RE: NES Emulator Development
I wasn't quite sure of where to post this, so if it belongs elsewhere, will an admin/mod please move it where it belongs. Thanks.
This is a post below from infidelity (a well respected NES ROM dev/modder). He states that he hopes that it "spreads around the internet like wildfire", so that this information will hopefully get out to the right people.
The issue for many, in being able to play many of the best and latest NES ROM hacks, is related to whether their favorite (or any emu they try on their preferred platform) has been coded to support (arguably?) the NES' most high performance and capable mapper: MMC5. EverDrive, PowerPAK, etc. owners are currently unable to run these games, as they also haven't implemented the mapper's support, yet.
Btw, on Android, I can confirm that Robert Broglia's NES.emu runs both of these ROMs great. It's a paid app, and well worth the price. There's a free fork of it (not as good, and several revisions back, but certainly a good and capable port). That would be NES.emu Free
Both of these games by infidelity are two of the best NES ROM hacks I've seen released...ever maybe. They're both pretty dang impressive at the very least.
Zelda - The Legend of Link
Super Mario All-Stars NES
I really hope this isn't disregarded as spam. It definitely isn't. I'm not infidelity (or close buddies with him), and have had little interaction with him, for that matter. I just saw read this yesterday, and felt it was important enough to share. Just trying to help spread the info.
infidelity said:
I hope that this gets spread around the internet like wildfire. So that other sites, and forums read this, and understand my actions. So if there are non Acmlm users here that are reading this, by all means share this post, link this post, etc, however it can get across, the more that see it/read it, the better.
I've been out of the scene for a few months now, my personal life is more busy than ever. I've been sort of enjoying the fruits of my labor, over my latest two projects, "Zelda - The Legend of Link" & "Super Mario All-Stars NES"
The consensus I've come across time and time again on the internet, is the issues people have with my projects on specific emulators, or retropaks/everdrives, etc.
So what I am about to do, is name off some things I've read (paraphrasing if you will) and answer them as best I can. But first....
Why I use the MMC5 mapper
The MMC5 mapper, is the most impressive & powerful mapper ever created by Nintendo. Some will talk about the Konami mappers being just as powerful, specifically due towards it's audio power, but that's not what I'm after. The MMC5 allows the user to max out the PRG-ROM & CHR-ROM chips to 1024kb's/1mb each, making that game a full 2mb's! That is an exuberant amount of space for a Nintendo game. A vast majority of retail Nintendo games, range from the sizes of 513kb's/769kb's. With 2mb's of size, you have so much freedom in the PRG/CHR department.
Speaking purely on the PRG-ROM, take my project "Zelda - The Legend of Link" for example. Without the PRG-ROM being maxed to 1024kb, there would be no Dark World, hell the Light World wouldn't be as big. There would be no advanced sound engine, no additional space for added assembly for enemies, or other various actions such as writing massive amounts of tile tables to the vram engine. Now take my other project "Super Mario All-Stars NES" for example. Without the PRG-ROM being maxed at 1024kb, there is NO WAY, that I would've been able to cram in those 4 games into 1.
Speaking purely on the CHR-ROM, again, take ZTLOL for example. Without the CHR-ROM maxed at 1024kb, there would be no fancy CHR Swapping. By now everyone has seen my story introduction, with the Windwaker Link & Ocarina of Time Link. That is all performed by CHR Swapping. Have you ever seen or created a flipbook, using stick figures on each individual page, and on those individual pages, you have the stick figure in a different position each time you flip a page? That's basically what CHR Swapping is, the MMC5 allows you to swap out different CHR pages, to give the appearance of animation taking place. Without that 1024kb's of CHR-ROM space, that introduction would've never seen the light of day.
Those two giant paragraphs pretty much sum up why I use the MMC5. It allows for so much creativity for the user to accomplish things, code wise & graphic wise.
On top of those things, the MMC5 can allow the user to have 4 individual save pages of $6000-$7FFF! The user can either use that area for actual saving features, or, the user can use it as additional PRG-RAM, or even PRG-ROM! The MMC5 also has very advanced graphical features, making it so instead of a 16x16 block having an individual palette, you can now set all individual 8x8 tiles (like in Super Nintendo) to have their own individual palette! Me personally, I have not utilized that feature, if you want an amazing example of that in action, I highly suggest you look at kuja killer's "Megaman Odyssey."
