Re: [Audyssey] preludeamals solved (woohoo, so happy)

[Willem Venter]

Hi Jeremy and all.
I've been having lots  of fun in my spare time with this. I'm now at
level 17 I think, the "figure 8" one.

I have to mention that I've found a bug. If the arm can't move out of
the starting position normally, it just ignores that there is a block
in the way and continues straight.


On 2/3/17, jer...@kaldobsky.com  wrote:
> Well done Travis!  I hope the game was enough of a challenge for ya, haha.If
> you enjoyed the weird story line to Preludamals, you should probably check
> out the game Triple Triad.  The story lines of the 2 games are linked, and
> in my opinion, the Triple Triad story is hilarious.
>
>
> On Thursday, February 2, 2017 5:48 PM, Travis Siegel
>  wrote:
>
>
>  I finally finished preludeamals, all 24 levels.  I need to go back and
> alter  my solution for level 18, because I accidentally took advantage of
> a bug when solving that one, but otherwise, all levels are solved, and I
> had a blast.  Unfortunately, I didn't start saving my solutions until I
> was at level 16, so have to go back and solve the early levels again (did
> some of that, but still don't have solutions saved for levels 7 through
> 15), but otherwise, if folks want assistance, I can provide hints here and
> there.  I'm wracking my brain to come up with some fun levels for this
> game as well, but so far I've not managed to come up with anything as
> challenging as the default levels, but I'm still working on it.  (Btw,
> level 24 took me 21 bounces/redirects).  Had a tough time coming up
> with a charging station layout that worked for me.  Took me 3 days to
> come up with a solution for that level.  Would be nice if the game kept
> track of bounces/redirects, so you could try to beat your score with
> different layouts.  I took 55 bounces/redirects for one level (don't
> remember which one), and that has to be too high, but ...
> Really enjoyed the
> story that unfolded with each level completion as well, quite amusing.
> This one was a lot of fun, and if I can manage to build some fun levels
> for it, I'll consider my conquering of the game complete. *grin*
> Anyway, just wanted to let folks know it is possible to beat the game,
> although it takes quite a bit of work on some of those levels.
>
>
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Re: [Audyssey] Manamon control help.

[Willem Venter]

What is up with the dialogue popping up whenever I view the inventory?
Also, at some stage I could not access the inventory at all. Also, are
the nets unavailable under certain conditions. Sometimes they did not
show up in the battle menu.

Either way. It's an awesome game. Thanks.

On 7/22/16, Aaron Baker  wrote:
> Hi,
> You can press V to view enemy information, then press H to check health.
> Best,
> Aaron
>
> On 7/22/16, michael barnes  wrote:
>> Hey.
>>
>> I been wondering how to check my enemy health during a battle?
>> I read the manuel but I don't see anywhere how to check for that
>> information.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
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Re: [Audyssey] miriani combat

[Willem Venter]

Hi David.
It's been a while since I played Miriani, but here is what I remember.
Ship combat is one of the more enjoyable things in Miriani. When you
are practicing alone though you have to pilot and shoot, which makes
it more tricky.

Before you add drones, practice manual navigation. It is easier to do
combat that way.
After you moved check if where you thought you would end up is
actually where you ended up.

After you mastered that, practice locking onto coords and shooting at
them. You could add another stationary ship as a target.

For combat, go to 3,3,3 and let the drones come to you. any coord
around 3,3,3 is easier to type. Remember that the general weapons have
a range of only 1 coord.
Always keep moving and stay in the area of 3,3,3, but don't be too
predictable in your movement.

On 11/18/15, David Bartling  wrote:
> Hi,
> I  am a new player to miriani, and I wanted to try combat. I am trying
> to defeat the drones in a simulator but they always are faster and by
> the time I've registered that they've moved away, they are able to hit
> me and I just can't figure out how to fire at them. I know about the
> focus and scan commands, but if any other players have tips, that
> would beawesome. Unfortutately, I don't have a computer to play it so
> helpful sounds are out. I am playing using mudrammer on my phone.
> Thanks for any help
>
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Re: [Audyssey] the wastes

[Willem Venter]

Hi.
Are you using the review keys? The keys on the num pad are bound to
review keys similar to how you review the command prompt. It works
fine without launching it from the command prompt for me.

On 7/27/15, Dakotah Rickard dakotah.rick...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi.
 First of all, should I be running this from the command prompt?
 Second, I play it with NVDA, and the window doesn't let me look inside to
 scroll about and review text. Any advice?

 Signed:
 Dakotah Rickard

 On Jul 18, 2015, at 19:18, john jpcarnemo...@gmail.com wrote:

 Dark:
 I didn't see this anywhere, but you seem to know more about development
 than
 me.
 Do you know if mining's going to be fixed (right now it infinitely
 scrolls)?
 The only way I could find to make it stop was to kill the program with
 ctrl
 c, which really isn't what I want to do.


 --
 From: dark d...@xgam.org
 Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2015 19:15
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] the wastes

 Hi Jeremy.

 The town scrolling thing is a known problem and will e fixed, for now any
 method of emulating mouse wheel movement should do, in supernova I just
 hit
 w a few times,heck you might even be able to just use your mouse wheel
 anyway.

 The towns will be fixed, but right now Huw the developer is working on
 the
 inventory and lots of fun extra objects like weapons and armour carried
 by
 your enemies, trading resources, loot, food, plants books to read and
 lots
 of other good stuff.

 Beware the grue!

 Dark.
 - Original Message -
 From: Jeremy Brown tyr...@gmail.com
 To: gamers gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2015 7:25 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] the wastes


 I have to second Dark's comments about the game.  I had no problems
 downloading the zip file, and it is a fun game.  I wish the town
 information didn't scroll so much, in larger towns, I was reduced to
 guessing about where shops were as most of the buildings I could see
 were shacks:)

 Still, it's a lot of fun, and I was glad to see a game like this still
 being developed and supported.

 Take care,

 Jeremy


 --
 In the fight between you and the world--back the world! Frank Zapa

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Re: [Audyssey] cross platform programming

[Willem Venter]

Hi Thomas.
I was extremely surprised to hear that .net was open sourced. I
thought I'd mention it here since it only happened last week and it's
in the interest of all game programmers using or thinking of using
VB.net, c# etc.

On 11/17/14, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Willem,

 Well, I'll freely admit my information is years out of date. Primarily
 from 2008 or so. When I was looking into using Mono in 2008 I was
 warned away from it by many developers due in large part to some
 litigation that was going on during that time over Mono infringing
 upon Microsoft's .NET code base. Since then I switched to C++ rather
 than C# for the majority of software development so hadn't kept up to
 date with developments in Mono legal or otherwise since then. So my
 information is definitely out of date. That's also why I said it was a
 concern of mine rather than outright declaring there were any
 copyright issues right now. However, I deeply appreciate the
 information, because that might convince me to go back to C# .NET.

 Cheers!


 On 11/16/14, Willem Venter dwill...@gmail.com wrote:
 Thomas, for reference Microsoft is making most of the .Net code open
 source, so I doubt they will be taking on anyone using it to develop
 cross platform programs.

 http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/12/microsoft-takes-net-open-source-and-cross-platform/

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Re: [Audyssey] cross platform programming

[Willem Venter]

Thomas, for reference Microsoft is making most of the .Net code open
source, so I doubt they will be taking on anyone using it to develop
cross platform programs.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/12/microsoft-takes-net-open-source-and-cross-platform/

On 11/17/14, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Paul,

 Traditionally speaking, cross-platform development is fairly difficult
 with standard languages such as C++. However, Xamarin is a relatively
 new technology which aims to make cross-platform development between
 Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS as easy as possible. As I understand it
 Xamarin was written in C# .NET, and uses Mono for non-Windows
 platforms and devices which is a workable solution to cross-platform
 development, but my concern with using Mono is that Microsoft has
 systematically been trying to go after the Mono Project for copyright
 infringement etc which makes using Mono a bit of a sticky situation
 for developers. Still, from what I know of Xamarin it does seem like a
 fairly workable solution to cross-platform development.

 As for using it for audio games I wouldn't know since Xamarin is
 primarily designed for standard app development. That said, I do know
 of .NET libraries out there for say SDL, OpenAL, etc so writing audio
 games with Xamarin should be possible. I just haven't tried it, but
 when I have a minute to look at it maybe I'll look into it further.

 Cheers!


 On 11/16/14, Paul Lemm paul.lem...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi,



 Chatting to one of my friends  who programs for a living, I mentioned
 that
 I
 had started to learn BGT and was very slowly building a game. We got
 chatting about coding and he asked which platform  the game would be for.
 Somehow we got chatting about cross platform and he explained he had just
 started looking into a platform called Xamarin, which allows  you to
 write
 apps in C# for IOS, android , windows and MAC and use the same C# code
 for
 each platform.  I know that talk of cross platform programming has come
 up
 here before  and I'm pretty sure I've remember people saying its quite
 difficult to do, so I thought I'd just share this, it might be old hat to
 programmers  on this list or just not be something for audio game
 development   since the friend I was chatting with is a sighted
 programmer.
 Also to be fair since I'm only starting out in coding (topped with the
 fact
 we were also out drinking at the time and I'd had quite a few beers by
 this
 point) quite a lot of what we talked about went over my head but I think
 the
 thing he said that was so good was that even though its written in C# it
 is
 totally native to which  ever platform you produce  the app for.





 Paul Lemm



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Re: [Audyssey] Throwaway Tech was Previous Topic ofInteractiveFiction

[Willem Venter]

Hi all.
For those who were wondering, react OS is meant as a drop-in free and
open source replacement of windows, but it is currently still in
alpha. It can run programs compiled for windows. Unfortunately no
accessibility support have been included yet.

https://www.reactos.org/

On 10/28/14, shaun everiss sm.ever...@gmail.com wrote:
 On that point I agree.
 Eventually a change will happen for me but its probably not as
 fast,  heck I hope it happens soon because if that does happen it
 means I will get more employment or something that will warrent this.
 Right now I am essentually standing still mostly and the change for
 me will be minimal but your point is valid none the less.

 At 04:53 a.m. 29/10/2014, you wrote:
Hi Shaun,

I think you have missed my point. The word need isn't the operative
word here. Its a more a matter of change is inevitable weather you
want to or not. What you want or what you need is often times as
changing as the technology itself.

For example, right now all you want or need is a decent Windows 7
machine, with say 8 GB of RAM, and a quad core processor. Nothing
wrong with that given your current circumstances.
However, I foresee a day down the road where that computer dies,
perhaps the capacitors on the motherboard bite the dust, and then you
need to begin thinking about a replacement. Is it worth your money to
try and get the old machine fixed or simply replace the hardware and
software in one go?

My point being your needs will change, and while you don't have a need
right now I think as time goes on your needs will change and other
options may seem like good options at that time. I think basing your
plans of the future, on upgrading or not upgrading, based exclusively
on current circumstances is very short sighted. If there is one
constant in life is everything is always changing and the best person
to meet that change is someone who is willing to let go of the past
and move on.

Cheers!


On 10/26/14, shaun everiss sm.ever...@gmail.com wrote:
  and maybe thats my problem right there mate.
  While there is a lot of new tech coming out, there is no need for me
  to actually move with the times.
  While I do go on about my tech work, most of it is fixing systems at
  home, testing software and a few other things.
  90% of my work is done online or at least on site.
  I don't usually need any complex reports to do so I don't even have
  an updated or legal coppy of office which is not 10 years old.
  As a result of this and the fact most stuff is via email or sms I
  don't even have a phone that needs to be even half as updated as I do.
  in fact if things didn't get insecure I could continue with win98 or
  even dos quite happily.
  well maybe not win 98 or dos but sertainly win2000 or xp.
  For the work I do offsite and its not much, i use the device thats
  there.
  My upgrades are usually performance, security to the minimal specs or
  because its required.
  Which was why I didn't upgrade jaws, though if I went to work jaws is
  what is expected for business so I'd have to keep that updated.
  yunger people are using braille dvices and other things, but  with
  what I do right now, I really don't need that much.
  Ofcause as I build myself up here and online as a self employed
  contracter for sound, testing and a little bit of lite hacking and
  other tests that may become something I can afford/ need, however I
  doubt I will ever upgrade  unnecessarily.
  Even if I have the cash which I don't.
  I am also in my 30s, if I had the cash who knows.
  The only thing I really want is a quad core with maybe 8-16gb ram,
  win 7 x64 and the ability to have hardware vertualisation so I could
  run vertual machines, heck maybe a linux or apple machine to but to
  be honest I only upgrade what I need.
  A friend just gave me their c005 nokia, and while its a bit stupid to
  get talks for that now eventually I may end up doing just that.
  I have not been as exposed to the fullness of the newer stuf as
  others have or have needed to move as fast as most have had to.
  in fact if security was not a major concern I could have stayed in
  the mud and not given a stiff such is the nature of my current
  project based work.

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Re: [Audyssey] the raspberry pie

[Willem Venter]

Hi Shaun.
Everything that you said in the message below is wrong. Please check
your facts before posting. Or better yet, if you no nothing about a
subject don't pretend to know something.
On 10/28/14, shaun everiss sm.ever...@gmail.com wrote:
 I may be wrong, and this is only from  a blog I read a little ago now
 but there are various issues with the pie at the time of freading
 which was at the end of last year beginning of this.
 The most serious one is that the firmware after a sertain version
 makes things access wize break.
 Also since the graphics and sound go through one channel  you can
 only process one sound or image at once not both.
 The pie does have its own linux distribution and aparently you need
 to gget ubuntu or something more accessable for it.
 you also need an eduino to program it aparently.
 It can be used  but the processer power is not that great, its
 primary use is for kids and testing things, fiddling with things but
 as a primary or gaming box it was not that great at the time I read
 the digitaldarragh.com blog last year though I am not sure since then.

 At 03:50 p.m. 27/10/2014, you wrote:
It sounds like a $25 or $35 Raspberry Pi unit could serve as a
custom console.  You'd need to hook up a USB power supply (such as
certain phone-chargers) and a USB keyboard, then either plug in some
headphones or connect the HDMI output to your home stereo system.
Depending on the game, you could also add a mouse or USB game-pad.

Game authors could either provide the game's image file and have you
write it to your own SD card, or they could charge more for
pre-formatted SD cards much like the old Atari or NES cartridges.
You'd then just plug in the card, power on the system, and you're
right into the game.

The $35 unit has a built-in network adapter which could provide for
networked games.  The common hardware along with the included Linux
system image would allow the game authors to ensure the same
experience for everyone.

Authors could even release multi-game packs that would boot into a
menu where you can choose one of multiple games and then have that
game launched.

Just throwing ideas out on the table...

-tim

On 2014-10-26 21:17, Josh k wrote:
  too bad there's not some sort of custom console OS that you flash
  onto your console and once flashed, the console is accessible with
  accessible games you can buy from between $5 and $20 or so. I would
  love that!
 
  On 10/26/2014 7:35 PM, Thomas Ward wrote:
 Hello Josh,
  
   Actually, they do mod the console games in a lot of cases. More
   and more console games are being modded and customized than you
   might think.
  
   Cheers!
  
  
   On 10/26/14, Josh k joshknnd1...@gmail.com wrote:
   but the hard core gamers cannot mod their games with a console.
   you cannot make game mods.
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Re: [Audyssey] A little demo of my Super Nintendo project with Chrono Trigger and Lufia 2

[Willem Venter]

Hi Ian.
Well done on finding a very interesting solution to the problem of
reading text out loud from the snes emulator.

Did you wrap the function that renders the text in the emulator
window? I think the technique can also be used for any other
open-source emulator or game which has a function to print text on
screen at location x. Something I think you should add is the ability
for excluding certain regions of the screen, or even prioritizing
reading of others  based on some trigger (e.g color or wording).

Good luck with the rest of your project. Please keep us updated.

