Is the filenum the first or second parameter? Things like that i forget sometimes.

- Dav

Yeah, I've forgotten things from time to time too! 
I was gonna give an example here, but I can't remember what it was.

[Pete]

Original idea or remake of some Atari-like game?

I took a look at Galaga. Nice! I used to play it in my college days. Steve would say, "Huh, how good could Pete have been? He only needed 3 college days to become a chiropractor!" Well, Steve is still trying to get his tractor beam started, so what does he know? Anyway, we should all pool our talents into making a time machine, go back to 1979, and make billions. I know Terry has dibs on PacMan, but I'd be happy coding Star Master and/or Omega Race. Anyone remember those?

Pete

+ 1

It's not entirely original as I've seen games of similar "drop this on things without knocking them over" concepts before - no idea where but they're definitely around.

I love remaking the good old games. Scramble is the other one I've done in QB64pe - that was a big fave of mine back in the day. Terry's PacMan is excellent. I might recreate New Rally X when I have my next QB64pe splurge (which will probably be some time next year). Do I take it that you've got a Star Master or Omega Race repro in the making or is that strictly for after one of us has created that pesky time machine?

The comic irony is I learned coding by remaking games. Made a playable 4-person Monopoly game on a 4K TI in 1981. Password, Wheel of Fortune, Card Sharks with 1980's AI, and a couple of others. No arcade games though. Home systems were not really powerful enough back then to put up a Galaga or Galaxians. I went from games to business apps, and pretty much stayed with text based applications from that point on.

Star Master was my favorite Atari game of all time. I played for hours one day just to roll the score over, which my brother-in-law thought was impossible, but I proved it could be done. All you had to do is hit every enemy ship while it was an initial dot in space and not get hit by any asteroids while moving to intercept them. There would be plays where it just about all came together, but then something literally blew up in my face. Oh well, I play golf, so I guess you could say I was preconditioned to handle the frustration well.

Omega Race was an arcade game. I think Mark (bplus) would get a kick out of programming it, as it deals with vectors and bouncing off surfaces. I found a video...



Fast forward to at least 2:30 or past to see it in action. The action improves as the game progresses.

Pete

[TerryRitchie]

@RokCoder

What are you using to make the animated GIFs of game play Cliff? I would like to update the tutorial's game section with animation previews if possible.

[RokCoder]

@RokCoder

What are you using to make the animated GIFs of game play Cliff? I would like to update the tutorial's game section with animation previews if possible.

It's a lovely little free app. Windows-only I think.