Answers To Some Remarks I've Seen
His game doesn't work, it just shows up as garbage
Answer: This is the #1 remark I've come across time and time again. There is nothing wrong with my game. The problem is with the emulator the player is using. The emulator obviously lacks the proper emulation of the MMC5 mapper. What is happening, is that the MMC5 reads pages 00-FF for the CHR tiles. But in my game(s), i have 4 individual 00-FF pages. So the emulator does not have that setup properly, causing garbage gfx to appear. Players sometimes like to stick to what they've been using for years & years, and don't like to update, or are just casual rom hack explorers, and find the easiest emulator on the internet they can obtain. In order to play MMC5 games properly, especially enhanced ones, it's recommended to update or obtain, the latest PC versions of FCEUX, Nintendulator, or Nestopia. PC emulators ported over to video game consoles, such as Xbox, PS3, Wii, various handhelds or smartphones, the porter needs to make sure the emulator he/she is porting, has MMC5 capabilities.
Why Doesn't He Use MMC3? It's The Most Popular, They Work On Everything.
Answer: MMC3 lacks the free space I require for additional PRG-ROM & CHR-ROM. There's no huge explanation for this one. :-/
I Tried This On The N8 Everdrive. It Doesn't Work
Answer: The N8 Everdrive (and I believe the Retro PowerPak) uses two 512kb SRAM chips for PRG-ROM & CHR-ROM. I've contacted krikzz, the creator of the Everdrive devices, and he has no desire to revise his device, to incorporate 1024kb PRG/CHR-ROM chips. I even suggested I purchase the same style chips, only 1024kb's each in size, but he said there is more to it than the chips themselves. So enhanced MMC5 games will never work on those devices. It is up to the respected creators. The only way you will ever see these games on actual Nintendo hardware, is by people sacrificing crappy MMC5 games that have the required size, and destroying them so that these enhanced games can replace them.
That Mario All-Stars Game. Why Didn't He Insert The Mario World Pirate As Well?
Answer: That game alone is 769kb's in size. The 4 Mario games I had inserted into the PRG-ROM, made it impossible for that game to be alongside the others. There also would be no room for any kind of introduction screen, controller function, etc.
That's all I pretty much have to say on all of that. I don't have the freedom to rom hack like I used to anymore. I'm not saying that I'm done forever, but I have zero clue as to when i'll ever get back to it. Anyways thanks for letting me get all of this out.
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Source: http://acmlm.kafuka.org/board/thread.php?id=8336
Related
The Orions: Legend of Wizards Strategy Guide & Thorough Spell & Creature Chart
You may already have heard of Orions: Legend of Wizards, without doubt the best Windows Mobile game released so far this year - and, I'd say, the best turn-based strategy game for the Windows Mobile game ever released. It’s one of the very few games you MUST buy – believe me, if you don’t mind wasting some time on learning the rules and getting known the cards, you WILL love it.
There already are some Orions: Legend of Wizards reviews out there; I really recommend that of Ben Stanley here, that of Doug Goldring here, that of Allistair Lee here and that of nonstandardized here. I've also posted some remarks / comments on the first two reviews in their Comments section, which may also be worth checking out.
What I have always wanted to do is creating an objective, easy-to-use, chart-based unit / spell comparison as I did some 8.5-9 years ago for Blizzard's Starcraft (I’ve published quite a few articles on Starcraft, the different units etc., mostly in a similar, tabular format). Knowing what your creatures and spells are capable of and when they are best used is the best way to beat your opponent. Therefore, what I present here is not “another” generic review, but more of a supplement to all these already-existing reviews, containing a lot of never-before-published, “advanced” stuff.
Please note that the rest of this guide assumes you already know the game at least at a basic level. That is, I won't explain how the cards are placed in the empty slots / spaces, how spells should be used, what elements there are, how the cards are randomly selected in Duel and need to be purchased in Campaign etc. This guide is written for players that do know the basics of the game and only need some expert gaming help, recommendation, strategy advice & clarification. If you need a quick recap, please read, strategy-wise, Doug Goldring's review and the comments.
As with other, decent strategy games like Starcraft (let’s now forget that Starcraft is a real-time strategy game, not a turn-based one – a decent Starcraft player will still play Starcraft as a turn-based strategy game and will always beat a less experienced player doing less turn based-like micromanagement), every unit and spell has a counter-unit or spell of, in general, less (!) price. This means if you have all or most of the recommended cards, you will be able to, to a certain degree, successfully counter-attack the cards / spells of your enemy. Everything depends on how thoroughly you know what spells and creatures you and your enemy have, what they are particularly sensitive to and what are the sometimes very important side-effects of summiting a card (in most cases, adding HP to friendly and/or stealing HP from enemy cards).
Yes, this game, strategy-wise, is as advanced as, say, Starcraft, which also requires a lot of learning to become a decent player. This also means you’ll need at least a week to master this game – assuming you play at least 2-3 hours a day (which isn’t a hard thing to do because the title is so damn enticing and gripping – you’ll love pulling out your PDA to continue playing while, say, you’re waiting for something, particularly if you can also enable the in-game music).
