hi thomas this sounds reallly cool. i will look foward to the new games that you are bringing out. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Ward" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org> Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 6:52 PM Subject: [Audyssey] USA Games News 8/20/2008
> > USA Games News > > Aug. 20, 2008 > > Introduction > > Greetings gamers, > Welcome to another friendly USA Games news letter. This one really is a > lot more up beat and positive then the passed two or three news letters. > Also we have some good news to release this time so stay tuned. > Before I actually get into the topic of our games I'd like to let > everyone know that my wife and I are now moved back into our apartment > and are finally setup again. I have all of my computers back up and > running, and as a result I have a Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Ubuntu > Linux 8.04 computer to do development and testing on our products with. > This is very good as our new game engine we are working on is now being > designed to be multi-platform supporting Mac, Linux, and Windows. It > also may eventually be possible to port our games to cell phones and > other mobile devices with a compatible Java 6 runtime environment. > Yeah, you heard that right. We have finally decided to adopt Java 6 as > our new programming language and API for all of our new games. The > reason is that we converted one of our games to use SDL.net for C-sharp, > and decided it wasn't good enough for our needs. While SDL.net was a > fairly decent programming API we wanted all the power of DirectX. We > discovered Java's J3D graphics and audio API fit our needs perfectly. It > is multi-platform, renders equal 3D audio support on all platforms, and > I already know Java fairly well so the switch isn't all that big an > issue for me. > Obviously, with the change in language and API we will go back to using > pre-recorded speech for the majority of our games. While there is a Java > sdk for Sapi 5 it is pretty expensive, and of course is not > multi-platform. Besides that, while we were supporting Sapi in > Montezuma's Revenge we got a lot of technical support issues with Sapi. > In many cases the end users Sapi broke for whatever reason, and it had > to be fixed to play our games. We feel just dropping Sapi will add > greater stability and replayability to our games long term as well as > not tie the game to a proprietary Windows technology. > With all that said let us get on with the news we have for you today. > > Tomb Hunter > Mysteries of the Ancients > > We are happy to announce despite the disruptions to our programming > schedule our replacement game for Montezuma's Revenge, Mysteries of the > Ancients, is back in active development. Over the passed two weeks we > have been working hard on translating our C-code from C-Sharp to Java, > and that process is going very well. Actually, it is going better than > expected. One reason we can account for this very fast translation > process is that Java and C-Sharp are very similar in a lot of ways. They > both use the same lexical and syntactical structure, use the same > variable declarations, and sometimes similar functions and class names. > As a result some parts of the game code just need a few changes here and > there while others more language specific need to be rewritten. In any > case it is going faster than I had first anticipated. > The programming language isn't the only thing we have upgraded in this > new version. We also have done a massive sound upgrade to the game, and > it sounds, well, a lot more realistic than ever. We have updated the > background ambiance, character effects, footstep sounds, and several > other sound effects. Some sounds we have digitally remastered to sound > better. All and all we have done an excellent job on giving the game all > new audio effects. > In addition we have redesigned the game somewhat, and given it a more > Tomb Raider style make over while preserving its original side-scroller > format. In addition to swords Angela Carter will be able to pick up > various firearms such as a Browning 9MM pistol, 357 Magnum, 12 gage > shotgun, and an Uzi. As well as weapons Angela will be able to collect > various items such as: diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, gold coins, > ancient scrolls, healing potions, and torches to light her way. > The enemies in this new side-scroller have also undergone an upgrade as > well. The skulls are now undead skeleton warriors armed with bow and > arrows. Some of the skeletons are, however, undead priests that are > able to throw fire balls. In addition to the skeletons there will be > plenty of rattle snakes and gray wolves inside the ancient ruins to > avoid or kill. > New and deadlier enemies aren't your only obstacle to face. There are > several new traps to avoid such as: poison darts, chasms to jump over, > fire pits, spikes, and rolling boulders to name a few deadly traps you > will have to avoid a long the way. > As far as a schedule we are hoping to have a beta out by Christmas, but > we can't promise a December 25 dead line. Obviously this year has proven > difficult enough to keep a schedule for our games do to people and > events out of our control. Not only that, much of that time was spent on > researching and testing alternatives to Microsoft DirectX and the .NET > Framework. While both technologies are fairly good for Windows only > users I am not, strictly speaking, a Windows only user. > Over the passed year I have really began exploring the possibility of > using Apple Mac OS or Linux as my primary operating system, and there > are elements of both that make them good alternatives to the Windows > platform. Not the least is the screen reading technologies for both are > cost effective on a small budget, and I don't have to worry about the > Vista style product activation that I despised from the beginning. > I personally feel it is slightly unfair to tie a product specifically to > Windows for those power users, like myself, who are decidedly unhappy > with the way Microsoft and other companies are going with all the > anti-piracy and security measures to force the average legal Windows > user into paying for the same software media multiple times if they have > more than one computer in there home or office. In my case I do feel > there does need to be a line drawn somewhere that states how far I am > personally willing to spend in support of all the digital rights > management that is being heavily promoted by the recording industry > Association of America, Microsoft, and the film industry that have > pushed for tighter control over our personal use of digital media we > have legally purchased. I could probably rant for hours on the evils of > DRM technology, and why as users we need to be more vocal in trying to > protect our fair use rights to the media we have purchased. However, DRM > technology is a controversial subject, and one I will not go into at > length here. > > Finally, more and more people are getting into mobile devices such as > cell phones, PDAs, and other hand held devices with microcomputers built > into them. As a result of the boom in mobile technologies more and more > game junkies are becoming interested in taking there favorite games on > the road with them on their cell phone, PDA, or laptop. > As a result game companies, especially adaptive game companies such as > USA Games, has to take such trends somewhat seriously and begin creating > games that may eventually be able to be ported to these devices. Even > mainstream game companies like Edos Interactive have began seeing this > fact and have released Tomb Raider Legend Mobile for mobile devices. A > language like Java can do this with only miner changes in some cases. > Which is a good reason to walk away from more proprietary Windows only > APIs and languages. > > USA Raceway > > Another game that has seen much more active development of late is USA > Raceway. Like Mysteries of the Ancients it is now being converted over > to pure Java. Besides those reasons mentioned earlier in this news > letter there are some other good reasons to do this for Raceway. > One of the things I have noticed between the time James North originally > announced his plans for Raceway, and the time I actually began creating > this game two very decent racing games have been released for the > accessible games community. Both Topspeed II and Rail Racer are fairly > good racing games, and both offers online network play between gamers. I > can't count how many times I have personally received requests to add > network game play and one on one racing between Raceway players. Well, > now it seams you may get your wish. > A few years ago when Raceway was initially scheduled for release > Microsoft's DirectPlay technology would have certainly been the way to > go for online networked games. It was a programmer friendly, fairly > straight forward, API for writing networked games that helped make > DirectX the defacto game developers API of choice. Then, in 2007 > Microsoft officially announced their intention to drop DirectPlay from > DirectX leaving developers like myself without a clear API to use for > online game play that has the simplicity and functionality of > DirectPlay. With a language like Java such concerns is not a problem. > When the programming language was first released by Sun Micro Systems > they had intended that Java come packaged with a fully functional, well > documented, networking API that will work on virtually any operating > system. Over the years Sun has continued to design and update the core > networking API, and today it really is the leading API for software > developers trying to network applications across different operating > systems and computer platforms. What this means for you and I is that it > shouldn't be all that difficult to use Java's native networking API to > build a cross platform independent > racing game where two or more gamers can race together online. > Obviously, this functionality needs more work, but it is definitely a > thought for a future addition to Raceway. > With a programming language like Java 6 it is not all that far fetched > to imagine a instance where you might be able to fire up your Windows > Mobile phone, PDA, etc connect to a wi-fi connection and play against an > online player while you are waiting between classes, on your coffee > break at work, waiting for a doctors appointment, etc. This is truly the > power of walk away content, multi-platform software, and why so many > mainstream users are spending so much time on their cell phones, PDAs, > and other mobile devices. The power of multi-platform software combined > with a universally excepted networking API really is the only way to go > if you want to reach the widest number of users, and give them virtually > endless choices how to use their software media. It is this kind of > freedom that digital rights management attempts to control by > restricting software media you buy to one platform, one computer's > unique hardware, and forcing you to pay multiple times for the same > product for every computer or device you plan to use it on. > If you haven't already noticed I am a typical computer geek, and I love > to think of stuff like this all the time. As a result it isn't that hard > for me to think of a game like Rail Racer, and take that idea to the > next level. It already has a great online racing system in place. Why > not take that idea and make it so Raceway will work on mobile devices, > PCs, Macs, or whatever device will support it? It isn't that difficult > an idea to play a game on your mobile device, save the game, copy the > save game file to your Windows PC at home, and continue in the race > exactly where you left off. > Since Raceway is primarily season based, where you play in an actual > Nascar-like season, you will want to be able to back up and save your > seasons. You may even wish to be able to transfer them between various > devices you own such as your mobile phone and your PC. Now, days with > the way technology is progressing it is getting easier to do that sort > of thing, and it will make Raceway far better than James North's > original design by light years. > With that said, there are going to be some drawbacks. If I want to do > maximum portability over devices it would be better to depend on core > Java input methods rather