On 10/1/14, Ian Reed supp...@blindaudiogames.com wrote:
 Hi all,

 A while ago I started a project to see if I could make Chrono Trigger,
 and possibly other games, accessible when played through the Snes9x
 emulator.
 I hadn't worked on this project for a while but was looking at starting
 it up again and thought I'd make a quick demo to show people how far it
 got.
 http://blindaudiogames.com/Downloads/ChronoLufiaDemo.mp3

 It shows Chrono Trigger and Lufia 2.
 I'm calling the project SNAP, short for Super Nintendo Accessibility
 Project.
 Enjoy!

 Ian Reed
 Try my free games at http://BlindAudioGames.com


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Re: [Audyssey] Fwd: [atig-nz] Testers wanted for accessible games

[Willem Venter]

Here in South Africa most people I know have android phones, but there
are I devices too.

On 9/13/14, Milos Przic milos.pr...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hello,
 I'll write to him to ask if he would be willing to implement his games for
 android (as he did it for the IOS already). I am aware that here on the list

 most people think that IOS is more popular in the gaming comunity, but
 believe me, Android has more and more users among the blind in Europe and
 Asia (I'm not sure for USA, Australia and Africa though). I would like to be

 one of his international helpers, not only as a gamer but also as someone
 who knows and can do good and thourrow historical researching.
 So yes, I was impressed more than most often when I see a new game or
 developer come out on the audiogaming scene.
 Best,
   Milos Przic
 Twitter: MilosPrzic
 Skype: Milosh-hs
 - Original Message -
 From: shaun everiss sm.ever...@gmail.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Friday, September 12, 2014 11:07 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Fwd: [atig-nz] Testers wanted for accessible games


 Milos, well this was essentually a tech demo.
 more will come out at some point.
 From what the developer told me this morning over email, there are some
 local prototypes to test first, probably with local testers like myself
 before others get them outside new zealand.
 both on touch and pc.
 Right now thats about all I know, as I have only just dumped to him my
 contact for international and local since he is in my country.
 I will try to keep people up to date.
 smeveriss.wordpress.com is the blog I use for most updates.
 If I get another project or so or enough to warrent where I get enough I
 may create another blog for all that.

 At 04:17 a.m. 13/09/2014, you wrote:
Hello,
I think that the question I am going to ask can spoil the game, so please,

read on only if you know a little more about the game or want it spoiled.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
Is this all? I get the message that the story will continue soon in the
next part: 1812 the sole of Russia. It's obvious that it is another title,

but there is also a continue button that brings me again the ending
dialog. Is the other title out, or it is included in the game? I ask this

also because the title is a little strange when compared to the Korwin's
diary entry, that is, the 12th of joon and it is not winter time. So I
understood it as a kind of a prolog to the actual game when suddanly it
ends... And if this is the only part available, is it possible that it
took the developer 2 years (or even more depending on when in 2012 he
started)? Not that I am blaming him, I only liked the game! But still, I
remember when Jeremy did Castaways in only a few weeks, and Castaways is
way more complex than this one. And although much time was spent on acting

and sound here, which is not case with Castaways, the actual programming
didn't seam much complex as everything is in lists and menus. Again, I
don't like to sound rood here, so please don't understand my message in
that manner. We didn't have until now a game with this particular
historical setting. Even in the mainstream market you won't find much
games that involve russian-polish conflicts since 15th sentury through the

napoleonic wars as here the case is. So I liked it and probably will
contact the developer at least to congratulate him on this.
Best!
  Milos Przic
Twitter: MilosPrzic
Skype: Milosh-hs
- Original Message - From: shaun everiss sm.ever...@gmail.com
To: gamers@audyssey.org
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2014 4:03 AM
Subject: [Audyssey] Fwd: [atig-nz] Testers wanted for accessible games


this just came in my inbox.
please support this guy he is a local to my country.
Actually was supprised that someone in new zealand developed this stuff.
\



I am Jarek Beksa. I spent several years developing a computer-based
audio game called 1812: Heart of Winter. I have been delighted to find
that this has been highly entertaining and stimulating to non-sighted
people. And I am also very enthusiastic to carry that work on through
doing a PhD at AUT in supervision with Dr Philip Carter. I want to build

on what we learnt from Heart of Winter and further the development of
audio games. This could include ways to involve users in the
development, identifying the attractive features, creating content,
developing interfaces for blind people, and so on. We are very keen to
meet up with interested people who want to contribute. This involvement

may just be in using the games or it could be more. 1812: Heart of
Winter can be downloaded for free.

iOS:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1812-heart-of-winter/id543164461?mt=8https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1812-heart-of-winter/id543164461?mt=8

PC Windows:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9t2h6olz505s15r/AACOeRTpUdMYxFGP3bF2JVUmahttps://www.dropbox.com/sh/9t2h6olz505s15r/AACOeRTpUdMYxFGP3bF2JVUma

I am looking forward to meeting with you and learning how we might work

together.

Jarek 

Re: [Audyssey] BGT Important Update

[Willem Venter]

Adding to what Thomas said, there are still rules for changing and
using open source software.

if some feature (e.g cross platform support) is required badly enough
and the program is open source a developer could adapt it and request
that their work be merged into the main project.



On 6/2/14, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Hayden,

 Not necessarily. If we are talking open source the complaints or bug
 reports would go to the open source project manager not Philip unless
 he took up the job of project manager. Not just anyone can edit and
 modify source code, and any good open source project has rules and
 regulations that prevent just such an occurrence as you mentioned
 below. I think a lot of confusion could be avoided if people
 understood how open source works rather than just assuming anyone and
 their brother can tamper with the stable release of open source
 software.

 Cheers!


 On 6/1/14, hayden presley hdpres...@hotmail.com wrote:
 And, of course, there will always be those who will grab a tampered copy,
 find that it has ajor problems, and send a complaint to Philip about how
 awful the BGT engine is.

 Best Regards,
 Hayden

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Re: [Audyssey] Why Android development is not in theforeseeablefuture

[Willem Venter]

I find this article extremely biased and badly researched. He starts
off by saying he doesn't know android, the API or how to use it and
then tries to show how unusable it is. duh.
Making controls accessible  works differently compared to  other
platforms, but does not require hundreds of lines of code.
While many things he says might or might not be true his lack of
proper research makes me cautious to accept any of his findings at
face value as many of the things he says seems to be thumb suck and
conjecture based on heavily biased personal opinion. The fact that he
bashes apple in another article won't make his research in this one
better.

Note, weather I agree with him or not is not the issue. From
programming for android I know many of the things he says are false.
It's also not even talking android up over IOS as I don't know
objective C or the IOS API  well enough to comment on it.

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Re: [Audyssey] Why Android development is not in theforeseeablefuture

[Willem Venter]

Hi Cara.
I don't know Chris and I don't know his work, but in this case he
methods were flawed and his research shoddy and biased. Yes, web views
weren't always accessible. This is false since (in some cases) android
3.0 and others 4.0 as improvements are made in new versions. This
happened in 2012 already.

IMO there are much better and debatably easier ways of creating an
accessible program in Android. Claiming inaccessibility because you
weren't able to do things the microsoft or IOS way instead of
following android accessibility guidelines or if you were using an old
version of android doesn't prove much. Each OS dictates their own
terms under which programs should be written. This holds for Windows,
IOS, Android and many others.


On 2/24/14, Cara Quinn caraqu...@caraquinn.com wrote:
 HI Willem,

 Chris is one of the most thorough and meticulous researches I know of.

 For myself, since I am also on the Eyes Free list and work personally
 side-by-side with Android developers, I find nothing in his article that is
 stated incorrectly.

 I know for a fact that web views display all of the atrocious accessibility
 issues that his article touches on because I've seen other Android users
 talking about this very same thing on the Eyes Free list themselves.

 From my own experiences with my coworkers and my own team, developing for
 Android is an accessibility nightmare if one is looking for some sort of
 consistency or universal access.

 Please do not mistake the above for any lack of support for Google or
 Android. I and my company, both would love to see nothing more than Android
 be completely accessible and useful across the board. This just is not the
 case right now. So please perhaps give the article another read and
 seriously consider what Chris is saying.

 If people on any platform, decide to pass off a less-than-accessible
 alternative as something that is accessible then it is truly a lousy move
 for access tech as a whole.

 Thanks for your note and have a terrific day!

 Smiles,

 Cara :)
 ---
 iOS design and development - LookTel.com
 ---
 View my Online Portfolio at:

 http://www.onemodelplace.com/CaraQuinn

 Follow me on Twitter!

 https://twitter.com/ModelCara

 On Feb 24, 2014, at 5:54 AM, Willem Venter dwill...@gmail.com wrote:

 I find this article extremely biased and badly researched. He starts
 off by saying he doesn't know android, the API or how to use it and
 then tries to show how unusable it is. duh.
 Making controls accessible  works differently compared to  other
 platforms, but does not require hundreds of lines of code.
 While many things he says might or might not be true his lack of
 proper research makes me cautious to accept any of his findings at
 face value as many of the things he says seems to be thumb suck and
 conjecture based on heavily biased personal opinion. The fact that he
 bashes apple in another article won't make his research in this one
 better.

 Note, weather I agree with him or not is not the issue. From
 programming for android I know many of the things he says are false.
 It's also not even talking android up over IOS as I don't know
 objective C or the IOS API  well enough to comment on it.

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Re: [Audyssey] Why Android development is not in theforeseeablefuture

[Willem Venter]

On 2/25/14, Cara Quinn caraqu...@caraquinn.com wrote:
 HI Willem,

 Are you actually referring to me here or just speaking generally?
No, I was refering to the article and the methodology he follow.

 As far as our own experience with Android development goes, I can assure you
 that this is not just a simple matter of trying something and not being able
 to do it on Android so we gave up.

 I work with world-class developers who
 are experts in their fields. So when they tell me something is less than
 accessible, I listen. :)
Perhaps you shouldn't jump to conclusions that fast. There was a time
when android and accessibility wasn't mature, but this is changing. I
guess everyone can't be a world-class expert in every field.

 Part of the reason my team chooses not to port our apps to Android at
 present is not just the use of the OS itself, it is also the effort that a
 lay-person must potentially go through in order to either have a device that
 is accessible to them or re-activate that device if it or some part of the
 OS crashes or otherwise fails in some way which may render the device
 inaccessible.
Really? All I need to do was turn on the accessibility shortcut in
settings. 3 presses of the power button always resets accessibility.

 * Can the customer bring the device up talking again by themselves on all
 devices with all OS versions?
Sure, unles your device is as ancient as the mountains. I know I did
this 2 years ago.

 * HOw much effort is involved in setting the device up or re-enabling
 accessibility so the customer can then use it effectively again or for the
 first time?
There's a shortcut, I can't remember what the gesture is now, so I'd
say easy. Even if you somehow couldn't get the gesture to work it only
requires someone to help you turn on 1 setting. It's a once off thing.

 The above concerns along with the lack of a standardized access experience
 across devices and OS versions makes developing on Android a no-go for us at
 least in the immediate future.

 You'd mentioned that web views are now accessible?

Yes. If I'm not mistaken Facebook uses one.
 Would you mind at all describing the process of using one on Android now?
I am by no mean proficient in using web views. I usually use native
controls, but a very quick search gave me this.
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebView.html
 I see references to AccessibilityEvents and nodes. There's also a
stackoverflow answer I can't seem to find at the moment.

 As well, if anything I'm saying is in error, please, can you direct me to
 correct info so I have the latest?
The android documentation and examples are a very good source of info.
And Google is your friend if you are searching for ways to do things.

 Thanks so much and have a great day!

 Smiles,

 Cara :)
 ---
 iOS design and development - LookTel.com
 ---
 View my Online Portfolio at:

 http://www.onemodelplace.com/CaraQuinn

 Follow me on Twitter!

 https://twitter.com/ModelCara

 On Feb 24, 2014, at 2:40 PM, Willem Venter dwill...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi Cara.
 I don't know Chris and I don't know his work, but in this case he
 methods were flawed and his research shoddy and biased. Yes, web views
 weren't always accessible. This is false since (in some cases) android
 3.0 and others 4.0 as improvements are made in new versions. This
 happened in 2012 already.

 IMO there are much better and debatably easier ways of creating an
 accessible program in Android. Claiming inaccessibility because you
 weren't able to do things the microsoft or IOS way instead of
 following android accessibility guidelines or if you were using an old
 version of android doesn't prove much. Each OS dictates their own
 terms under which programs should be written. This holds for Windows,
 IOS, Android and many others.


 On 2/24/14, Cara Quinn caraqu...@caraquinn.com wrote:
 HI Willem,

 Chris is one of the most thorough and meticulous researches I know of.

 For myself, since I am also on the Eyes Free list and work personally
 side-by-side with Android developers, I find nothing in his article that
 is
 stated incorrectly.

 I know for a fact that web views display all of the atrocious
 accessibility
 issues that his article touches on because I've seen other Android users
 talking about this very same thing on the Eyes Free list themselves.

 From my own experiences with my coworkers and my own team, developing for
 Android is an accessibility nightmare if one is looking for some sort of
 consistency or universal access.

 Please do not mistake the above for any lack of support for Google or
 Android. I and my company, both would love to see nothing more than
 Android
 be completely accessible and useful across the board. This just is not
 the
 case right now. So please perhaps give the article another read and
 seriously consider what Chris is saying.

 If people on any platform, decide to pass off a less-than-accessible
 alternative as something that is accessible

Re: [Audyssey] bgt code

[Willem Venter]

It also helps to turn up your punctuation settings, because some
important symbols are not spoken in general.

On 2/25/14, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Josh,

 I think you are over complicating things for yourself because usually
 even when I was learning to program I never needed to slow my speech
 down and go through the code line by line and character by character.
 The important thing is to understand the mechanics of what the code
 does rather than understanding how a custom function, variable, etc is
 spelled in someone's sample code.

 For example, if I am reading someone's code and I see a string
 variable called text in the code. I don't really need to know how text
 is spelled unless I intend to modify the program somehow. Otherwise I
 just need to know there is a variable there and it is of type string.

 Same goes for functions. there might be a function called GetHealth()
 and it returns an integer. If I am just studying code I don't need to
 know exactly how GetHealth() is spelled unless I intend to copy it
 word for word and character for character into a compiler or intend to
 modify the program I am reading. Does that make sense?

 In short, I think you are paying more attention  to the niddy gritty
 details of the sample code than how it works. Variable names, fun
 ction names, change from program to program and that is not at all
 what is important. What is important is the type of data that variable
 stores or what that function does.

 HTH


 On 2/24/14, Josh joshknnd1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi

 I was looking at the bgt manual. It seems for me when reading code I get
 more out of it by either slowing my speech way down when reading code,
 or by left and right arrowing a character at a time to slowly go through
 it and see what its doing. is that how you guys read code also by
 arrowing left and right through it or when writing and reading it
 slowing the speech down a good amount?

 Josh

 --
 using windows7 laptop


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Re: [Audyssey] the joining of teams

[Willem Venter]

I agree Jacob. Everyone has their strong and weak points. Sometimes
managing workflow, egos and personality differences are also issues.

If there are developers interested in contributing to a project,
soundRTS has recently been open sourced. Anyone can download the
source, make changes and submit a patch.


On 12/17/13, Jacob Kruger ja...@blindza.co.za wrote:
 Some groups of developers actually have different, but complementary skill
 sets..?

 But, yes, depending on target platform/market, it does help if they are
 focused on similar end-points/scenario's, etc.

 Stay well

 Jacob Kruger
 Blind Biker
 Skype: BlindZA
 '...fate had broken his body, but not his spirit...'

 - Original Message -
 From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2013 02:58 AM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] the joining of teams


 Hi Shaun,

 That is indeed the problem. Before we could think of joining
 developers together they'd have to have similar skills and all agree
 upon the same programming language. You can't have someone who uses
 C++, someone who uses Java, someone who uses Visual Basic, etc all
 working together because those languages aren't remotely compatible
 with each other. The developers would have to sit down and decide upon
 one language and what APIs to use for the game. Then, of course, they
 still have to agree about the game to write, work out a schedule, and
 agree upon various other aspects. It all can be done, but this
 community is often too disorganized to really make this a reality at
 this time.