Unfortunately, the in-game creature / spell explanations are, in general, far from verbose and, in some cases, are very hard to understand (see for example the in-game explanation “Steal Spell” of Death / Darklord). As, after playing the game a LOT, I know all these units and spells, this was also one of the reasons I’ve spent quite a lot of time compiling this chart (and writing this guide). I hope it is WAY more informative and cleaner than the in-game help, particularly when it comes to comparing and mentioning the alternatives to a given unit / spell (particularly enemy owner HP decreasing-wise).
The chart can be found here. Make sure you open it in a maximized browser window.
I don’t think much explanation is needed for the chart; therefore, I only elaborate on some of its columns. Let me know if the meaning of some of the columns can’t be understood; then, in a later version of this guide, I’ll elaborate on them too.
The most important column will be the “Recommended?” one. In there, I’ve explained whether the card is recommended and if it is, when, under what circumstances you must consider using it. This column is of extreme importance to achieve the goal I’ve outlined above: to find the cheapest and, therefore, most economical solution for a given task. For example, if your opponent summons a Death / Grim Reaper, which costs 12 Death points, you can easily counter-attack this creature by quickly summoning Life / Paladin and casting Exorcizm. In addition to having only spent 8+2 Life points (that is, 2 less than with the enemy’s Death spell) on the summoning and the casting, you will still have a moderately-strong (4 damage done to non-Death opponents) Paladin with (still) 10 HP on the board, also ready to quickly kill (via the above-mentioned Exorcizm spell) another Death creature. Now, think of how much it would have cost you to get rid of Grim Reaper WITHOUT relying on Life / Paladin (and, assuming, you don’t have (or, currently can’t afford) Air / Black Wind or Fire / Fireball, two of the other, excellent instant killer spells) – yes, you would have spent much more. (Incidentally, this is how a decent Starcraft player, putting special emphasis on casting advanced spells, plays. A simple Plague spell from the Zerg Defiler can cause, resource-, micromanagement- and time-wise, orders of magnitude more loss to the enemy than the original price of a single Defiler, even including climbing the tech tree to be able to produce it at all.)
Also, in order to make looking up information as quick as possible, I’ve also tried to separate information belonging to different categories. For example, this is why I’ve created a separate column about “Increasing / decreasing elemental”. For example, if you need to quickly look up which creature will help in increasing an elemental (mostly the one it’s belonging to, except for Life / Apostate, which increases Death instead of its Life home element), you just look at this column in the section of the given elemental (sections, in order to save horizontal screen estate, are separated in the first column; I’ve denoted a new elemental section with bold there) and search for any entry. For example, if you look at the Water section, you’ll see there are two creatures to increase Water: Nixie and Ice Wizard. (While the otherwise very strong Hydra will actually decrease it each turn by two – until it reaches zero. I’ve also included these cases in here.)
Another example: when you want to be absolutely sure you summon a creature to an empty slot, you choose the slot (the opposing creature) taking the “Particularly vulnerable to...” column into account. For example, if there is an empty slot with an opposing Fire (enemy) unit, you won’t want to put a Water / Ice Wizard or Ice Guard in there because they sustain 200% damage from any Fire creatures or spells. Taking this further, you will also want to consult the “Immune to...” column in there to see whether there are any creatures immune to Fire creatures (as can clearly be seen, Red Drake is, in addition to the well-known, low-cost example of Earth / Forest Spirit). Finally, you’ll also want to consult the “Delivers extra damage to..." column to see whether there are any creatures (or spells) that deliver some extra damage to Fire creatures. (As can clearly be seen, Water / Nixie is one of them; that is - if you don’t use any modifiers like Earth / Dryad in the next slot or Fire / Salamander anywhere else - it’ll deliver 2*3, that is, 6 damage.)
Similarly, if you need to counter-attack a very powerful Water creature spending as little money as possible with the best outcome, you (in addition to the joker-of-all-trades Earth / Forest Spirit, preferably backed up with an Earth / Dryad in the next slot in order to bump up its attack by not less than 2) may want to look up a unit immune to Water spells / creatures. Just a quick glance at “Immune to…”: yes, Water / Ice Wizard (only 1 damage only taken from any enemy Water unit) is one of your best choices in this case. (Let’s only hope that, seeing this, your enemy won’t use Fire spells like Fire Spikes or – for you, even worse – Fireball to quickly get rid of your Ice Wizard - don’t forget the two ice-based Water creatures are particularly sensitive to fire. Or, it won’t use a cheap, but, in this case, pretty powerful (2*2 base damage to Ice Wizard and Guard) Fire / Cerberus in the next slot of the opposing one in order to protect it from your direct attack.)
