Ruby

I have 1 more chapter left to complete Chris Pine's book "Learn to Program" http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/

NEW WARE ORDER

Working on a mini-game that is similar to Cosmo Gang below.

Rubygame on Windows

I just installed ruby, rubygame and gamebox on Windows XP. I tried running some old code and it seems my setup works nicely. Here is some info about rubygame from its webpage:

Rubygame is a cross-platform multimedia library for the most beautiful programming language in the world: Ruby. It embraces the Ruby spirit to provide developers with a library that is clean and easy to use so you can get things done painlessly, and yet powerful and flexible so you can get them done right.

Even though it's called Rubygame, it has uses far beyond just entertainment software: scientific data visualisation programs, educational/training tools, and interactive motion graphics are just a few of the things possible with Rubygame.

Rubygame is open source, licensed under the GNU LGPL. That means you are free to use, copy, modify, and distribute it, even with proprietary applications. (But be sure to read the full license for details, of course!)

Dingoo

I spent the last couple days reading a lot about the Dingoo. What got me interested in the Dingoo was that it runs Linux and it can emulate a lot of consoles smoothly. Neo-geo games are what I was curious if they would lag, but so far from youtube videos and reviews I have seen, the roms seem to play just fine. Its about $100 on a couple websites I found. Check out the video of someone reviewing the Dingoo playing some arcade/neo-geo roms.

Baboom video

Wing IDE

Glad to have Wing IDE on Linux. I was using DrPython but some features were missing that Wing IDE has. You can fill out a form from Wingware that says if you are developing a non-commericial application that will be open source, they will give you a free license. Right now I am on trial mode.

Baboom! GIT repo

I made a repo for Baboom! on my github account. http://github.com/blittergames/baboom/tree/master

Linux Mint 7

I removed Windows 7 and put on Linux Mint 7. I always used Ubuntu before but I am glad I tried out Linux Mint. It installed fine, came with all the codecs I need plus the flash plugin. So far, this has been the best Linux desktop experience I have ever had. This is actually a distro that I would recommend to people who want to try out Linux for the desktop. The theme set it comes with is really appealing. I tried installing this Python IDE I read in an old Linux Format Magazine, but it was having some issues running my pygame game. After that I installed DrPython which I used in the past, and it ran my game just fine.

Baboom! - Work in progress

Trying to clone Activision's Kaboom!

iPhone game development

I still havent developed anything for the iPhone yet. I am interested mostly in making a simple 2D game for it. The App Store has a ton of free games available to download. I usually check whats new at the end of every week to see if there are any new appealing games. The last one I downloaded was "Parachute Panic" and it was pretty cool. I really wish Apple wouldnt have such requirements in order to develop for the iPhone, but I plan on getting a Mac Mini sometime soon anyways.

Spritelib GPL

Ari Feldman made Spritelib which is a collection of sprite sheets people can use for games or whatever. I made a 1945 clone using one of his sprite sheets but I just noticed he has a tank sprite sheet as well. I want to make a mini multiplayer game using this sheet.

Dirty Coding Tricks

Brandon Sheffield has a nice article on stories of programmers and thier dirty coding tricks in the game industry. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4111/dirty_coding_tricks.php

Pygame 1.9.1 release

A new version of Pygame has been released. Here are some details from the website.

What's new (heaps of things since 1.8.1): http://www.pygame.org/whatsnew.shtml

Summary of changes:
- many, many fixes and improvements. The largest amount of changes has gone into this release than any other pygame release.
- bug fixes for backwards compatibility issues introduced in pygame 1.8.x series. old games like solarwolf and libraries like PGU work again.
- experimental camera webcam module (still in development).
- experimental midi module based on portmidi and pyportmidi (99% complete).
- experimental gfxdraw module based on SDL_gfx (including AA circles, textured polygons and other goodness).
- python3, and python3.1 support mostly completed. Some modules still remain to be completed - but mostly it's working.
- nokia mobile phone s60 support.
- improved OSX support (dropped pyobjc dependency, improved installer, sysfont now works on OSX).
- pygame.examples + pygame.tests included with pygame. This makes testing easier, and also makes learning pygame more fun and easy.
- cleanup of examples, and addition of new examples.
- new tools to aid in development of pygame itself, better compilation documentation.
- py2app, and py2exe support improved.

Retrogamer Magazine

Retrogamer is probably my favorite magazine. I picked up one of thier book editions not long ago and I read the entire thing within a a week. It was full of interviews, reviews and history pieces on old retro game systems. I love the details they mention as well as screen-shots and pictures. I plan on getting a subscription soon. Its based in Europe and in London I think, and it inspires me to start my own publication about retro gaming.

Writing Real-Time Games for Android

I found this talk while browing google talks on youtube and I found it interesting. I wanted to develop 2D games for the iPhone but now I am more interested in developing games for the Android platform. Here is the blurb about the video:

"Google I/O 2009 - Writing Real-Time Games for Android

Chris Pruett

Do vertex arrays keep you up at night? Do you have nightmares involving framerates and event loops? If so, this session might have the cure for your condition. Chris Pruett will discuss the game engine that he developed, using it as a case study to explain the common pitfalls and best practices for building graphics-intensive applications. You'll learn how to properly pipeline game and rendering code, manage drawing surfaces, and incorporate 2D and 3D graphics cleanly."