 Cheers!


 On 12/15/13, shaun everiss sm.ever...@gmail.com wrote:
 And on that note I have always wandered how much power we would have
 if we joint a few teams   or just a few devs together though they
 would probably have to be using the same stuff to develop which could
 be a problem.

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Re: [Audyssey] To Developers: Switching from DirectSound to OpenAL Soft

[Willem Venter]

Hello Ian. I'm a bit rushed timewise, but I'll mention a few things to
get started. For loading of other formats look at alure. HRTF is
enabled automatically. If you have 3d sound support all you need to do
to pan the sound is change the x coordinate of the source. As far as I
know only mono sounds can be positioned in a 3d world, because a
stereo source contains inherrant positional information which a mono
source does not. Maybe you should ask this question on the developers
list too.

On 12/13/13, Support supp...@blindaudiogames.com wrote:
 A couple more questions I forgot to ask in the first email:

 While my main focus is to play 3D sounds in OpenAL it would also be nice to
 play non-positioned stereo sounds in it as well.
 Is this possible?  Do you have to load a second AudioContext with different
 settings to make this work?

 In my current setup I use DirectSound for 3D sounds and
 DirectX.AudioVideoPlayback for all other sounds.

 It seems that OpenAL leaves parsing the sound files up to the developer.  I
 do have code for parsing a .wav file, but it would also be nice to use mp3
 and ogg vorbis for the stereo sounds and music.  Is there a recommended
 library for getting this benefit?  I am using C#, but in general popular C
 libraries have C# wrappers that I can use.

 Being able to play stereo sounds and music in OpenAL would be one step
 closer to cross platform.

 I also saw a comment in one of the text files in OpenAL Soft that indicated
 that it could play 3D mono and multi-channel sounds.

 Can it actually play multi-channel audio in 3D space?  Assuming I set the
 position of the left track and the position of the right track in 3D space?
 The statement they made could be read as meaning that both mono and
 multi-channel sounds could be played in 3D.
 Or maybe the 3D adjective applied only to the mono sounds.

 Again, I appreciate any help.
 Ian Reed


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Re: [Audyssey] A Note to XP users

[Willem Venter]

No one have mentioned security or stability up to now.
Dark's point about running older software exposes a flaw in his
argument. Free software like winamp is upgraded for mainly two
reasons.
1. To add features (which you might or might not like or need). and
2. To fix bugs. Some of these bugs may not affect you and some might.
When it comes to security and exposing your computer to virus and
hacking attacks you will probably not even realize that the bug
affects you and you have been compromised.
The older a critical piece of software like an operating system
becomes the more attackers know about its flaws. If that software is
then no longer supported you have no defence and you become an easy
target.
It all then becomes a game of Russian roulette. It's just a matter of
time before you find the bullet.

On 9/12/13, dark d...@xgam.org wrote:
 However again tom, you say a newer and better computer

 Suppose say winamp's next version won't work on xp,  well is it's next
 version any better than the previous one? Heck, I don't have the latest
 version of winamp now, mostly because what I do with winamp is quite okay
 anyway, indeed winamp only usually gets upgraded when I can be bothered.

 This is basically the problem with this philoosophy of you must have the
 latest upgrade my question is well why?

 I still own a snes, it still works, I still play games on it. Yes, there are

 plenty of other consoles with far better hardware and software, but none of

 them have as many playable games for me so why should I upgrade?

 yes, in a few years I might be forced to upgrade if my computer breaks, but

 if I'm going to spend a lot of money on a new machine, and learn a new
 interface I want some actual return on my investment.

 This is indeed why I waited myself back in 2008, in the hope that developers

 would make it worth my while to upgrade, but as yet nobody has, heck, if my

 computer died I'd be very tempted to get another xp machine just because I
 just don't see any bennifit in all the sshenanigans with a new os, all it
 would mean is losing outlook express, getting an inconvenient interface, and

 bad compatibility with several programs.

 I freely admit this situation may change, indeed I'd be very happy if it did

 and someone used these supposedly wondrous new features to create better
 games and software, but that just plane hasn't happened.

 Beware the Grue!

 Dark.


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Re: [Audyssey] A Note to XP users

[Willem Venter]

nonsense! Any XP system is a sitting duck waiting for the right attacker.

On 9/12/13, dark d...@xgam.org wrote:
 Again willem however that is an arguement about upgrading eventually, not
 nnow.

 i run avg 2012, and I can be certain even if I don't actually upgrade the
 software itself, virus deffinitions and other security fixes will be
 available for about the next four or five years (avg only just dropped
 support for 2009).

 At that point, I'm hoping that someone will have a good reason to upgrade
 the os, something better that post xp windows does, which is my central
 point.

 Remember, I am not arguing that I will not! upgrade, only that I want a good

 reason to, something thatI could do on a future version of windows that I
 can't do now, and scaring with the security bogie man isn't one.

 Beware the grue!

 dark.


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Re: [Audyssey] Who's afraid of Objective C?

[Willem Venter]

Hi all.
I actually agree with everyone on this thread. Objective C is a very
good language and it is well thought out. I have to add here that I do
not have that much experience in using it though. I think what also
puts off some people is that there is no clear divition between
function calls and their arguments. It takes a bit of effort to get
used to this. Also a function call is more like a request for
functionallity, sort of like a message that requests some
functionality which could be acted on or ignored depending on weather
the class has that function and this is decided at runtime. Using
XCode was also my main deterrent to using objective C and I wasted
more time trying to find ways to work faster in XCode than studying
the language. Of corse Apple does not give you any alternatives.

On 6/7/13, Cara Quinn caraqu...@caraquinn.com wrote:
 Lol! Awesome Liam! :)

 To be completely honest, when I first looked at Objective C syntax I really
 didn't like it. I was used to more straight C / Java / C++ syntax so seeing
 all the brackets enclosing method calls really kind of turned me off. C++
 seemed a lot more concise to me. However, after having worked in Objective C
 for a while now, some of the more longhand ways methods are named really
 does help in reading code after you've written it and need to revisit it
 later.

 It's actually quite a bit more readable in some ways than C++ because of the
 extra wording in the method naming.

 Here's an example:

 In C++ I might declare a method:

 void offsetLatitudeAndLongitude(double lat, double lng,double offset);

 I would write the same method name in Objective C as:

 -(void) offsetLatitude:(double)lat andLongitude:(double)lng
 withOffset:(double)offset;

 So since it's more English-like, going back and rereading that later for me
 would be a whole lot easier. :)

 So there ya go, there's my two cents for now. :)

 Have an awesome day!

 Smiles,

 Cara :)
 ---
 View my Online Portfolio at:

 http://www.onemodelplace.com/CaraQuinn

 Follow me on Twitter!

 https://twitter.com/ModelCara

 On Jun 7, 2013, at 12:30 PM, Liam Erven liamer...@gmail.com wrote:

 I'm so glad I can look at that and have it not look like greek to me.
 Objective C still frightens me, but... well... Gotta jump in some time
 right?  I think what is more frightening is Xcode itself.  But take
 some time to learn it first guys. then complain.

 On 6/7/13, Cara Quinn caraqu...@caraquinn.com wrote:
 Hey you guys, I say this with love, but if y'all would put the energy
 you're
 spending complaining about learning Objective C into actually starting to
 learn Objective C then I think you'll find that it's really not that
 hard!
 *warm smile*

 Just to give a really quick intro to the language;

 • It uses methods or blocks of code just like C, C++ and other C style
 languages.

 • An Objective C method definition might look like:

 -(void) doSomething {

 // Doing things here

 }

 the minus sign means that this method can be called on each object of the
 class where this method is defined. If there were a plus sign instead,
 the
 method could be called on the class itself.

 The void in parentheses means that the method returns or generates
 nothing.

 then we have the method's name and the two braces which enclose the
 actual
 code that gets executed when you call the method.

 • Methods in Objective C are called as in:

 [self doSomething];

 The call is surrounded in brackets. and the self in the first part of the
 call refers to the object or class where the method is declared. Lastly,
 we
 have the method name itself and then the semicolon which ends the line
 just
 like in the C languages.

 Hope all this makes sense and allows you to start reading some Objective
 C
 syntax to start to tell what is happening.

 Smiles,

 Cara :)
 ---
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 http://www.onemodelplace.com/CaraQuinn

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 https://twitter.com/ModelCara


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Re: [Audyssey] audio games for IOS

[Willem Venter]

Trouble, at worst you might have to have a second user interface for
older versions of android, but usually if you write software for
android it can just run, because it is just a normal java program
using the android API. The problem of fragmentation on android is
not as bad as it is made out to be by some.

On 6/8/13, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Cara,

 Awesome. That's good to know. :D

 On 6/7/13, Cara Quinn caraqu...@caraquinn.com wrote:
 Actually you can get a used Macbook for under $500.

 Just sayin' :)

 http://www.reactual.com/computer-equipment/find-apple-laptops-under-500.html

 It's older but it will work just fine for developing games.

 A friend has one and he loves it.

 Smiles,

 Cara :)---
 View my Online Portfolio at:

 http://www.onemodelplace.com/CaraQuinn

 Follow me on Twitter!

 https://twitter.com/ModelCara

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Re: [Audyssey] help with 3d sound movement please?

[Willem Venter]

Most audio games use the linear audio formulas and that is what we
have gotten used to. Now if we hear it done in the *correct* way which
is logarithmic, it sounds wrong.

On 6/7/13, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Ken,

 Well, keep in mind the 3d audio only works on Windows XP and earlier.
 If you were using Windows 7 like me you would be cursing DirectSound
 up one side and down the other, because the 3d audio isn't that hot on
 newer Windows versions in their games. :D

 All the same I think Shades of Doom, Tank Commander, and Swamp work as
 well as they do on XP because they are using the right formulas or
 calculations to properly position the audio in 3d. Since I am not
 using XP myself it would be hard for me to look at your code and offer
 up suggestions without being able to test it for accuracy.

 However, in the long run you are right. Eventually, you are going to
 have to kiss VB 6 goodbye, and adopt something else if you want to get
 into serious 3d audio using OpenAL etc. Especially, if you ever intend
 to update past XP.

 On 6/7/13, Ken The PionEar kenwdow...@me.com wrote:
 I haven't found an openAl library   for vb6. I'm afraid the sad fact of
 the

 matter is that i'm going to have to kiss vb6 goodbye and move on. *cries
 tears and buries old friend with a beer*
 I'd love to know how aprone and David Greenwood got such good 3d movement
 though...

 Check out my games at
 www.ThePionEar.net
 and my music, and that of my band, at
 www.ThePionEar.net/BlindLabyrinth.html .
 If you want to reach me, you can call 419-744-0517, friend me on
 Facebook,
 (KenWDowney,) or write me at kenwdow...@me.com .
 Crazy Ken
 - Original Message -
 From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Friday, June 07, 2013 3:15 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] help with 3d sound movement please?


 Hi Ken,

 Yeah, logarithmic  based formulas are more accurate, but they don't
 roll off as smoothly as linier ones. That could be why sounds aren't
 panning and rolling off correctly. Plus DirectSound is a piece of junk
 when it comes to 3d audio anyway, and I recommend if you are serious
 about 3d audio look at OpenAL or something else with a better virtual
 3d design. Although, I'm not sure if there is a Com component for
 OpenAL that will work with VB 6.
 .

 Cheers!



 On 6/7/13, Ken The PionEar kenwdow...@me.com wrote:
 I figured that logarithmic movement was the way to go, but don't know
 anything about how to  implement it. In Directx 8 panning is
 logarithmic

 but

 not 3d movement wich in itself seems quite odd.
 Check out my games at
 www.ThePionEar.net
 and my music, and that of my band, at
 www.ThePionEar.net/BlindLabyrinth.html .
 If you want to reach me, you can call 419-744-0517, friend me on
 Facebook,
 (KenWDowney,) or write me at kenwdow...@me.com .
 Crazy Ken
 - Original Message -
 From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Friday, June 07, 2013 2:03 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] help with 3d sound movement please?


 Hi Ken,

 Not really. Are you using logarithmic or linier based formulas here.
 That makes a big difference in the positioning of sounds in real time.

 Cheers!


 On 6/7/13, Ken The PionEar kenwdow...@me.com wrote:
 I'm having another look at Heywire, but this applies to all my games.
 It's
 quite obvious that if you use regular patterns for moving in 3d
 space,
 things tend to seem to move slowly when far from you, and faster the
 closer
 they get until, suddenly, they skp right past your head. Does anybody
 have a
 formula to make this transition smoother?
 Check out my games at
 www.ThePionEar.net
 and my music, and that of my band, at
 www.ThePionEar.net/BlindLabyrinth.html .
 If you want to reach me, you can call 419-744-0517, friend me on
 Facebook,
 (KenWDowney,) or write me at kenwdow...@me.com .
 Crazy Ken
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Re: [Audyssey] Wondering about the size of the audio gamingcommunity

[Willem Venter]

This does not take into account people like me who do not regularly
post to this list.

On 5/1/13, Phil Vlasak phi...@bex.net wrote:
 Hi Folks,
 It's easy to find out how many participate in the Audyssey list,
 Jim Kitchen lets us know the beginning of each month:
 126 people posted 2241 messages

 - Original Message -
 From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 5:13 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Wondering about the size of the audio
 gamingcommunity


 Hi Ian,

 Well, the number of members who are subscribed to the Audyssey list
 generally is about 300 give or take a few. In the six years or so
 since I have been moderating the list sometimes it has been as low as
 280 and as high as 320 per month. It just depends on how many
 subscribe and unsubscribe. However, I don't believe that is anywhere
 near the number of actual people who are out there playing games.


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Re: [Audyssey] cricket audiogames:anyone interested?

[Willem Venter]

Hi all.
I also enjoy watching cricket and I would like more cricket games.
If you like cricket, take a look at battrick.
http://www.battrick.org
It's a game where you manage your own cricket team. You can do
training, trading and picking teams that compete against other teams
in first class, one day and bt 20 formats.

Just for interest sake, what type of cricket game would you say would
be best. A game like battrick where the emphesis is on stratigy or an
rpg-style game where you are a cricket player batting or bowling in
realtime?

On 3/27/13, Lisa Hayes lhay...@internode.on.net wrote:
 I'd be interested very interested.
 Lisa Hayes




 www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes

 - Original Message -
 From: shaun everiss sm.ever...@gmail.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2013 9:18 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] cricket audiogames:anyone interested?


I have always found cricket boring but then the matches taking a day or
more on tv  its not a sport I am especially interested in though.
 rugby is what I like.

 At 09:53 PM 3/27/2013, you wrote:
Yes please, we want cricket, we want cricket very much.

On 3/27/13, chandu S S chanduss...@gmail.com wrote:
  Hae gamers!
 
  I've been in the mailing list and audiogame feald for about 3 to 4
  years.
  during this time, I've broat up this subject ones or twice in
  audiogames.net and other forrems.
 
  yes, the subject says it all.
  while we have audiogames of almost all popular sports and games,
  cricket is yet to gane the attension of programmers.
 
  I know for a fact that many gamers, especially acian and australian
  ones, would very much like such a game.
  I personally know quite a few cricket fans who are eagerly waiting for
  the accessible version of their favourite sport
 
  if anybody's interested, I'd be glad to help however I can.
  while I'm a novice in programming, I can help with sounds, commentry,
  documentation etc.
 
  regards,
  Magic
 
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Re: [Audyssey] Aprones games was Re: Looking For Something NewtoPlay

[Willem Venter]

hi all.
While the internet offers its own anonymity and someone can change
their IP address and login name the audio gaming community is still a
small one.