Also, if you quickly want to further decrease the health of the enemy’s owner but don’t have (currently – because of the lack of elemental points – access to) the traditional HP decreasing spells like Death / Steal Life, just summoning a middle-priced Death / Banshee will inflict 8 damage to the enemy owner right at summoning. In order to quickly find this information, you’ll need to scrutinize both the “Increasing / decreasing opponent health” and the “Effect on enemy owner” columns (these columns are pretty similar in meaning; I still wanted to keep them separate to better separate spell- and unit-based damage).
Note that the “Price when produced” column refers to the Campaign mode. In Dual mode, it has no meaning as, unfortunately, you can only have 4 randomly selected cards in each element in Dual games. This is one of the most annoying shortcomings of the game, in addition to, in Campaign mode, 1. the inability to destroy buildings and 2. to get rid of unwanted cards in order to be able to purchase other ones. Implementing a solution to the latter two would be really beneficial because you can easily reach the maximal number of the structures on a given Orion (see the PS section below) and you will always want to use other cards than is currently available. I will definitely ask the More Games Entertainment folks to add the possibility of more cards for example playing Dual games – it’ll greatly enhance for example multiplayer gaming.
PS: just a remark. None of the reviews I’ve read so far mentioned the fact that you can’t build an unlimited number of structures on a given Orion. This MUST be kept in mind when you, for example, in Hard games, only possess 2-3 Orions and allocate most of your experience points to, as is also discussed at the comment section here, “Power” in order to quickly get some of the better cards, even at the beginning of the game, as the only way to defeat much better opponents. Then, if you fill up your words with resource harvesters / converters like in this screenshot, after reaching the building number threshold, you won’t be able to build anything else (see this screenshot showing this), even when there would still be plenty of space to build your new structures on.
Incidentally, the screenshot above also shows the optimal number of each resource harvester / converter. As can clearly be seen, you’ll need the most Crysols harvesters to bump up Crysols production (otherwise, an Orion only produces 20 Crysols a day). The number of Sulmors converters should be slightly (about 50-70%) less than those of the Crysols harvesters. Then, the number of Goldius converters should be about 5-15% of that of the Crysols harvesters, while Eractus converters should be about 2-4%. If you fill up 2-3 Orions (almost) entirely with resource harvesters / converters, you won’t likely to ever run into resource shortage – actually, most of the time, your Crysols will still remain at 9999 (the maximal level).
PS 2: as you may have already noticed, in the chart, I’m referring to the six elementals using italic; also, when referring to a particular spell / creature card, I always name the elemental it belongs to so that you can more easily find it. Finally, when referring to a spell of a particular creature, I also mention the creature, along with its elemental to greatly speed up the lookup.
Hi everyone, i know there are tonssssss of nice people here on xda forums, and i was just hoping for some suggestions because i have to choose a project to work on.. any java game / application which is not too tough is fine. It doesnt have to be an original application, so i was thinkin maybe some simple apps which u guys love? I'm still not that good at it as i have just started learning bout using netbeans to develops the java apps.. i will have bout a month or two to work on it. please give me some suggestions? thank you everyone Much appreciated.
cloning/image app/program for windows mobile
i do not know how hard it would be but just a thought, but it should be a true image .... something like acronis or seagate etc but for windows mobile
how about using the blu tooth technology to turn the phone into a ps3 key board similar to the g remote for ur windows desktop.
or app that is like winterboard where it manages ur cabs alot more organized so u can switch them off and on isntead of deleting and replacing clocks lock screens etc etc
a craigslist app is a very popular
ebay app
sound boards or voice changers
a cocktail drink guide
synthasizer
as for games
here
are a list of games that would be cool
teenage mutant ninja turtles arcade version
left for dead the 8 bit version(google it)
plants v.s. zombies
iphone version of resident evil 4
maybe gta china town wars or even gta 1
mortal kombat
fallout 1 or 2
how about;
an app which uses the oem headphones and mike and turns them into a noise-canceling headset
a music editing app like audacity
and (my favourite) a light saber app
game
Well 1st congradulations on becoming a developer. I too in my spare time develop but I develop games. If this is your 1st time developing a complete project I would suggest a simple game. A game like pong,space invaders, or pacman. I dont know your level but those can be made relatively easy and give you time to add something to make an original twist. Since I program in C language I dont know if any of the commands are similar in java maybe I could help. Goodluck on your project and keep us posted.
This is proly a tough one, but one I would (and many others) love to see on our HD2 phones.
Netflix watch instantly app from our queue.
Why they half assed the Netflix app in the first place is beyond me.
thanks for all the suggestions guys! knew some of you here on xda would be happy to gimme some ideas. First i thought nobody was gonna bother replying. lol. thanks again and I will keep you guys informed when i decide what to do and if I need any help. Thanks a lot everyone.