than using OS specific input devices such as > joysticks. I'm probably not going to introduce joysticks, steering > wheels, initially until the core game is complete and stable. At that > point we can explore the option of hooking Raceway up to an API such as > JInput for obtaining force feedback racing wheels, joysticks, game pads, > and other devices not natively supported by Java. So what I am talking > about is a lot of work, and time consuming. On the other hand I think it > will be worth it, because there is a lot of power to be had in walk away > content you can just drop on a memory card and take it with you on your > mobile device, or play it on your desktop PC at home. > > Summary > > USA Games has always strived for perfection and software innovations > that are rarely seen in the blind gaming community so far. I will admit > we have not always been timely in getting our products out, and many of > you have been waiting long enough to see our products come to light. > However, now that we have selected the technology we plan to use, and > once Genesis 3D is ported to Java you should begin seeing faster turn > around times on our games. While Genesis 3D will be more difficult to > use do to the necessity to self-voice the games without the aid of Sapi > it will however offer the ability to create games for virtually any > operating system or device that supports Java 6. > At the time of this news letter the majority of Mac OS users are > currently running Java 5. It is my hope that Apple will be offering a > Java 6 upgrade by the time our new Java based games become available. If > not it may become necessary on my part to recompile the games for the > Mac platform using a compatible JDK for Mac users. I'm hoping this won't > be necessary, but time will tell. > As for the games running on Linux we are currently tracking down an > unusual error where the Linux Java runtime for Ubuntu 8.04 isn't working > properly. When we test the MOTA Alpha on Windows everything seams to be > working fine. When i install the Alpha on my Linux system half the time > the menu keys fail to work. I'm totally clueless as to what is causing > this error as the code refering to those keyboard commands is straight > out of the core Java API, and is standard on every Java runtime > environment out there. I'm currently putting out a report of this > problem to some mainstream Java developer forums, and hope they can give > me some ideas to why this might be working incorrectly. It may be the > version of the JRE I have installed on that system has some bugs in it, > and I need to update to a newer Java version such as Java 6 update 7. > Also i can try testing it on other Linux distributions such as Fedora > and Open Suse for comparison though the Java runtimes should be identical. > In any case there are problems getting everything working as it should > on Mac, Linux, and Windows, but that is to be expected at this point. > The new Java based engine I am working on has only been in active > development for about three weeks, and is obviously still buggy anyway. > A good portion of the original engine code has been converted to Java, > but even as close as C-Sharp and Java are to each other in similarity > there are still things that were easy to miss or overlook when doing the > conversion process. > For example, when declaring a boolean flag in C-Sharp you would declare > it like > private bool isKilled = false; > while in Java it would be declared like > private boolean isKilled = false; > which are pretty similar but not exactly the same. As a result it is > sometimes easy to forget which is which and use a C-Sharp declaration in > the Java version of the game resulting in a massive compilation error > that has to be edited and repared by hand. > Other diferences between the languages can be just as easy to overlook. > So I have had to rethink the way a certain block of code was written, or > find a better, cleaner, solution to a particular issue. For example, the > weird bug where you could walk through walls I had in the C-Sharp > version of the game. Well, that bug reappeared in the Java version of > MOTA so I took that colision detection code, rewrote that section of > code from scratch, redesigned how it worked, and now it appears that bug > is well and truly gone. In the end it turned out I just used a poor > design to begin with, and I had to tototally rethink the process through > before I saw the error in my original design. Programming is like that > sometimes. > A lot of non-programmers think that programming is all about math, or > knowing how to use this or that programming language. That is the easy > part. The hard part is actually training yourself to think logically, > cover every possible condition a certain state the game can be in at > that time, and then programming your game to deal with those different > conditions at that current point in time. Often it is the small things > we take for granted that get overlooked, and then need to be corrected > when our game behaves in a way that is less than satisfactory or does > something that is unrealistic. > For example, let us assume you found an old sword, and then are forced > to climb up a rope to get up to a ledge. Logically speaking, a person is > going to want to climb up that rope two handed and isn't going to be > hanging on to a huge and heavy sword as he/she does it. In more modern > games they offer the ability to ddraw and holster weapons so the main > character is free to use his or her hands for other tasks such as > climbing, swimming, hand to hand combat, or moving certain items such as > a heavy stone door. It is these kinds of logical concidderations a game > developer has to seriously think about if we want our games to be at all > somewhat realistic. > So in the end we are working on an all new engine, improved game play, > and rethinking how our games are logically designed. Improving the games > internal logic will eventually make a funner and much smoother gaming > experience for all involved. > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the > list, > please send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. 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