I think that the well established audio game makers who have evidence
about specific gamers should publish it in order to warn other people.
We could even consider a global black list for these gamers. The  fact
that we are a small community would mean that even if someone were to
change their username or internet provider their real name might still
be exposed through real life interaction with other users. So this
might discourage many of the attacks by not making it worth the
effort. Those people might think they are cool, but maybe they will
reconsider when they cannot play any online game, buy /download any
games or interact in the audio gaming community without the label of a
sneaky cheat.

On 3/24/13, Jeremy Kaldobsky jer...@kaldobsky.com wrote:
 I haven't contacted any providers lately because it hasn't been helping.
 The last few times I bothered to contact anyone the information traced back
 to small businesses (coffee shop type things) or schools, and they just
 ignored me.  I doubt they care to lose any business over some random guy
 reporting abuse.

 The most annoying attacks have been DOS attacks and packet injection to try
 and break the server or log in as other users.  The DOS attacks were fairly
 small scale by most standards, but that doesn't mean it didn't cause huge
 lag and log in issues.  The one a few days ago that hit my LAN looked to me
 like it was meant to exploit the remote sign in feature in Windows.  They
 probably assumed I was using that to check the server, which is a fair
 assumption, but was wrong.

 As I said I don't worry about the standard background internet garbage,
 since that just comes with the territory, but I think it's a big deal with
 people from the community itself are doing these things.

 I think the reason you haven't seen much of this in Alter Aeon is because
 they're still preoccupied with Swamp.  Many of the hackers are the same
 people I've dealt with for a year now.  Each time they are thwarted they
 clearly spend time learning new things because their next set of efforts
 shows improvement.  So if after a year of learning and trying new things we
 have blind audio games players who are willing to target the personal
 property of game developers for fun, then I think we have a problem.  Odds
 are, they won't wake up with the ability to see tomorrow, so they aren't
 going to just go away.  If they have this destructive mind set and only the
 audio games community to prey on, then other developers are going to have to
 deal with them at some point as well.

 From: Dennis Towne s...@xirr.com

 Jeremy,

 That's pretty weird.  I haven't seen a machine based
 attack worth
 talking about from my player base in nearly fifteen years,
 and in that
 case I just called up his provider and got his accounts
 revoked.  I'm
 sure there have been other hack attempts, but I'd have to
 waste time
 rooting through the logs to see how often they happen.

 What kinds of techniques are they using?  Perhaps the
 difference is
 dependent on UDP usage instead of TCP connections.


 Dennis Towne

 Alter Aeon MUD
 http://www.alteraeon.com


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Re: [Audyssey] Text Verses TTS Output

[Willem Venter]

I'd also like to add that NVDA has some of the best windows command
line support I've found. When reviewing the command line, unlike some
screen readers you don't have to mess around with virtual cursors and
other nonsense and the review keys are all  only a single key press.
Incoming text is automaticly spoken as well.

On 10/18/12, Rynhardt Kruger rynkru...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi,

 If you have the review follows caret setting turned on in NVDA (as it is
 by default), your review cursor should already be inside the command prompt
 window, no need to press NVDA+7. The review cursor will actually follow the
 position of the caret in the command line window, so you can just press
 numpad7 a few times to read the previous lines of output after typing a
 command (much like you would do with Speakup). Also note that you can use
 shift+numpad7 and shift+numpad9 to move to the top or bottom of the output
 window. Overall I prefer the NVDA keys for reading command line output as it
 is much like the keys used by Orca and Speakup.

 Take care,

 Rynhardt

 * Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com [121018 19:44]:
 Hi Dark,

 Correct. With NVDA screen review is something of a hassle. Its not
 just one or two key presses more. Its a bit more involved than that
 for any kind of text based game.

 For example, let's assume I'm playing a text based game in the command
 prompt window. A menu pops up. I have to press insert+7 on the number
 pad to route the NVDA curser to the screen. Then press 7 a few times
 to get to the top of the screen. Then I will read the screen line by
 line with the 9 key. As you can see that's a good deal more
 complicated than a couple of extra key presses. I certainly don't
 blame people for finding that less than desirable.

 I suppose an NVDA user can speed things up by pressing insert+b which
 will read the entire screen from top to bottom, but that also has its
 drawbacks too. NVDA will read prior commands, any prior text messages,
 that have scrolled to the top of the screen before reading the new
 text which is often not something you want to read. So any game I
 write using a text interface would have to be sure to clear the screen
 of all that unnecessary text to make something like insert+b practical
 as a catch all screen review command.

 Regarding menus I agree that it does seem more practical to use menus
 when and where possible. In Oregon Trail I can definitely see where
 the menus would come in handy when purchasing mules, wagons, rifles,
 and ammo from the store. While the old Dos system was alright there
 are easier ways to handle the same thing.

 For example, when buying from the store in Oregon Trail it would show
 you how much money you had left and told you the maximum number of
 this or that you could still buy. Then, you would enter the number of
 items you wanted to buy up to the amount specified on the screen. A
 menu might work better in this case because rather than having to
 remember how many of this or that you can buy the menu will
 automatically adjust the number of items up or down depending on your
 current finances and number of items available in the store itself.

 Rather than saying there are 10 boxes of rifle ammo available but you
 only have enough money for 5 boxes of ammo you could scroll to the
 rifle ammo menu option and the minimum value will be 1 and the maximum
 will be set to 5. You select the amount you wish to purchase from a
 menu of options just like in Perilous Hearts.

 Cheers!


 On 10/18/12, dark d...@xgam.org wrote:
  Hi Tom.
 
  Well obviously for me there is no nostalgia value, sinse any dos games
  I've
 
  played like fallthru  have been on windows anyway, and to me it doesn't
  make
 
  a massive amount of difference in a basic turn based game such as an if
  style title. True, speaking turns automatically is perhaps two key
  presses
  quicker than reading the screen, but I'm so used to doing that anyway
  that
  this difference is negligeable.
 
  Though perhaps that is another point, sinse maybe for people who are
  less
  familiar with that process or don't have access to a  quick and easy
  virtual curser to read the screen there is a difference,  indeed I
  rather remember you making a similar point when we were discussing
  playing
 
  text adventure games with virtual cursers on the audiogames.net forum
  with
  respect to nvda, sinse apparently it's virtual curser isn't as user
  friendly
 
  as that supernova or window eyes has.
 
  Then of course, there is the fact that if you ever wanted a real time
  element in a game,  instant output with sapi or whatever other systems
  have
 
  would be much more convenient, just as it is in Jim's baseball.
 
  The menue point is sort of a general one I think, sinse to me a
  stratogy
  game like  origan trail where you have to buy and sell resources would
  be
  much quicker if I could arrow through the resources and their
  respective
  prices then choose the one that is best, 

Re: [Audyssey] Jim Kitchen's games and Win7?

[Willem Venter]

Hi jim.
The equivalent folder to c:\users\ on windows 7 is c:\documents and
settings on windows xp.

On 9/13/12, Jim Kitchen j...@kitchensinc.net wrote:
 Hi Thomas,

 I'm sorry, but neither of my Windows XP computers have a c:\Users folder,
 and I doubt that VB6 has a way of finding that since as you said VB6 was out
 for like Windows 98.  The only folder on my computers that seem to know my
 name is C:\Documents and Settings\Jim kitchen

 BFN

 - Original Message -
 Hi Jim,

 No. With Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 every user gets their own
 personal application data folder. This is a special directory where
 programs are suppose to save their files to. On XP it would let you
 get away with writing files to c:\Program Files\Kitchensinc but as of
 Vista and later that isn't really recommended and causes technical
 issues with Microsoft User Account Control and other newer security
 software. Instead on Windows 7 the files would go in a directory like
 c:\Users\Thomas\App Data\Roaming\Kitchens Inc
 assuming your user name is Thomas. If it is something like Jim, for
 example, and then the files would go in
 c:\Users\Jim\App Data\Roaming\Kitchens Inc.

 There are ways to have your programs automatically discover the user's
 local App Data directory so its not very complicated. Just an extra
 step or two when writing and saving files.

 Unfortunately, its been about 10 years since I touched VB 6 so am not
 sure of the correct functions to access the user's local App Data
 directory off hand. I do know that in VB .NET  2010 its a fairly
 simple and straight forward process, and it works like a charm with
 User Account Control.

 Cheers!


  Jim

 Users: Keep them dry and don't feed them after midnight.

 j...@kitchensinc.net
 http://www.kitchensinc.net
 (440) 286-6920
 Chardon Ohio USA
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Re: [Audyssey] Jim Kitchen's games and Win7?

[Willem Venter]

Hi Richard.
I really hope that we will be able to play all the VB6 games for many
years to come, as many of my favorite games are written in vb6. Not
only Jim's kitchensinc games and the games you mentioned are vb6, but
also GMA games, bsc, LWorks,  and many other games. I can actually
think of more good vb6 games than non vb6 games.

The reality is that VB6 is an old technology. And old technologies
sooner or later become so hard to use that people will stop playing
those games. for now things are still working fine, but we as a
community need to find a sustainable way to make the vb6 games work,
so they are not lost to us.

This has nothing to do with putting down of programming languages etc
and everything to do with keeping the games I like around as long as
possible.

I feel as a fellow programmer the least I can do to pay tribute to the
creative sols that made all these games that I love so much is find a
way to make them playable for as long as possible. I know it's
terribly altruistic of me, but for now it's the only solution I can
see.

Added to that, I do have a degree in computer science, so this is
squarely inside my domain. After all, games got me interested in
programming in the first place.

On 9/14/12, Richard Sherman squir...@gmail.com wrote:
 On  Thursday, September 13, 2012 7:05 AM, trouble wrote:


 With just about everyone switching to 64 bit ops with new computers.
 Your games and VB6 coding is being left behind just like dos.
 end quote.

 Not trying to start a war of any kind here. but did you know that all of
 Jeremy kaldobsky, also known as Aprone, codes all his games in VB6. This
 includes swamp and castaways. .

 runs on all version of windows OS from XP to win 8, and macs included. Sure

 you have to do some things to get them to run properly, but it is once and
 then your done. The games run just fine then.

 so if you think VB6 is that dead, think again.

 Shermanator


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Re: [Audyssey] Jim Kitchen's games and Win7?

[Willem Venter]

Hi jim.
The directory in the c:\users directory is supposed to keep setting so
if multiple users use the same program they can have different
settings.

32 bit Programs installed to the program files directory will still
run, but  windows recommends that you keep 32 bit programs in the 32
bit program folder. I guess you could just throw their recommendation
out the window, but at some point things might start breaking,
depending on what changes in newer windows versions, but putting
everything in c:\program files will work on windows 7 32 and 64 bit.

On 9/12/12, Jim Kitchen j...@kitchensinc.net wrote:
 Hi Thomas,

 So if I put a 32 bit application in
 c:\program files\something
 it would not run?  And all 32 bit applications must be in
 c:\program files(x86)\something
 I thought that you said that Windows 7 64 bit actually want applications to
 be installed in
 c:\something\users\something

 BFN

  Jim

 If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?

 j...@kitchensinc.net
 http://www.kitchensinc.net
 (440) 286-6920
 Chardon Ohio USA
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Re: [Audyssey] Jim Kitchen's games and Win7?

[Willem Venter]

Hi Jim.
I would love it if there was a single installer that installed all
your games in one go, like winkit does with the menu system and VB6
files. Your games are small enough to not make a difference on most
computers, even if a user wants only a few of the games. And you get
many high quality games  for free in a file with a size many current
games exceed. I believe compresseing all your games makes a file of
only 74 MB.

If you are worried about


On 9/10/12, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Jim,

 You know, there is a very simple fix for that problem. Why not bundle
 all your games using a setup utility like Inno Setup, and it will
 detect things like this which would save people problems like this in
 the future. If you want I can create some Inno Setup scripts for you
 to build installers for your games so we can avoid these kinds of
 problems in the future.


 On 9/9/12, Jim Kitchen j...@kitchensinc.net wrote:
 Hi Orin,

 Yeah, my winkit install goes in one folder and then the rest of my games
 unzip to a different folder when one is running Windows 7 64 bit.

 Below is what one lady wrote about the problem.

  Hello all, I just found out something I hope will help you Sherry,  ok
 you
 no how in windows 7 we have two program file folders? One is just called
 program files, and the other is called program files x86, well here is
 what
 happen to me. I  installed the winkit program and it went into  just the
 program files x86 folder. And when I installed the games they went into
 the
 folder. Called just program files. So  fined out which one is the winkit
 one
 and go to which of the program folders the computer put the games in and
 copy and paste them into the winkit one it works.

 Like I found out winkit was in the program files x86 so I went to just
 program files and  copied the games from kitchensinc and put them in
 program
 files x86 kitchensinc and then I removed the one  in program files. Just
 deleted the folder.

 Make sure you are in administrator

  Hope that helps.

 Susan


 I hope that helps.
 BFN

  Jim

 Vote!

 j...@kitchensinc.net
 http://www.kitchensinc.net
 (440) 286-6920
 Chardon Ohio USA
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[Audyssey] Making open source games accessible

[Willem Venter]

Hi all.
In the past I've considered making some games that have open source
versions accessible, but gave up because either the source code was
too complex ( 4 mb of source files) or the inserting of an access
framework would take too much time for a holiday project or parts of
the game would need to be completely redesigned. For that expense in
effort I might as well rewrite something that I understand fully,
which is a different kettle of fish entirely.

I know that it has been done before and is possible, take winBoard and
quake as examples. Is anyone currently porting an open source game?
Could you offer any pointers to (i) selecting a project and (ii)
Stratigies to port a game? Any other thoughts and comments are also
welcome.

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Re: [Audyssey] Audio Archery news.

[Willem Venter]

This is why I stear clear of apple products. Even though they make a 
nice phone and operating system, it's not worth it. They have too much 
control over things that a normal user should be allowed to choose 
about. What do they know about accessible games anyway?


You can't even change the battery of your phone or upgrade your 
computer's hardware without violating their lisence agreement. You can't 
program for IOS without using their propriotary tools that cost a lot of 
money and then some know it all tech at the app store decides that an 
audio game needs graphics.


On 2012/05/20 02:31 AM, Phil Vlasak wrote:

Recent Tweets from L-Works.

Audio Archery got rejected. Apple did not like the empty screen. also 
need icons.
I gave the artist a couple ideas. he's gonna send me some drags in a 
couple days
waiting on Icons still. as soon as one gets created I will resubmit 
app. So never fear.

http://twitter.com/#!/lworksgames


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Re: [Audyssey] Rem Statements, was Python and Interactive Fiction

[Willem Venter]

Hi. You are correct. Even the variable names are usually stripped from 
the program when compiling.

On 2/17/2012 1:16 PM, Phil Vlasak wrote:

Hi Jim,
I think when a game is compiled, the compiler strips the rem, remark
statements and comment lines out of the executable.
Early on Carl was putting a lot of them in a game written in C plus 
plus for

DOS, so I could read his code. I compiled the game with and without the
extensive statements and there was not a single byte difference in the 
size

of the .exe file.
Maybe today this is different but I would think not.
Phil

- Original Message - From: Jim Kitchen j...@kitchensinc.net
To: Thomas Ward Gamers@audyssey.org
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 5:58 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Python and Interactive Fiction



Hi Thomas,

Yep, well, there is no Jim Kitchen the third, so I don't plan on some 
one

taking over the Kitchensinc games.  I know that partially because of
starting out only being able to use two letters for variable names and
because space was limited, I have always been conscious of size of code
and later sound files.  I know that it really is no longer a problem, 
but

I do hate to waste space.  Plus typing less is a good thing for me.  I
would probably not like to be some one else trying to read my code 
though.
And heck as I have mentioned, many of my VB6 games were converted 
from dos

games and thus actually still have line numbers from BasicA and GW Basic
instead of line labels like Quick Basic, VB6 etc can use.

Every once in a while I will add a comment line in my code, but 
usually it

is just a temporary place marker and I go through and delete them when I
am finished with that bit of code.