I just noticed your handle; football-fan. I am assuming you mean soccer?
Perhaps combine your love for the game with your project and develop something relating to the upcoming World Cup.
An app that has the game fixture, match time etc. It could also connect and update scores and match stats as they happen. It could keep track of the heats and results. Keep a tree/chart of who wins and loses, who makes it to the finals etc.
I have no doubt there are plenty of people out there who would love an app like that. Especially considering you could produce something that is ad free. I am assuming that any official app that comes from commercial organisations will be plastered with sponsorship logos and the like.
Franwella said:
I just noticed your handle; football-fan. I am assuming you mean soccer?
Perhaps combine your love for the game with your project and develop something relating to the upcoming World Cup.
An app that has the game fixture, match time etc. It could also connect and update scores and match stats as they happen. It could keep track of the heats and results. Keep a tree/chart of who wins and loses, who makes it to the finals etc.
I have no doubt there are plenty of people out there who would love an app like that. Especially considering you could produce something that is ad free. I am assuming that any official app that comes from commercial organisations will be plastered with sponsorship logos and the like.
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thanks for the idea!
but my lecturer was saying it would be better if the apps that we make would require move.. interaction / input from the user?
football_fan said:
thanks for the idea!
but my lecturer was saying it would be better if the apps that we make would require move.. interaction / input from the user?
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How about a playlist editor for wmp? Something that would allow you to browse folders and select tracks and build a playlist from scratch.
It may seem a pretty plain application, but it would mean coding a decent GUI (that would obvously run purely on user interaction), but it would still have some more "gutsy" stuff, like system access, reading folder and files etc., and you'd also have to make sure you can build a playlist file. (I have no idea what format a playlist is in - it could be a simple list, but is more likely to be xml)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=683297
Hey there,
There is a Settlers of Catan game for the iPhone. I'm wondering if anyone knew of that game being ported to Android any time soon? All I can find for Android is the 'Better Settlers' which helps with setting up the board.
Thanks in advance for any info!
Jeremy
shameless "bump!"
I would guess there would be copyright issues or some such :S
well you could try developing your own game..
I'd like to see settlers of catan on this platform too!
Me too, if someone is interested in doing the gameplay, maybe graphics, or whatever else. I would be happy to do the development.
Doesn't neccessarily have to be clone as such, it can have similar gameplay. Try playing something like Travian, it's similar but not exact.
It's a game I'd love to have on my phone . . . don't know it well enough to have a go at dev, but I'd be happy to alpha/beta/gamma test if someone gave it a crack . . .
there was a flash game i found a while ago - never got it working on my mogul though. Also I could help with graphics if a new game was designed
I'd love a SoC game for my Evo. Any new info on this?
Sent from my HTC Evo using Tapatalk + Swype
This would really be great. Id like a version where you could play with others on different phones via wifi/3g. It would be a lot of fun to play with friends and coworkers through out the day (or week as needed)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
mesasone said:
This would really be great. Id like a version where you could play with others on different phones via wifi/3g. It would be a lot of fun to play with friends and coworkers through out the day (or week as needed)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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Agreed. This would be an awesome
Multi-player app especially if you could save and resume a game. You'd almost have to have one person host the game so the data is all housed on one SD card.
Other thoughts are the ability to change the rules before starting, built in chat and or push to talk functionality, bartering alerts, next turn alerts, review of score and previous actions, the list goes on.
If someone is serious about developing this then I am totally willing to help think it through and create graphics. Send me a PM.
Sent from my HTC Vogue FroYo using XDA App
Settlers of Catan Android game in the works
I've been having a dabble with android development and have been working on a Settlers of Catan game as it is such a great game and it's a good way to learn android dev.
I'm ready to admit that someone might beat me to it, whether by making the iphone version available to android or whatever, but still if anyone is interested in a) helping out on the project b) doing some testing or c) pimping the game, let me know! You can contact me on cettlersofsatan at gmail dot com.
It's currently in SVN online in a single user repository. But I would happily move it to Google Code or something if others were interested.
I'm as eager as everyone else to see this project pull through. And stone do NOT lose faith. It is always better to have an option then only one option for a game/app.
I have assembled a list of people who expressed interest in helping:
stoneskin - work in progress
niknah - dev
Willuknight - graphics
ii Candor ii - graphics/thinktank
DJGibbon - test
You guys should really get together especially with stone and get cracking! Heard some good ideas and plenty of offers to help. The XDA community NEEDS A SETTLERS!
Thanks guys!
I'd love to help too. I don't think can commit the time to help with development though. Real life is just too hectic lately. However, I'd love to help testing.
If the time opens up, I'm interested in helping with development.