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Re: [Audyssey] Python and Interactive Fiction

[Willem Venter]

Hi Jim.
I agree with you about coding the way you feel most comfortable with 
first and worrying about style afterward. I've personally found that 
adding some descriptive names make it easier to find bugs, but I am bad 
at describing something in a word or two.


I do not want to imagine my game collection without your games. Very 
unpleasant!



On 2/17/2012 12:58 PM, Jim Kitchen wrote:

Hi Thomas,

Yep, well, there is no Jim Kitchen the third, so I don't plan on some 
one taking over the Kitchensinc games.  I know that partially because 
of starting out only being able to use two letters for variable names 
and because space was limited, I have always been conscious of size of 
code and later sound files.  I know that it really is no longer a 
problem, but I do hate to waste space.  Plus typing less is a good 
thing for me.  I would probably not like to be some one else trying to 
read my code though.  And heck as I have mentioned, many of my VB6 
games were converted from dos games and thus actually still have line 
numbers from BasicA and GW Basic instead of line labels like Quick 
Basic, VB6 etc can use.


Every once in a while I will add a comment line in my code, but 
usually it is just a temporary place marker and I go through and 
delete them when I am finished with that bit of code.


dim pd$(5, 15) is the global variable for the players and their 14 
parts of description for the game that I am working on now.  I'm sure 
that it would make sense to others if the variable name was more like 
dim PlayerDescription(5, 15) but I like less typing and as long as I 
know the code that is all that matters.  Well that and that it 
compiles, runs, and does what I want it to do.


BFN

Jim

Cool! all of the hard work has paid off, my name is a household word.

j...@kitchensinc.net
http://www.kitchensinc.net
(440) 286-6920
Chardon Ohio USA
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Re: [Audyssey] Python and Interactive Fiction

[Willem Venter]

I know there are many editor that have smart autoindent which is handy 
for python.

On 2/15/2012 10:04 PM, Cara Quinn wrote:

Agreed, however, in my work, I often want to work quickly and want to know 
exactly where I'm placing a statement or bit of code. If I need to go through 
fifteen or twenty or more spaces (every time I want to edit a line at its 
beginning) to make sure my cursor is right at the beginning of the correct 
line, it's really a pain, so fortunately XCode can be smart about indention and 
formatting so it's not something I need to worry about.

Not sure if this is straying too far off topic for the list… -Probably best for 
the Dev list?…

Now that this has come up, am curious if XCode will auto indent Python as it 
does with the C style languages. -Interesting…

Smiles,

Cara :)
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On Feb 14, 2012, at 8:01 PM, Ryan Strunk wrote:

There is nothing unfortunate whatsoever about requiring indentation. If you
ever want to write code that sighted people can read and interpret, it's
going to make a heck of a lot more sense to them if they can actually read
the stuff.


-Original Message-
From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On
Behalf Of Thomas Ward
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 9:27 PM
To: Gamers Discussion list
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Python and Interactive Fiction

Hi Dave,

Yes, unfortunately, Python still requires that you use proper indention
rules when writing software. That's pretty much how it gets away without
using braces, brackets, and all the other trappings of C/C++ by defining
blocks of code based on indention and proper spacing. That said, once you
learn how to properly format your code eventually it becomes second nature
to you.

I guess in that respect I'm fortunate that I learned to format code properly
a long time ago, and have been doing it in Java, C++, Visual Basic, you name
it for what seems like forever. After a while its so automatic to me that
the fact Python absolutely requires me to indent this statement one or two
tabs is nothing new.

I think when it comes to Python programming NVDA has the upperhand because
when you have it enabled NVDA will announce your tabbed indention as you
write your code. It lets you hear how many times this or that line has been
indented with the tab key so you can determine if you have indented it faar
enough or not. Then, if you have access to a braille display that is even
better because you can follow the formatting in braille. I don't have a
braille display myself, but I've heard people who prefer programming with
one for that very reason.

Of course, Python is by no means the only option available here. Its merely
the one I liked best. Perl is equally up to writing text adventures too, and
it has a C style syntax for those people looking for a more C/C++ look and
feel to the language. If indenting is an issue something like Perl might be
a better substitute. Although, I haven't used Perl in so long I'm not even
sure what game specific APIs and libraries are out there for Perl these
days. :D

Anyway, bottom line, there are quite a lot of scripting languages available
Python, Perl, Ruby, Jython, TCL, etc. I'm sure if one isn't sutible there is
probably another one that will suit. Its just that Python has pretty much
become the adopted scripting language of choice among open source
developers, and there is quite a bit of interest in creating games in Python
these days.

Since PyGame came out, which is a Python wrapper for SDL, there have been a
number of free games for Linux produced in Python and PyGame.
Python has in its own way become the Visual Basic of the open source world
in large part because it was designed from the ground up to target new
programmers with little to no experience. Plus SDL has always had a very
simple design, that's why it is called Simple Direct Media Layer, and PyGame
actually makes it even simpler.

Its for reasons like that I've been turning more and more to Python for any
kind of open source development I do. My game Star Trek: Final Conflict was
initially written in C++, then was rewritten in C# .NET, and the new version
has been written in Python. In part because I want it to run on Linux, but I
must confess the fact it is simpler than either to use and speeds up
development time its preferable to the commercial programming languages.

Cheers!


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Re: [Audyssey] Python and Interactive Fiction

[Willem Venter]

I agree with Ryan here. Good formatting of code is like good spelling. 
Even if it sounds right it isn't necessarily right. It may also make 
your code harder to read from a screen.


You can try notepad++. It supports indentation reporting.
On 2/15/2012 6:01 AM, Ryan Strunk wrote:

There is nothing unfortunate whatsoever about requiring indentation. If you
ever want to write code that sighted people can read and interpret, it's
going to make a heck of a lot more sense to them if they can actually read
the stuff.


-Original Message-
From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On
Behalf Of Thomas Ward
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 9:27 PM
To: Gamers Discussion list
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Python and Interactive Fiction

Hi Dave,

Yes, unfortunately, Python still requires that you use proper indention
rules when writing software. That's pretty much how it gets away without
using braces, brackets, and all the other trappings of C/C++ by defining
blocks of code based on indention and proper spacing. That said, once you
learn how to properly format your code eventually it becomes second nature
to you.

I guess in that respect I'm fortunate that I learned to format code properly
a long time ago, and have been doing it in Java, C++, Visual Basic, you name
it for what seems like forever. After a while its so automatic to me that
the fact Python absolutely requires me to indent this statement one or two
tabs is nothing new.

I think when it comes to Python programming NVDA has the upperhand because
when you have it enabled NVDA will announce your tabbed indention as you
write your code. It lets you hear how many times this or that line has been
indented with the tab key so you can determine if you have indented it faar
enough or not. Then, if you have access to a braille display that is even
better because you can follow the formatting in braille. I don't have a
braille display myself, but I've heard people who prefer programming with
one for that very reason.

Of course, Python is by no means the only option available here. Its merely
the one I liked best. Perl is equally up to writing text adventures too, and
it has a C style syntax for those people looking for a more C/C++ look and
feel to the language. If indenting is an issue something like Perl might be
a better substitute. Although, I haven't used Perl in so long I'm not even
sure what game specific APIs and libraries are out there for Perl these
days. :D

Anyway, bottom line, there are quite a lot of scripting languages available
Python, Perl, Ruby, Jython, TCL, etc. I'm sure if one isn't sutible there is
probably another one that will suit. Its just that Python has pretty much
become the adopted scripting language of choice among open source
developers, and there is quite a bit of interest in creating games in Python
these days.

Since PyGame came out, which is a Python wrapper for SDL, there have been a
number of free games for Linux produced in Python and PyGame.
Python has in its own way become the Visual Basic of the open source world
in large part because it was designed from the ground up to target new
programmers with little to no experience. Plus SDL has always had a very
simple design, that's why it is called Simple Direct Media Layer, and PyGame
actually makes it even simpler.

Its for reasons like that I've been turning more and more to Python for any
kind of open source development I do. My game Star Trek: Final Conflict was
initially written in C++, then was rewritten in C# .NET, and the new version
has been written in Python. In part because I want it to run on Linux, but I
must confess the fact it is simpler than either to use and speeds up
development time its preferable to the commercial programming languages.

Cheers!


---
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Re: [Audyssey] Game Design

[Willem Venter]

Hi.
For voice over work you can advertize the job on list etc. You can
then choose who you want to say the dialogue and they could record the
dialogue.
Sound design is completely different from programming. You use a sound
editor to change the sounds the way you want. For raw sounds you can
either record them yourself or download sounds from the internet.




On 1/25/12, Jacob Kruger jac...@mailzone.co.za wrote:
 Primarily, but am busy with plans to add sound effects, etc., but, yes,
 would really depend on how far you wanted to go in terms of sounds, real
 time interaction, etc.

 Stay well

 Jacob Kruger
 Blind Biker
 Skype: BlindZA
 '...fate had broken his body, but not his spirit...'

 - Original Message -
 From: Nicole Valicia Thompson-Andrews goldyemo...@gmail.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 8:57 AM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Game Design


 The games are suppose to be audio-based, isn't interactive fiction
 text-based?
 Nicole Andrew
 Pen name Mellissa Green
 Budding novelist

 - Original Message -
 From: Jacob Kruger jac...@mailzone.co.za
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 1:37 AM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Game Design


 You could, possibly, use my mapData game engine to just render/generate
 your own game renditions - to a certain extent - for now anyway:
 http://www.blindza.co.za/work/#python

 The backend lets you generate interactive fiction maps, that can then be
 made use of/played around with in the front-end, and, yes, it's a bit
 simple for now, but anyway...smile

 Stay well

 Jacob Kruger
 Blind Biker
 Skype: BlindZA
 '...fate had broken his body, but not his spirit...'

 - Original Message -
 From: Nicole Valicia Thompson-Andrews goldyemo...@gmail.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 8:28 AM
 Subject: [Audyssey] Game Design


 How are audio games designed, and who can I contact about designing
 audion games for me? I'm a budding novelist, and want to sell or have
 sold audio games for my universe. How would work, like would I send them

 the books, and they turn one into a game?
 Nicole Andrew
 Pen name Mellissa Green
 Budding novelist
 ---
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Re: [Audyssey] Game Design

[Willem Venter]

You can combine or alter a sound to make a new sound.

On 1/25/12, Nicole Valicia Thompson-Andrews goldyemo...@gmail.com wrote:
 hChange them to what?
 Nicole Andrew
 Pen name Mellissa Green
 Budding novelist

 - Original Message -
 From: Willem Venter dwill...@gmail.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 5:49 AM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Game Design


 Hi.
 For voice over work you can advertize the job on list etc. You can
 then choose who you want to say the dialogue and they could record the
 dialogue.
 Sound design is completely different from programming. You use a sound
 editor to change the sounds the way you want. For raw sounds you can
 either record them yourself or download sounds from the internet.




 On 1/25/12, Jacob Kruger jac...@mailzone.co.za wrote:
 Primarily, but am busy with plans to add sound effects, etc., but, yes,
 would really depend on how far you wanted to go in terms of sounds, real
 time interaction, etc.

 Stay well

 Jacob Kruger
 Blind Biker
 Skype: BlindZA
 '...fate had broken his body, but not his spirit...'

 - Original Message -
 From: Nicole Valicia Thompson-Andrews goldyemo...@gmail.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 8:57 AM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Game Design


 The games are suppose to be audio-based, isn't interactive fiction
 text-based?
 Nicole Andrew
 Pen name Mellissa Green
 Budding novelist

 - Original Message -
 From: Jacob Kruger jac...@mailzone.co.za
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 1:37 AM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Game Design


 You could, possibly, use my mapData game engine to just render/generate
 your own game renditions - to a certain extent - for now anyway:
 http://www.blindza.co.za/work/#python

 The backend lets you generate interactive fiction maps, that can then
 be
 made use of/played around with in the front-end, and, yes, it's a bit
 simple for now, but anyway...smile

 Stay well

 Jacob Kruger
 Blind Biker
 Skype: BlindZA
 '...fate had broken his body, but not his spirit...'

 - Original Message -
 From: Nicole Valicia Thompson-Andrews goldyemo...@gmail.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 8:28 AM
 Subject: [Audyssey] Game Design


 How are audio games designed, and who can I contact about designing
 audion games for me? I'm a budding novelist, and want to sell or have
 sold audio games for my universe. How would work, like would I send
 them

 the books, and they turn one into a game?
 Nicole Andrew
 Pen name Mellissa Green
 Budding novelist
 ---
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Re: [Audyssey] blastbay forum appears to be freezing my IE8.

[Willem Venter]

Hi philip.
Have you investigated putting some test for humanness into the forum
application process?

I am not talking about captchas with pictures. Rather randomly ask a
question like
Type in the developer of BGT's name.
What is twenty-five  plus thirty   six?
Type the second letter from your given username.

and other similar questions like that which most spammers won't be
able to automate, but is still simple enough for most users to answer.

On 1/24/12, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com wrote:
 Hi again,

 I have now cleaned out about 6000 spam bot accounts from my forum. And,
 wonder of wonders, the lag is gone.

 Kind regards,

 Philip Bennefall
 - Original Message -
 From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 10:37 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] blastbay forum appears to be freezing my IE8.


 Hi Chris,

 It may be that the database is getting overloaded with unapproved spam bot
 registrations. I will have a look and see if I can clean that up during the
 day tomorrow. I've noticed it being a bit slow too, though never more than a
 couple of seconds on this end.

 Kind regards,

 Philip Bennefall
 - Original Message -
 From: Christopher Bartlett themusicalbre...@gmail.com
 To: 'Gamers Discussion list' gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 10:08 PM
 Subject: [Audyssey] blastbay forum appears to be freezing my IE8.


 About half the time when I go to post something on the blast bay forum, my
 browser completely freezes.  This is happening with NVDA and JFW, so it's
 not a screen reader issue.  I've experienced similar behavior occasionally
 from the audiogames.net forum site.



 Anyone know what's going on?



 Chris Bartlett



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Re: [Audyssey] blastbay forum appears to be freezing my IE8.

[Willem Venter]

Hi Philip.
Hi Philip. Did the developers respond to your bug reports? The
spammers won't stop, so it is either writing your own checker or
dealing with bots as you currently are doing.

On 1/24/12, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com wrote:
 Hi Willem,

 I have tried the stop bots extention in the past which is meant to do
 exactly that, but it turned out to be rather buggy so if I want this sort of
 functionality, I will probably end up writing my own. Unless, of course, I
 can find another similar extention to put in PunBB.

 Kind regards,

 Philip Bennefall
 - Original Message -
 From: Willem Venter dwill...@gmail.com
 To: phi...@blastbay.com; Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 10:39 AM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] blastbay forum appears to be freezing my IE8.


 Hi philip.
 Have you investigated putting some test for humanness into the forum
 application process?

 I am not talking about captchas with pictures. Rather randomly ask a
 question like
 Type in the developer of BGT's name.
 What is twenty-five  plus thirty   six?
 Type the second letter from your given username.

 and other similar questions like that which most spammers won't be
 able to automate, but is still simple enough for most users to answer.

 On 1/24/12, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com wrote:
 Hi again,

 I have now cleaned out about 6000 spam bot accounts from my forum. And,
 wonder of wonders, the lag is gone.

 Kind regards,

 Philip Bennefall
 - Original Message -
 From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 10:37 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] blastbay forum appears to be freezing my IE8.


 Hi Chris,

 It may be that the database is getting overloaded with unapproved spam bot
 registrations. I will have a look and see if I can clean that up during
 the
 day tomorrow. I've noticed it being a bit slow too, though never more than

 a
 couple of seconds on this end.

 Kind regards,

 Philip Bennefall
 - Original Message -
 From: Christopher Bartlett themusicalbre...@gmail.com
 To: 'Gamers Discussion list' gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 10:08 PM
 Subject: [Audyssey] blastbay forum appears to be freezing my IE8.


 About half the time when I go to post something on the blast bay forum, my
 browser completely freezes.  This is happening with NVDA and JFW, so it's
 not a screen reader issue.  I've experienced similar behavior occasionally
 from the audiogames.net forum site.



 Anyone know what's going on?



 Chris Bartlett



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Re: [Audyssey] Game Design

[Willem Venter]

Hi Nicole.
Firstly let me say that there is a big difference between a book and a
game derived from that same book.  You will have to decide what type
of game you want to make. Interactive fiction and role playing games
is closer to the book form than a strategy game or fps. When you write
a story you can plan all the characters actions in advance, but with a
game you need to give a player some choices and think about the
results of those choices.

I know I might be stating the obvious to you, but I feel I need to
explain my advice. First choose the type of interaction the player
should have, then decide on the plot and flow of the game.  If there
are actions in the game that depend on player stats or chance, give a
little mind to how it might work.

If you want to try programming, look at the resources Thomas
mentioned. This is your best bet on getting a game from your story. If
that does not work out, you might try to tempt someone on a list by
sending a short outline of the story and hoping for the best, but
writing a game with someone looking over your shoulder can be a
challenge for a programmer.

I know all this is full of generalities, but I hope it helps. Everyone
works out their own methods in the end.

On 1/25/12, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Nicole,

 Well, you can try and hire one of the accessible developers to design
 and develop the games for you, but that would probably cost you more
 money than you have to spend. The best thing you could do is to write
 them yourself. There are a couple of options here.

 One,you could learn a general all purpose programming language and how
 to program games from scratch. I run a list specifically designed for
 this purpose on
 http://www.usagamesinteractive.com/lists.php
 and that is one option.

 the other is to buy Philip's BGT game programming toolkit which will
 save you time, and perhaps be a little easier. You can get that from
 http://www.blastbay.com
 as well as join the BGT forum.

 HTH

 On 1/25/12, Nicole Valicia Thompson-Andrews goldyemo...@gmail.com wrote:
 How are audio games designed, and who can I contact about designing audion
 games for me? I'm a budding novelist, and want to sell or have sold audio
 games for my universe. How would work, like would I send them the books,
 and
 they turn one into a game?
 Nicole Andrew
 Pen name Mellissa Green
 Budding novelist
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Re: [Audyssey] Your Opinion on Game Development Documentation

[Willem Venter]

Hi Thomas.
This is a good idea, but I'd suggest focusing on subjects that are not
so widely published on, such as the things you mentioned(swt, slimDX
etc).

As you are currently working mainly in c#, why not start there and do
some slim DX tutorials?

As for vb6 tutorials, though it is popular, I think you would agree
with me that its time is passing very quickly. For the same reason I
would also not suggest a small or unknown language. Start with
something that is an industry standard.


Also maybe tutorials that are language unspecific that teach general
purpose game concepts would be useful. An example is collision
detection (basic bounded box and more advanced), movement in 3d, or a
simple guide on planning a game and different possible planning
stratigies.

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Re: [Audyssey] Eamon delux news and thoughts

[Willem Venter]

The use of speech synthesizers also offer possibilities for matching
phonetic spelling to an item. If a user types in something that word
is converted to phonemes. These phonemes could be compared to the
actual word that is also converted to phonemes and if many of them are
the same, the game can recognize a word even if the spelling is wrong.

On 1/8/12, dark d...@xgam.org wrote:
 Hi Tom.
 That is I think why for all item manipulation puzzles, object use parzas
 with graphics replaced the complex parzas of text adventures in the main
 tream, starting with games like secret of monkey island and continuing even
 now in series like Resident evil.

 it's just so much easier to have some general commands that can apply to
 objects.

 Use, use with and examine are really all that is needed imho.

 Also as games like descent into madness show, these are quite doable with a
 menue system rather than actual commands as well, which can speed things up
 too.

 Beware the grue!

 Dark.


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Re: [Audyssey] Eamon delux news and thoughts

[Willem Venter]

Hi Dark.
I don't know what email client you are using, but thunderbird and
outlook express has built in spell checkers that can be accessed with
one keystroke. While I notice some spelling mistakes, it doesn't
bother me that much. However the better we spell, the better it will
look to outsiders reading our list. Whether a synthesizer reads a word
correctly is not the issue and correct spelling is good practice. Many
people on this list look up to you as a leader in this community, so
maybe setting a good example is worth the extra time.

On 1/8/12, dark d...@xgam.org wrote:
 And really charles does this matter?

 On the occasions when I write something formal I can spellcheck it, but that
 takes far too much time to do every E-mail.

 As long as it's readable, what is the difference?

 With orphius puzle and puzzle come out the same anyway, which is probably
 why i don't correct it as I type, but why does it make such a huge
 difference?

 Beware the grue!

 dark.
 - Original Message -
 From: Charles Rivard wee1s...@fidnet.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2012 2:47 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Eamon delux news and thoughts


 There are 2 z's in puzzle!  It's a shame that you write such informative
 posts and then continually blow it with this irritation.

 ---
 Shepherds are the best beasts, but Labs are a close second.
 - Original Message -
 From: dark d...@xgam.org
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2012 12:05 AM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Eamon delux news and thoughts


 Hi Tom.

 I'm actually much more a fan of limited commands in these cases. As I've
 said before, interactive fiction was something I played a great deal of
 at one point, but don't tend to anymore sinse for every really good game
 I found I found four or five more that just got frustrating, either
 because the puzzles were utterly illogical, or required some very weerd
 verbs.

 For instance, suppose you find a gun and a silencer, what is the command.

 put silencer on gun?, use silencer with gun?, silence gun?, Screw
 silencer onto gun? Screw silencer onto barrel

 there are so many different ways of saying the same thing, yet if you get

 the wrong one, the game just won't react. However simply having a use x
 with x parza, there's no question with what you need to do.

 Also, the fewer verbs there are in the parza, the more obscure the puzles

 can be sinse more limited your choice of actions, the more likely you are

 to hit upon the right one.

 For example, the game Broken sword which was one of those point and click

 graphic adventures like Monkey island, so had limted verbs, had one
 puzzle where you had to climb a haystack.

 one item you had at the time was a large sewer key a couple of feet long.

 in an if game you could've spent ages mucking about with commands, but in

 Broken sword simply using the key with the haystack let you push it into
 the hay half way up and use it as a step to climb.

 This is just what I mean.

 then, having combat in a game gives you a way to interact with your
 environment and have some fun as well.

 Beware the grue!

 Dark.
 - Original Message -
 From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2012 2:01 AM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Eamon delux news and thoughts


 Hi Dark,

 This does sound good. Those games are quite addictive as simple as
 they are, and I think it is the simplicity that makes them so
 enjoyable.

 As you pointed out with a lot of text adventures, especially
 interactive fiction, its often a case of guess the verb or difficult
 puzzle elements that turns people off playing it. However, text
 adventures as you've seen don't have to be that way. If and when I do
 my RPG I agree that keeping the commands simple stupid is the best
 practice.

 Its hard to go wrong with commands like put, take, use, wear, equip,
 etc. if you stick to a few basic commands people can generally go from
 there. I've even thought that adding a Dos style menu where you simply
 press a number for the selection is even easier yet.

 On 1/7/12, dark d...@xgam.org wrote:
 Hi everyone.

 Today I've been testing some of the beta versions for the new eamon
 delux
 with it's vi compatibility mode.

 it's going very well, all the irritations with display are totally gone

 so
 that it just displays like any console window dos application, and the
 developer has completely altered several menues so that now they all
 have
 numbers to press, for instance in the character editer to alter your
 characters' hardiness you now just hit one and then type the new number

 just
 like those number driven choices in dos programs.

 Also, the developer is doing a lot of very nice extra work in the vi
 mode,
 such as writing in text descriptions of graphics, and with more of a
 campeigne mode to be added where you can actually use that gold from
 

Re: [Audyssey] Adult Games was Huge Cave

[Willem Venter]

Hi Thomas.
There is no need to use the USA games name to release all your games.
I don't suggest hiding that you are the author of the games, but you
can release them under a different name and website as a warning or
even just on dropbox.

Personally I agree with everyone on this topic. Why deny something
that is part of human nature. It is still your own choice to play the
games or not. And adult games are certainly more realistic than some
of the games with violence out there. My main issue with some adult
fiction and reading material out there is that the first thing that
flies out the window (even before the clothes) is a sensible or good
storyline. I do object to that.

On 1/6/12, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Lisa,

 Not that I recall. Leather Goddesses of Phobos, was the closest they
 got to true adult interactive fiction. Still it was fun even if it was
 a bit tamed down.

 On 1/6/12, Lisa Hayes lhay...@internode.on.net wrote:
 Yeah that was a good adult game, or the lewd part was, did infocom make
 any
 other adult games.
 Lisa Hayes


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Re: [Audyssey] Adult Games was Huge Cave

[Willem Venter]

I guess the issue many people have with adult games is that they
consider playing these games some form of adultery and encouraging
loose morals. They forget that it is just fantasy. I'm sure some
people could take it that far, but most people stop taking the game
seriously once they shut the pc down. In the same way violent games
are also considered to be a form of murder to some. The reasoning is a
bit harder to explain by them though, as there are no real corpses
after you won the game.

The human imagination is boundless. Better to let it move in a healthy
way than to suppress it until it turns weird and unhealthy. I've seen
people that suppress themselves so much that they become plain strange
after a while.

Games allow us to explore things we would not consider doing in real
life. Afterward we can also think about things we learned and also
decide what we like and do not like. By playing violent games I've
learned how to better control anger (does the insane scientist ring
any bells?) It reminded me of my little brother. I'm sure there are
many other examples.

ps to Thomas, like you said, Angle is very important, pun intended.

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Re: [Audyssey] Proofreading Guidelines was Blind Gamers Being Taken Seriously?

[Willem Venter]

hi. I agree that proofreading should be in the guidelines, but
policing this is inpractical.
People should just remember that people will ignore them if they are
hard to understand.

On 12/18/11, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Meka and all,

 Back when we were discussing the proofreading guidelines for the list
 we were considering something very basic that most people should be
 able to follow without too much explanation.

 For example, let's take punctuation. Now, we know there are some more
 advanced punctuation rules such as using  colons, semi-colons, and
 dashes that may be unfamiliar to some of our list members. We would be
 willing to overlook things like that because there are plenty of
 people who are sighted that aren't sure where to put a colon or where
 a semi-colon should be used instead of a comma. However, everyone
 blind or sighted should be able to know where and when to use basic
 punctuation rules like periods, questions, and exclamation points.

 We base this on the fact that anyone over 10 years old in the United
 States should be able to recognize the difference between a
 declarative sentence, exclamatory sentence, or question. In fact, my
 son is only seven years old and he can tell you when and where to put
 a period or question mark. So its not unreasonable to ask list
 members---who are likely older than seven---to complete sentences with
 a period or question mark at a bare minimum.

 As far as spelling goes it is usually pretty obvious when someone
 doesn't attempt to proofread a message for spelling errors. One or two
 can be overlooked but if a message is full of several mistakes its
 going to be rather obvious that the person has not made any effort to
 proofread the message before sending. Most e-mail clients such as
 Thunderbird, Windows Live Mail, Microsoft Outlook, etc come with spell
 checkers so there really isn't an excuse not to spell check a document
 to get a reasonable amount of accuracy on the final draft.

 The same holds true for grammar. Its a given certain words can be very
 confusing for a blind user. The English language is full of words that
 sound alike but have totally different meanings such as: to, too, two,
 there, their, they're, sale, sail, here, hear, stake, steak, where,
 and wear.Some spell checkers will catch the grammatical mistake, but
 some won't. In a case like that a moderator would overlook the mistake
 as long as the message was otherwise pretty free of errors. Trust me
 when I say we understand how something like that could be confusing if
 a person is using speech instead of braille or visual reinforcement.

 If it is something more obvious like a double negative the moderator
 could write the person off list suggesting how to restate the sentence
 so it is more grammatically correct. The purpose wouldn't be to put
 the person down but merely to instruct them how to improve there
 language/communication skills.

 For example, let's assume someone writes, I didn't find no ammo in
 Shades of Doom. Some people might not realize that is a double
 negative, is grammatically incorrect, and might just need a reminder
 how to restructure that sentence to read, I didn't find any ammo in
 Shades of Doom.

 That doesn't mean we--the moderators---would hound people, but would
 merely make recommendations and suggestions that would improve their
 communication skills. I for one can't see it as anything other than
 being helpful and an improvement for the person. Of course, a lot
 depends on if the person wants the help, wants to change, or continue
 to compose poorly written messages. In a case like that if a person
 continues to write messages that are difficult to read the moderators
 would then go to the next step by moderating or banning them from the
 list until the quality of their posts improves. However, we wouldn't
 take a serious action like banning them without giving them a number
 of chances to correct the problems first.

 Cheers!

 On 12/17/11, Meka White, LMP m...@melodicmassage.com wrote:
 I would hope that this would be more of a guideline encouraging people to
 proofread their emails rather than a hard and fast rule, because where do
 you draw the line on coming down on someone?  One mispelled word? Two?  A
 misused comma?

 Don't get me wrong, I am a huge proponent of proofing what you write.
 it's
 a good, courteous habit to start laying down, but do you really want to
 create that much more work for yourselves?

 Warmly,
 Meka


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Re: [Audyssey] Blind Gamers Being Taken Seriously?

[Willem Venter]

Hi Ian.
Punctuation is as important as good grammar and spelling. I found your
message  hard to follow.

As a rule of thumb I skip messages if someone did not bother with at
least getting most of the punctuation and spelling right. My reasoning
which is wrong in many cases I'm sure, follows that if you did not
bother to use good language, chances are you did not think through
what you are writing about. It is different for those who use English
as a second or third language, but it is also easy to differentiate
between sloppy writers and non English writers.

I should also probably add that English is my second language and this
is why I take extra care when composing a message.


On 12/17/11, Ian McNamara ianandri...@googlemail.com wrote:
 Hi well if that had been added to the guide lines i would not have been
 angry there is an email simming group i use to be on and i was kicked off
 for my in proper grammer i was younger then so did not care now i do. a lot
 of the time my bad righting is because i don't know how to spell a word and
 i've ither spellt it so close to the word the spell check does not pick it
 up or way out so the spell check can't understand what i mean. if i don't
 know how to spell a word and the spell check does not pick up on it i now
 keep righting the word out untill i get a word that sounds like it or if
 some one is around i ask them for the spelling.

 Ian McNamara
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Re: [Audyssey] Blind Gamers Being Taken Seriously?

[Willem Venter]

hmm. Well... Um.
What are you trying to prove here?

On 12/17/11, Willem Venter dwill...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Ian.
 Punctuation is as important as good grammar and spelling. I found your
 message  hard to follow.

 As a rule of thumb I skip messages if someone did not bother with at
 least getting most of the punctuation and spelling right. My reasoning
 which is wrong in many cases I'm sure, follows that if you did not
 bother to use good language, chances are you did not think through
 what you are writing about. It is different for those who use English
 as a second or third language, but it is also easy to differentiate
 between sloppy writers and non English writers.

 I should also probably add that English is my second language and this
 is why I take extra care when composing a message.


 On 12/17/11, Ian McNamara ianandri...@googlemail.com wrote:
 Hi well if that had been added to the guide lines i would not have been
 angry there is an email simming group i use to be on and i was kicked off
 for my in proper grammer i was younger then so did not care now i do. a
 lot
 of the time my bad righting is because i don't know how to spell a word
 and
 i've ither spellt it so close to the word the spell check does not pick
 it
 up or way out so the spell check can't understand what i mean. if i don't
 know how to spell a word and the spell check does not pick up on it i now
 keep righting the word out untill i get a word that sounds like it or if
 some one is around i ask them for the spelling.

 Ian McNamara
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Re: [Audyssey] Blind Gamers Being Taken Seriously?