As to graphics, just no skills to bring to the table. Although, I did have a thought last night on this subject. The game might be more playable with simpler graphics. Instead of trying to have an understandable picture of sheep/ore/... on the hexes, just use colors. Light green for wool/sheep, dark green or brown for lumber, goldenrod/yellow for wheat, dark grey for ore and dark red for brick.
Work in progress!
Gino, Latenk, thanks for the feedback. Here's the deal.
I agree, simple graphics to start with, I've uploaded a screenshot, but before anyone analyses it too much , let me state what I want from the project initially.
1) The basic game (i.e. no expansions) in full.
2) Multi-player (up to 4 initially) or single-player (with AI) on one phone.
3) Basic graphics, but a clean separation in implementation so that the graphics, special effects, zoom, board rotation, whatever the monkey-magic one wants, can be added ON TOP OF the rest of the app.
4) Game is free (shouldn't be any copyright issues right?) and would be great if it could get onto Android Market or equivalent.
5) Open source?
I hate graphics, hate the tweaking, fiddling, pixel-adjusting and so on, so I've knocked up the simplest GUI imaginable. I've slapped on a handful of buttons which as you can see, have rubbish little text labels - RD = Roll Dice (in one of the screenshots it's displaying the number rolled), BR/BS/BC are build road/settlement/city, MR = Move Robber, C=Cancel, D=Done, X=exit.
In these shots I'm not even playing a game, I'm in a test mode where I'm just free-building. My colour is white. So a hex-side is painted white for a road, the small circles are settlements, the large circle is a city. The large red circle is me selecting a vertices. As you can see, the current player (Bob) has no resources (free-building) but resources are laid out with shoddy little cards.
So the graphics are v. poor. But I'm not too concerned right about it right now.
Where have I got to?
I've got the basic 'model' in place. That is the game model that maintains hexes, vertices, hex-sides and their roads/settlements/cities.
I haven't even touched on AI, ports, trading.
I'm trying to build the app cleanly, so the views have no concrete knowledge of the game model, and any calls to it are interfaced out.
But this is my first Android app, so I'm learning from scratch, possibly comitting all sorts of Android crimes.
I'm a full-time .Net developer, so I'm kinda fitting this in around job/family and so on, so progress is slow.
Here are my thoughts. I'll aim to get this to a clean/stable state within the next week or so, then if others want to get involved in dev I'll create a Google Code project (or equivalent) and sort it out from there.
I'm currently building against 1.6 because I have an X10 mini. It would be great to support up to the latest API versions.
Ok, uploading the images now. Graphics ARE AWFUL but I'm focussing on the game at the moment.
By the way, if anyone knows what licensing/copyright issues there are with something like this please let me know. I've currently called the project 'Cettlers of Satan' 'cos that made me smile. If rights issues meant it can't go through market places then so be it, but would be great if someone could research this.
Haha, you know that is a basic layout but gets the job done! What you could do is have the game map be at least twice as large as say the resolution of a N1 screen. Enable finger scrolling and/or pinch to zoom (comlpex perhaps but a thought) and let people move around the game map as needed. That'd allow for better graphics, larger maps, and a larger feel to the game. The HUD could possibly go up either side of the game map. In fact I'd say make landscape mode MANDATORY so you have the extra real estate.
Check this out: http://games.asobrain.com/
That is what I envision this game like. That game is everything this game COULD be and he even found ways around copyright. Check that game out, play a round or two and it will give you plenty to think about/use as inspiration. Obviously no need to copy, but you can use it for ideas.
Lastly, the previous statement someone made about notifications is pure gold. Allow people to play their turns then pass to the next with a notification appearing. Great ideas.
I've been there before, but a while ago and he's closed all unactive accounts and stopped registration unfortunately.
If you are a member maybe you could upload a couple of screenshots or explain to me how the GUI works in more detail.
I love the idea of finger scrolling/pinch/zoom etc. I'm gonna give some of that a go tomorrow. But like I say, what I'm initially trying to achieve is
GUI
Model
in a clean separation. So any visual representation would be possible. I'll try and knock out some basic zoom/finger scroll effects just to convince myself that my rudimentary framework will hold together.
Thanks for the quick feedback mate.
This shows the basic layout, how it all works, the HUD and such. Again this would have to be adjusted for the handheld, but in general it looks and works great!
In the top left is a pane for the players in the game. It shows Player Name, Player Color, a count of the cards in the players hand, any held and/or played D cards. This pane can be hidden if the player wishes.
The pane on the bottom left shows all things the plyer can buy and what it takes for the player to buy them. (in the android version I imagine this being a tab you can bring up to buy/see what you need and have.
Below that pane is Played Cards, and Table cards which speak for themselves.
Of course along the bottom you see your hand.
On the bottom right you have 3 buttons, claim victory, trade, and end turn.
And of course you see the dice.