[Willem Venter]

Sorry, my reply was to the last message from shiny protector


Hello Mr. Ward,

I absolutely disagree with   the idea that you have told us about the
proofreading guideline. We should implement the idea, because if we do
not implement the said idea you are talking about, more messages with
poor grammar, punctuation and spelling may be sent fourth to people
and this mailing list. I, myself, may not be perfect in my writing,
but my writing is extremely satisfactory these days. My point is, even
if people find the guideline highly insulting or  highly agitating,
the guideline should still be implemented into the guidelines for the
audyssey list.

On 12/17/11, Willem Venter dwill...@gmail.com wrote:
 hmm. Well... Um.
 What are you trying to prove here?

 On 12/17/11, Willem Venter dwill...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Ian.
 Punctuation is as important as good grammar and spelling. I found your
 message  hard to follow.

 As a rule of thumb I skip messages if someone did not bother with at
 least getting most of the punctuation and spelling right. My reasoning
 which is wrong in many cases I'm sure, follows that if you did not
 bother to use good language, chances are you did not think through
 what you are writing about. It is different for those who use English
 as a second or third language, but it is also easy to differentiate
 between sloppy writers and non English writers.

 I should also probably add that English is my second language and this
 is why I take extra care when composing a message.


 On 12/17/11, Ian McNamara ianandri...@googlemail.com wrote:
 Hi well if that had been added to the guide lines i would not have been
 angry there is an email simming group i use to be on and i was kicked
 off
 for my in proper grammer i was younger then so did not care now i do. a
 lot
 of the time my bad righting is because i don't know how to spell a word
 and
 i've ither spellt it so close to the word the spell check does not pick
 it
 up or way out so the spell check can't understand what i mean. if i
 don't
 know how to spell a word and the spell check does not pick up on it i
 now
 keep righting the word out untill i get a word that sounds like it or if
 some one is around i ask them for the spelling.

 Ian McNamara
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Re: [Audyssey] problem with Pipe 2

[Willem Venter]

Hi. Can you play other games like those from jim kitchen? If you can,
I'd suggest uninstalling and reinstalling pipe2.

You did not say what operating system you are running. Some have
issues off the bat with running vb6 applications like pipe2, but
installing a gma game or jim kitchens winkit might solve the problem.

What firewall are you using? I know some block games from doing some
things, such as accessing some files.

On 12/17/11, shaun everiss sm.ever...@gmail.com wrote:
 hi kurt.
 Hmm, turning on your firewall shouldn't have done anything, I only
 use the windows one so can't comment about others maybe something is
 blocked and needs a reconfig.
 Windows updates should not cause the issue, though I keep most libs
 here rather updated so maybe thats it.
 did antispy  remove something, check it.
 Do you have the latest pipe2 patch or even the latest pipe2 since i
 know loads of stuff was changed last year and at the beginning of
 this one but I forget what was changed.
 I just remember getting a shoot load of files from bsc.
 At 12:41 p.m. 16/12/2011 -0600, you wrote:
Hi all, up until yesterday I didn't have a problem playing Pipe
2.  But ever since I did windows updates, turned on my firewall and,
ran anti spyware, which BTW I don't know If that has anything to do
with the following error. I'm getting some error saying, Run time
error, file 53 not found.  Then there's an okay button.

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Re: [Audyssey] plans for an updated Lone Wolf

[Willem Venter]

Hi. I only agree with one thing you said and that is the fact that VB6
is a sinking ship. We need a fail safe way to keep playing the VB6
games and insure we don't lose them. And I don't believe keeping a
virtual machine that takes up a few odd gigs and runs slowly is the
best answer.

As for being left in the dark, many of us already are and it hasn't
stopped us playing audio games. This community will be around as long
as there are people that want to play games.

Access is improving in many cases. Using an application and denying it
has accessibility because it doesn't work in the same way as the old
things does does not prove anything.

As for 64 bit windows and SAPI, we can use 32 bit voices, it just
takes a little work. Hopefully ms will pull their collective heads out
of the recess and allow 32 bit voices to be used without tricks  in
the new version of SAPI.

On 12/13/11, shaun everiss sm.ever...@gmail.com wrote:
 I am also affraid for the community at large.
 We will be definately left in the dark after we go fully 64 and
 especially if and when ms stop 32 bit production.
 Xp has always done things ok, and some still say its faster.
 I have not found any advantage access wise in win7 or the latest
 office version.
 However we still have a chance, all devs need to get off vb fully if they
 can.
 Its a bit of a pitch but we can probably do it.
 Bgt will probably be the next platform to write things in.
 However, when windows stops vb support, the blind gamers community
 will probably die.
 I still like the old games.
 Saying that the dos stuff could probably be converted to windows and
 the vb6 stuff probably should be put into something that is supported.
 Maybe as I say bgt or something.
 but yeah, ms are the borg.
 What I fear is no one will change or at  least change fast enough.
 We still have a large ammount of games relying on old tech, dos
 games, vb games, free and payed for a like.
 In the short term we can buy older systems with xp or buy xp.
 However as it gets longer and longer we will find it harder and
 harder to get things.
 At 12:04 p.m. 12/12/2011 +, you wrote:
Hi Tom.

I do generally appreciate the point that better applications for
doing tasks like brousing the internet or text editing exist, -
certainly I wouldn't go back to using the old word perfect 4 which i
learnt typing on as a teenager.

However with microsoft it seems quite often they just dump things on
people with no chance to change and expect the general public to
just go along with it.

Take ribbon controls. Back after the change from 95 to xp there was
a classic mode, which made elements of the xp ui resemble earlier
versions of windows. Do we see this in windows 7 or 8? heck no!

Many fully sighted users hate ribbons and the windows arrow, finding
them needlessly confusing, yet does microsoft care?  no!

As far as compatibility goes, the case for games seems very
different from the case for other software. Each game is to a lesser
or greater extent unique, indeed each game may be considdered an art
form to the extent that it is! unique.

Companies like Nintendo have recognized this, which is why there is
a wii virtual console etc. Microsoft however don't seem to give a
dam, despite the fact that windows has probably the largest
proportion of independent game developers for any operating system.

If including dependencies in windows isn't possible, why couldn't
microsoft create a package, something like a windows orientated
dosbox with 16 bit dependencies and vb registrations, expressly for
running older games on newer windows.

microsoft however don't care about either the players of indi
produced games, or the various indi developers who've worked on
them, which is why an open source alternative like dosbox was
needed. However this wouldn't be necessary if microsoft gave a dam,
but just like with the ribbon controls, microsoft just seem to
expect people to upgrade because something is newer.

i'm afraid for myself,  and indeed for probably a lot of other
computer users, my Pc is of value only based upon what I can do with
it, not based upon whether it has the latest technology or flashy
displays, - indeed I've never bothered upgrading my microsoft
word, sinse ms word 2007 which this machine comes with serves me
perfectly well.

One of those things is play old games.

Were my snes to actually break, there would be an alternative,
namely buying a wii (though sadly it wouldn't work well for me due
to access to the silly wii mote menues), however were my xp machine
to break, and were vb support dropped, i'd be saying goodbye to lots of
 games.

I suppose eventually some open source alternative to vb support will
appear, maybe a virtual machine option, but how useable that would
be for the average skilled user, and how accessible it would be I
don't know. Dosbox is afterall completely inaccessible, and the only
dosbox applications I have are ones that have been configured to run
as windows programs 

Re: [Audyssey] my beef about Microsoft - Re: plans for an updated Lone Wolf

[Willem Venter]

Shaun, you said:
We must remember that all the interfaces, reader, etc are kernal
based, no doubt we will have other issues with touch.

What exactly do you mean by this statement? If I decode this
correctly, do you imply that all screen readers need to install hooks
into the windows kernel that might not work the same on each system?
This is not true by the way. NVDA and System access does not require
any hooks into the kernel of windows and as long as you use the
methods to access the touch pad or anything else, I can't see what the
problem might be. The method jfw, etc uses will need to be changed
anyway as windows 8 is very different in this regard to windows 7 and
these hooks into the kernel won't work as before.

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Re: [Audyssey] plans for an updated Lone Wolf

[Willem Venter]

Hi dark.
Microsoft only invests development time where they stand to gain or
lose money. For the most part, even dropping support for vb was based
on the fact that they were forcing developers to switch to vb.net so
they could sell them a new set of development tools. The basic
programming syntax stayed the same, but they changed the developement
libraries to not be the same as those used with vb6. They did improve
the software with vb.net, but vb6 wasn't making them enough money to
justify fixing the security wholes and bugs for vb6.



Assisting developers or users of code to run a 10 year old program
does not gain them much sales, so they will invest the development
time somewhere else. This is also part of what drives the changes to
the user interfaces. They tell their customers see it looks
different, so it is new where as most of the code is reused over
windows versions.

I agree with those who said that for innovation to happen we need
change, but change does not always indicate something better.


On 12/12/11, Dallas O'Brien dallas-obr...@bigpond.com wrote:
 actually, the better codes, = better gaming possibilities. so yes, it
 makes a different.
 dallas


 On 12/12/2011 23:13, dark wrote:
 Frankly dallas where games are concerned, I couldn't give a monkies
 how good the newer codes are.

 As I said, I don't really care about how powerful or anything else a
 system is, I care about what I can do with it.

 That's why i stil have a snes, sinse I can play all the game i rather
 like on it, despite it being no where near up to the standard of
 todays games' consoles.

 As I said, I just would like microsoft to acknolidge this, perhaps
 with a compatibility pack option that could be downloaded for those
 who needed it.

 Beware the grue!

 Dark.

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Re: [Audyssey] Poll: playroom on iPhone or on mac

[Willem Venter]

Hi quentinC.
Your choice and reasoning regarding java is quite sound. I would also
not consider using java's ui with access bridge. Even using grid
layout or some other layout results are unpredictable and different on
different os's.

If you ever consider using your screen reader API from java, take a
look at the java native interface (jni). Once you've created a wrapper
it is easy to use. I think you can even use something like swig to
generate a useable entry point to use from java.

On 12/2/11, QuentinC quent...@cfardel.net wrote:
 Hi Thomas,
 You are going to a central point here. As you know, I'm still a big java
 fan, I wrote past games in java, and upcoming games outside of the
 playroom will very likely to be in java again. Why I haven't written the
 playroom in java ? There is two reasons for this:

 1. You might have experienced the problem I had with magic blocks most
 notablyy: speech via screen reader support was totally absent. I tried
 to arrange something myself using COM and DLL proxy libraries and failed
 to make something really reliable. All screen reader supports including
 SAPI were quite buggy and it mades the application to crash randomly,
 especially on 64 bit machines but also on 32 bit ones.
 As reliable speech output via screen reader is a very capital point in
 the playroom, I had first to find a solution for that problem before
 going further, and nothing came to mind at that time.

 2. The playroom is a little different to most of audiogames we have out
 there. It uses true windows GUI components, when most audiogames simply
 open a blank window and directly react to user input from there. Most
 audiogames actually use virtual menus and controls that are not shown on
 screen at all. Why this choice ? Again, there are multiple reasons:
 a. Initially the playroom was in french only. At the very beginning, I
 received comments telling that it would be good to be able to play with
 braille display. As you know, direct speech output to screen reader does
 not use braille, and the easiest way to have all so different braille
 displays behaving correctly is to place text into standard controls so
 that the screen reader does the job nicely in the way the user usually
 set in his preferences.
 b. I found also nice to be able to navigate through the game's text
 freely, to allow easy review, easy copy/paste, easy saving, and as easy
 to use as in normal applications. In fact this feature is quite rare,
 even on mud clients (where it's indeed a must-have in my opinion). I
 suffered not having easy review and copy/paste on mud clients I had, and
 I'm still suffering not having this feature on console windows and
 SSH... In playroom this is important because there's a lot of text to
 deal with, just like in a mud.
 c. Using normal GUI components has a nice edge effect: it allows sighted
 people to play. Of course, the playroom is not as interesting for
 sighted people as other common games because there's no graphics, but
 still, I know that there are a couple of sighted players in the
 playroom, they wouldn't be able to play if I had used virtual menus and
 controls in a blank window.
 To come back to java, standard GUI controls in java with a screen reader
 remain problematic: they are slow, sluggich and somewhat buggy. The bugs
 there are are very stupid indeed: before very latest jaws 13, backspace
 in an edit field says empty instead of the character being cleared, and
 NVDA sometimes says empty instead of reading a line of text in a edit
 field. For all screen readers, when you press up or down arrow sometimes
 it reads the old line instead of the one where you just arrived. Some
 less common screen readers don't support access bridge at all, etc. and
 don't forget the most important thing: java access bridge is no more
 actively maintained. In brief, all that is not very reliable, is not
 going to be more in the future, and this is not acceptable. You will
 tell me that there is scripting: yes, certainly. But if scripting is a
 working partial solution for experienced computer users, installing
 scripts is another problem on itself and especially if you aim to
 support multiple screen readers.. clearly not doable for less
 experienced computer users. And because the playroom is conceptually a
 simple game, it must be manageable by less experienced computer users as
 well.

 This closes my probably longest english post.

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Re: [Audyssey] Poll: playroom on iPhone or on mac

[Willem Venter]

Hi. It's good to hear. Like I said, swig almost does all the work of
making your java wrapper for you.

I've seen object oriented code in c, but I agree that it is not really
suited for object oriented programs. In theory you could use structs.

On 12/2/11, QuentinC quent...@cfardel.net wrote:
   If you ever consider using your screen reader API from java, take a
 look at the java native interface (jni). Once you've created a wrapper
 it is easy to use.

 JNI wrapper for my screen reader API is already under construction. I
 carefully though on this and that's why I said in last post that my next
 forecoming game is likely to be in java again, because I don't need any
 concrete UI for games like magic blocks (In fact I greatly would like to
 do a much more complex game, something I would certainly never be
 capable of doing it in C or C++ (I'm not eased with C++ and C is unable
 to deal with object-oriented programming)). But that's for next coming
 games requiring no concrete UI, not for the playroom.

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Re: [Audyssey] Poll: playroom on iPhone or on mac

[Willem Venter]

When I wrote swig, I meant swig.

http://www.swig.org/Doc1.3/Java.html

On 12/2/11, QuentinC quent...@cfardel.net wrote:
   Like I said, swig almost does all the work of
 making your java wrapper for you.

 NO. Swing has nothing to do with JNI wrappers.

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Re: [Audyssey] Poll: playroom on iPhone or on mac

[Willem Venter]

Hi all.
I must honestly say that I sometimes get very frustrated with members
in this community. Most developers don't make much money at all and
still people demand what they want when they want it and it should
also be free, as if they can even do half the things many developers
has done for this community. On top of that they are also rude.

I'm not saying we should not request features, but a little respect is
in order I think. Also ask instead of demand, they don't have to do or
add anything and they are not your dog.

On 12/2/11, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Brandon and all,

 Just a note about that. RS Games and Quentin are using different
 programming languages. The RS Games client is written in Python, at
 least the Mac/Linux version is, and I believe Quentin's Playroom is
 written in C. porting a game written in C to Mac is more involved than
 porting one in Python to Mac. If Quentin wants to develop a game for
 Mac without the expense of a third-party doing the port he'd have to
 completely rewrite it in Java, Python, or some other language better
 suited to cross-platform development. Basically,what I am getting at
 here is don't give blank statements like, if so and so can do it so
 can you, because there is usually a lot more involved than you
 realize. When it comes to developing multiple ports of a game it can
 get extremely complex.

 Cheers!




 On 12/1/11, Brandon Misch bmisch2...@gmail.com wrote:
 i would pay anything but would rather have a mac version first. and if rs
 games can create a mac version then you can.

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Re: [Audyssey] Poll: playroom on iPhone or on mac

[Willem Venter]

Hi all.
As I understand it, buying the IOS sdk costs $90. Then you probably
have to learn objective c, as this is the only non runtime language I
know of that you can program in on IOS. You need this to start
developing, even if you wanted your app to be free. This is just
another reason why an IOS version will cost money and why payed
outsourcing is a good idea.