Top right is the chat box.
All of this again is simply for inspiration and not for copying. This gives you a great idea of a fleshed out game and how it could look on a handset.
This is a trade window.
Two things of note here. First notice the top left. WHen a player gets cards on a roll, they show up face up for a brief moment. GREAT idea if possible to implement something similar.
Secondly, bottom right is what appears to be a chart. That shows how many times a number has been rolled. This is more advanced than what we'd need, but an interesting idea and prob easy to implement.
Now on this one a couple things to point out. Look at how they do cities and roads. Similar to what you've suggested. I was thinking maybe circles with symbols on the top (kind of like tokens or markers). Of course maybe more intricate and detailed models could be added later.
Also, that speech bubble that popped up shows where the person played their road or city or settlement. This is ESSENTIAL in some form or another on this game. Plan to include SOMETHING like it.
And lastly, this picture shows what it looks like when a person trades succesfully. Again not necessary but certainly handy.
I must repeat again that I DO NOT CONDONE OUTRIGHT PLAGIARISM with anything Asobrain has done. This is purely for inspiration and research. This should give you PLENTY of ideas!
I've got tons!
This is a beautiful start. Couple thoughts.
- The desert color isn't clearly distinct from wheat.
- The name will have to be something other than "Settlers of Catan". I'd avoid the current name for two reasons. One, a lot of us will take some degree of exception to the Satan reference. Two, it's not really different enough to dodge trademark concerns.
- I despise needing to scroll around in a game to see everything. This is my main complaint with "Pirates & Traders".
- On such a small screen, keep the UI as simple as possible. AsoBrain is wonderful. But, it is designed for a largish screen. (BTW, I hate that he killed old accounts when closing registration. I was away for just about the exact period to get locked-out).
- As we proceed, I'd like to plan for a multi-device/network play. This game would be awesome in a peer-to-peer, networked model.
Thanks for getting this started.
P.S. I *REALLY* like how you did the board. The buttons: meh. The board: Wow!
GinoAMelone said:
This is a beautiful start. Couple thoughts.
- The desert color isn't clearly distinct from wheat.
- The name will have to be something other than "Settlers of Catan". I'd avoid the current name for two reasons. One, a lot of us will take some degree of exception to the Satan reference. Two, it's not really different enough to dodge trademark concerns.
- I despise needing to scroll around in a game to see everything. This is my main complaint with "Pirates & Traders".
- On such a small screen, keep the UI as simple as possible. AsoBrain is wonderful. But, it is designed for a largish screen. (BTW, I hate that he killed old accounts when closing registration. I was away for just about the exact period to get locked-out).
- As we proceed, I'd like to plan for a multi-device/network play. This game would be awesome in a peer-to-peer, networked model.
Thanks for getting this started.
P.S. I *REALLY* like how you did the board. The buttons: meh. The board: Wow!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Agreed, the desert should be a tan, and wheat clearly a gold.
2. Also agree. It cannot even closely resemble Settlers. We can worry about the name when we have a game worth naming (I was thinking something like Travista, or something resembling travelers).
3. That is why it'd also be prudent to include a pinch to zoom or zoom controls. Let the player get in close if they wish, or let them sit way back and view it all from a distance.
4. Agreed. Simple yet elegant/complex in its design is what I'd like to see. Again give the player the option of getting as complicated as they wish. This can be easily accomplished with tabs that the player can pull out as needed. The only thing that should remain on the screen is the players hand, and a few essential buttons. Look at a game called PocketEmpires, use that idea for assembling tabs. I do feel that certain tabs should be entirely devoted to one type of action (like a building tab).
5. Once you have a basic game framework laid, you can work on making it work across the board and with all devices. The dev should focus on getting it to work native first, then move onward. As for a p2p network GREAT IDEA! If there is a way we can link this either by device or via a server that'd be the best way. Allow players to run through an entire game, or let players take their turns and move on to another player (IE pass it back and forth via notifications, similar to how Scrabble works on the iPhone).
I only wish I knew any code/dev tools to help with. All these ideas and nothing to do about it!
I'm just wondering if anyone is familiar with some artistic style apps, for example ones like Ethereal Dialpad.
In a sense that they're not your typical 'app' or game, but theyre just really cool, fun and have replay value.
And for anyone who is familiar with the demoscene (e.g. pouet.net), are there any demo-like apps for android?
I think there is amazing potential for an Android demoscene, people could create some truly stunning audiovisual presentations and having them on a portable media like that makes it so much cooler, being able to show friends etc. Also as shown by Ethereal Dialpad, really cool effects are possible by utilizing the touch input.
Any suggestions?
Also just saw this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=425216 this is what I'm after. How its based off a demo app of WM. I can't use LWP, so anyone know of similar demo apps etc for Android?
I have found two actual demoscene productions for android... Do you know of more?
Yellow Rose of Texas
Para 'N' droiD
(Can't post links as I'm a new user... But just look them up on AppBrain.)
There are all sorts of tech demos on the app market (google for: appbrain "tech demo") but I don't find most them that impressive really... I hope we get more creative apps in the future!
Awesome man that's exactly what I'm after! If you find anything else like that let me know.
have a look here
hxxp://www.pouet.net /prodlist.php?platform[]=Mobile%20Phone
replace hxxp with http and remove space after .net
lots of them are .zip so you'd have to download them to see if they're apk
the category is just mobile phone not specifically android
hopefully there will be more coming
Good point - I had not spotted the mobile phone category before. Only found a single additional android app though and it was a tool instead of a demo (Morning Routine - havchr .net /mr/).
I really like all kinds of creative music apps. My all-time favorite is AXE on Nintendo DS (see youtube. com/watch?v=1ewMNgiTQ30 ). It's really simple concept (you play staccato notes using stylus to a predefined backbeat), easy to pick up but very hard to let go... I have searched the app market for interesting musical apps and found these so far:
PP-Electone (a basic piano app with 128 different instruments)
SpaceTheremin (a simple theremin-like instrument)
MusicGrid (a step sequencer akin to Tenori-on)
Lumin (another Tenori-on lookalike)
Loopstamatic (a three channel ten second audio looper)
I'm hoping android attracts more creative minds in the future. If case Jordan Rudess is reading this, *please* port MorphWiz to Android ok??
I also love retro sounds so I was really happy to discover the Droidsound app. It plays back original music formats from C64 and Amiga using emulation engines to stay true to the sound of these classic computers. Definitely recommended for all android fans who like chip music!
Hello,
I have had this idea for quite some time now, and seeing I have 0 knowledge when it comes to mobile app development, I decided to give it away.
I DO NOT want any amount of money from anyone, I am just giving you the idea so that I can play it (because as I imagine it, it should be kickass).
First off, I want to make some points clear:
- There are no games on the market that utilize the same idea that I am about give.
- After having searched Google's Marketplace (now dubbed Play Store) and Apple's App Store, I couldn't find a game with similar demands.
- The developer should have a solid background of good graphical games before taking this request.
- The game should be given the graphics it deserves ( I am not asking for a game with graphics like Asphalt 6, just with good graphics.)
- Numerous levels and a Survival Mode with varying difficulties are necessary.
- I don't want the game to be exclusive to me [of course], you can go ahead and put it on the Play Store, and even implement it on iOS and WP.
Sneak Peak of the IDEA:
- The idea uses the accelerometer in a way that hasn't been (fully) used before.
- No on-screen controls
- Accelerometer will be almost abused
- 2 or 3 axes gameplay ( initial idea covers 2, plus 3rd axe easily addable) based on the idea.
- There have been "similar" good games that use the accelerometer (like Speedx 3D), and I believe [with the correct development] this game can achieve the same level of awesomeness.
(I said "similar", because even though it's the same "big picture", the movements would be quite different, which result in different user experience)
Important notices:
- I am not saying this game will be revolutionary, unique(maybe?), game changing, or that it will sell/be downloaded more than Angry Birds, but it's a good idea.
- If it wasn't given the graphics it deserves, it will be just "another game in the market"
- The idea is of course an important part of the Game creation process, but is nonetheless a small part, and the one that demands the least amount of work. The developers will have to do most of the work.
How to get your hands on the idea:
- In order not to have it open for the public eye, and lose it's appeal and exclusiveness for developers, I will only send out the game upon request.
- Only 3 requests at a time will be permitted. (to insure exclusiveness for the developers)
- With the requests, you should send your Company name*
- Upon receiving the request, I will verify that the developer has made at least one quality game (from graphics and smoothness' PoV). The number of downloads does not matter.
- If the developer had indeed quality games, the idea + game implementation will be sent.
- Upon receiving the idea, the developer can decide to keep it, and work of it, or desert it.
- If he deserts it, the request will be sent to another person who's on the waiting list.
*: State your company's name along with the games you think would give off a good impression.
If not found in your account, proof might be needed to connect you with your company (to prevent identity theft) [usually a post in the beta or games section of your game/companies' name would suffice]
Am I a source you can "trust":
- I don't know why that'd matter, but I have been giving feedback/ new ideas to big companies for the past 2 years.
- I occasionally get positive replies.
- I [think I] have caused a couple of changes in Google +
- I am ready to support you during the development process, regarding ideas you might need, or further implementations.
I will give out the idea, plus two potential implementations of the game (how it would work and what it should look like, you are free to follow them or do as you wish).
Waiting for your PMs.
Sincerely,
GM