As for java, from what I know java's sound support is not that great.
It has the javax.sound and javax.sound.sample packages, but getting a
workable sound interface will take more time. There is no
functionality offfered by things like sdl, or sfml. The other option
is something like lwjgl, but this still means that the app will be
tied to only platforms supporting lwjgl. Although many mobile
platforms run java, each run their own version of java with different
packages. Android for example has a java implementation almost like
the normal java with extra android packages. This is why it is much
easier to write programs for the android platform.

On 12/2/11, Ben gamehead...@aol.co.uk wrote:
 I believe that you are all being too specific if I may be so bold.  We do
 not want to tie it down to one IPhone but I recommend we take a new
 approach: an IOS version rather than an IPhone version, since also I
 don't have an IPhone myself.

 -Original Message-
 From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On
 Behalf Of Matheus Rheine
 Sent: 01 December 2011 21:59
 To: gamers@audyssey.org
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Poll: playroom on iPhone or on mac

 hi quentinc,
 i would definitely prefer an iphone version, firstly because the playroom
 would be accessible on the go -- no matter where you are.. on the
 bus,school,street,etc. on the other hand if you developed the mac version
 first it would be just like the windows version but for mac users that are
 using mac can't play it with vmware fusion?
 besides, what games do we have for the iphone? we have simple word games,
 some other games that have a potential like papasangre, nightjar,etc. these
 games are good,however they are too short. others like aurifi are too
 buggy,almost unplayable, then stem stumper,naval combat and mine sweeper
 that i consider enjoyable and playable, and now the de steno games, but we
 don't have the original
 monopoly,uno,1000 miles and other games that are extremely cool. it would
 use even more the potential that the iphone has in terms of gaming for us.
 i don't know how much i could pay,the brazilian store is hopefuly going to
 completely open the itunes store with songs,and i hope that games as well,
 in december,if yes,i'll be able to use a credit card to buy stuff, in this
 case i'd be able to pay some money,how much you think you would charge for
 it? 10,15? or more?
 thanks,and hope to see this project ported to ios in the future.
 -Mensagem original-
 De: QuentinC quent...@cfardel.net
 Para: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Data: Quinta, 01 de Dezembro de 2011 14:38
 Assunto: [Audyssey] Poll: playroom on iPhone or on mac

 Hello listers,

 I'm getting more and more demand to have an iPhone or a mac version of the
 playroom. I'm going to you to have your opinion about that.
 IF you are interested, please let me know ! Depending on your answers, there
 will be followings or not. In other words if nobody give a response, then I
 will conclude that nobody is interested and therefore will definitely give
 up the idea.


 1.  Are you interested on a iPhone or mac version of the playroom ? why or
 why not ? If you would have to choose between the two but not both in the
 same time, whould you choose a mac or an iPhone version ? why ?

 2. Considering that I don't have any apple machine myself, I will probably
 need to let such an application developped by a third partie.
 It will therefore certainly not be free. How much would you be ready to pay
 for that application ?
 The money whould be ideally shared between the developper of the application
 and a participation on server maintenance, in the best case 50-50, and in
 all case I wont ahve a direct control on the produced application.

 N.B. To not leave any doubts on that
 subject, the windows version will remain free as long as donations are
 sufficient to keep the server up.

 Please be constructive and complete in your responses. If you just say It'd
 be cool without any argumentation, please avoid posting.

 Thank you in advance for your answers.

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Re: [Audyssey] swamp

[Willem Venter]

Hi all.
I also agree that dying should cost you. My opinion is that some blind
people are just too used to having things the easy way because most
sighted people around them quickly respond in sympathy as soon as they
start complaining.

On 11/27/11, Jeremy Kaldobsky jer...@kaldobsky.com wrote:
 I didn't take the time to respond to any of these messages lately, but I
 wanted to jump in real quick to assure everyone that I am reading them all.
 For those who haven't heard, I finally got fed up with searching for this
 pesky reputation bug so I am tearing out about half of the server's code and
 just rewriting it from scratch.  This is rather time consuming, but
 searching for this bug is taking just as long and I'd rather just cut my
 losses and do the 1 thing that is guaranteed to fix it.  There's clearly
 some typo or logic error that is so well hidden that I've probably looked
 right at it a dozen times but never realized it was the problem.  When
 starting over, I think it is insanely unlikely that I will end up with the
 same problem.

 I've been writing down different people's suggestions, and I plan to add the
 after the bugs are squashed.

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Re: [Audyssey] swamp

[Willem Venter]

Hi. I agree completely with ryan. Games should me made as accessible
to all as possible without compromizing the challenge, otherwise where
should it stop. Should the zombies be made slower for those with a
motor impairment or should puzzles be easier in games like mota for
those who find it harder to solve puzzles? There are enough
limmitations on audio games as it is without imposing more limits
ourselves. Not using graphics to convey information is a big enough
challenge on its own. Sometimes it just works out that you have to
either work harder to be successful at a game or you can't play it, no
matter the reason. Other times a game might lend itself to a solution
for your problem. I'm not saying that developers should not put in
features to help people with other issues, just that there are too
many secondary disabilities to take into account. And there will
always be someone that feels they have been left out.

On 11/27/11, Dallas O'Brien dallas.r.obr...@gmail.com wrote:
 well put. yes, games are, by there very nature, ment to challenge us.
 without that challenge, they are boring.
 dallas


 On 28/11/2011 02:57, Ryan Strunk wrote:
 I completely agree that the issues of panning and such for the hearing
 impaired are important. I'm also trying to work on solutions in my titles.
 However, I don't believe that a game should be made harder for those who
 aren't good at games. The whole point of playing, in my opinion, is to
 overcome a challenge. Being an invincible hero gets old pretty fast.
 If a game is too hard, practice. If it's still too hard, play something
 else.
 I don't mean to sound like I'm coming down on you, Johnny, because that's
 not my intent. But this argument crops up on list from time to time, and I
 think it's a big part of the reason our games are the way they are.
 Back in my mainstream title days, I can remember renting a game for
 weekends
 on end in order to complete it. I would buy a game for $50, then play it
 for
 a solid month before I was able to finish it. When I bought my first audio
 game--Grizzly Gulch--I paid $50, then beat it in under 12 hours, and part
 of
 that 12 hours was because I slept.
 This could easily spawn its own thread--and well it might--but the point
 I'm
 driving at is that games should be harder, not easier, and Swamp is no
 exception.
 Best,
 Ryan

 -Original Message-
 From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On
 Behalf Of Johnny Tai
 Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2011 7:24 PM
 To: Gamers Discussion list
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] swamp

 While a challenging game's all good and fun, and I do agree, death has to
 mean something, but there has to be a balance- for those who are, 1:
 Gaming-challenged. and 2: Got a hearing issue as several of us do and have
 no solution yet. I know Jeremy said he's working on the 2nd, but in the
 mean
 time, it's a practice in frustration to be wacked off everytime you start
 to
 get somewhere.
 I'm actually doing alright at the moment, but that's by playing extremely
 cheap- staying enar the safe zone, everytime my health goes near 50% I run
 for home and log back in... This is the only way I can find so far to be
 able to save a bit of loot and not die every 3 minutes.
 Before you say it, yes I know it's very cheap, and I hate playing chicken-
 but I can't find any other way atm, what with the bugs and such, to play
 this without wanting to smash the mouse 100 times and over lol.

 Another point, the being realistic argument doesn't really jive- first
 of
 all, we're fighting...zombies...it's already not realistic. And secondly,
 if
 you want this to be realistic then you'd die from 2 or 3 zombie bites-
 infection, bleeding, etc, and not be in there swinging that axe like Conan
 the barbarian.

 Games like Resident Evil and many others at least offer you lockers/item
 boxes where you can go to store backup items in- so when you die, you just
 lose things you gain after last time you save.
 So no, it's not a blind gamer thing, maybe you can chuck it up to some
 people just don't like the stress as much as some others.

 My suggestion for making this a bit more sane is:
 1: Maybe a locker/saving system scattered throughout the map, so you don't
 hav eto hug the safe zone in fear of losing everything you gained the last
 hour.
 or
 2: Need mroe healing options... In my 200 kills and about 500 deaths and
 over 6 hours play time, I've ever only found 3 med kitts- and with the
 little amount each restore, it's really not enough- considering I've found
 no armor yet- the only 3 pieces I found went bye bye when a group of
 zombies
 greeted me inside a doorway. The zombies do alot of damage- especially a
 tyrant, I got caught by one and before I could kill it, it left me at 35%
 health and no med kitt.


 All that being said, it's a kick ass game, and I've no doubt that once the
 bugs are gone, things will even out for everyone- the new patch already
 solve the zombie-gangbang issue for me 

Re: [Audyssey] More BGT news

[Willem Venter]

Hi thomas. Many games are just scripts you run, so there is no
installer or uninstaller.
While I'm not sure if there is a limmit on how many keys a game may
create, not having one is dangerous. Just imagine a program going into
an infinite loop while writing values to the registry on each
iteration. This can happen by writing while instead of if.

It would be totally reliant on the developer to provide an installer
that knows how to remove every key their bgt script created, where as
a settings file harms noone even if  it is a few MB. The registry is
something that needs to be used with lots of care, even though it is
easy to do.

On 11/21/11, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Willem,

 Which are all valid points. However, as Philip mentioned he has put
 restrictions in BGT to keep novis BGT developers from dumping 100
 2048 KB of values into the registry So it sounds like Philip is aware
 of the issues and is taking steps to minimize any risk of someone over
 using and abusing the registry as you described.

 As far as removing keys I haven't looked but it stands to reason if
 BGT can create registry keys and set registry values that there should
 be wrapper functions for deleting them as well. In C++ the functions
 to do this is RegDeleteKeyEx and RegDeleteValueEx. If BGT has wrapper
 functions for those registry functions someone can add an option to
 delete keys prior to the uninstallation of the game.

 Cheers!


 On 11/21/11, Willem Venter dwill...@gmail.com wrote:
 Philip, I understand your decision to include it completely, though I
 still can't say I agree. Still if your paying customers request it, it
 is understandable.

 Kai, I did not question registry support because it was redundant. I
 questioned it because Microsoft's prinsipals from which they built the
 registry is flawed and dangerous. This could lead to unhappy users of
 bgt games where someone for example decided to (accidentally?) dump
 100 2048 kb values into a registry that usually has a size  10mb.
 This would have an effect on the whole operating system of the user.
 There is also no way to control the automatic removal of these keys if
 a user deletes the bgt script. To my mind it just didn't seem worth
 the extra effort for no gain and a big risk.



 ---
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Re: [Audyssey] More BGT news

[Willem Venter]

Hi philip. Yes imposing the limmit of 100 values is a solution. I also
think you should warn users of a script about a script accessing the
registry as I would still not like keys floating around in my registry
from games I tried once.

I understand what you mean about the delete file command, but it is
harder to accidentally delete the wrong file. My concern is less for
malicious people and more for working with something they don't really
understand. A file is simple and localized to your script while the
registry is not. Even for your screen reader example, restarting the
system would still allow the screen reader to work, where many keys in
the registry would permanently slow down the system, even if they are
later removed.

Thank you.

On 11/21/11, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com wrote:
 Hi Willem,

 I can insert a limit of, say, 100 values for each game. Each value can be at
 most 2048 bytes in length, which would mean that a script writer could not
 store more than 200 kb in the registry. Would this solve the problem for
 you?

 I think though that no matter  how you look at it, badly written code can
 always cause more or less serious issues. I have screen reader support in
 the engine where you can interrupt and stop the speech, and if someone wrote
 an infinite loop accidentally that kept stopping the speech it might be hard
 to shut that program down. Does this mean we should not have screen reader
 support? You can also delete files with the file_delete function. Again,
 something else that could be abused. There just comes a point where you need
 to decide whether or not you trust the writer of the game enough to subject
 your computer to their code, which is true of any game or software
 application. It is hard for me as the engine designer to prevent people
 from, intentionally or unintentionally, writing code that may be harmful in
 one way or another. But I will certainly do as much as I possibly can to
 make it more unlikely to occur, including limiting registry access if people
 feel it is necessary.

 Kind regards,

 Philip Bennefall
 - Original Message -
 From: Willem Venter dwill...@gmail.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 7:36 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] More BGT news


 Hi thomas. Many games are just scripts you run, so there is no
 installer or uninstaller.
 While I'm not sure if there is a limmit on how many keys a game may
 create, not having one is dangerous. Just imagine a program going into
 an infinite loop while writing values to the registry on each
 iteration. This can happen by writing while instead of if.

 It would be totally reliant on the developer to provide an installer
 that knows how to remove every key their bgt script created, where as
 a settings file harms noone even if  it is a few MB. The registry is
 something that needs to be used with lots of care, even though it is
 easy to do.

 On 11/21/11, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Willem,

 Which are all valid points. However, as Philip mentioned he has put
 restrictions in BGT to keep novis BGT developers from dumping 100
 2048 KB of values into the registry So it sounds like Philip is aware
 of the issues and is taking steps to minimize any risk of someone over
 using and abusing the registry as you described.

 As far as removing keys I haven't looked but it stands to reason if
 BGT can create registry keys and set registry values that there should
 be wrapper functions for deleting them as well. In C++ the functions
 to do this is RegDeleteKeyEx and RegDeleteValueEx. If BGT has wrapper
 functions for those registry functions someone can add an option to
 delete keys prior to the uninstallation of the game.

 Cheers!


 On 11/21/11, Willem Venter dwill...@gmail.com wrote:
 Philip, I understand your decision to include it completely, though I
 still can't say I agree. Still if your paying customers request it, it
 is understandable.

 Kai, I did not question registry support because it was redundant. I
 questioned it because Microsoft's prinsipals from which they built the
 registry is flawed and dangerous. This could lead to unhappy users of
 bgt games where someone for example decided to (accidentally?) dump
 100 2048 kb values into a registry that usually has a size  10mb.
 This would have an effect on the whole operating system of the user.
 There is also no way to control the automatic removal of these keys if
 a user deletes the bgt script. To my mind it just didn't seem worth
 the extra effort for no gain and a big risk.



 ---
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 gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
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 If you have any questions

Re: [Audyssey] More BGT news

[Willem Venter]

Hi Thomas. I don't think you can expect users with little computer
knoledge to inspect a bgt script for entries that are made to the
registry or even use a registry editor or cleaner. Also I'm not
currently in the habbit of reading the source of every bgt game I try.
It would simply take too much time.

I guess a delete created registry keys item in the menu could solve
the problem of not having an installer, but a menu item like this
cannot be enforced by bgt, so not every scripter will make one.



On 11/22/11, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Willem,

 Yes, I know all that. I wasn't talking about a third-party installer,
 but talking about adding the ability to remove and delete keys from
 the game script itself. I haven't checked over the new docs for BGT
 1.1 but I'm guessing Philip should have some functions in BGT similar
 to RegDeleteKeyEx and RegDeleteValueEx to remove keys from the
 registry as needed. If so there could be an option in the game's
 settings menu to delete registry keys/values. In other words clean up
 after itself before you delete the script. Make sense?

 So in a nutshell if the script can clean up for itself its not totally
 reliant on a third-party installer to remove registry keys their
 script creates. Any programming language or API I've ever used could
 both create and delete registry entries it uses. It is merely up to
 the developer to add this extra functionality to his/her game script
 to clean up after itself if a third-party installer isn't being used.
 I'd advise Philip to recommend the use of a feature like that to make
 it easier for gamers to insure no registry keys and stray values are
 left behind when deleting the BGT script in question.

 Cheers!



 On 11/21/11, Willem Venter dwill...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi thomas. Many games are just scripts you run, so there is no
 installer or uninstaller.
 While I'm not sure if there is a limmit on how many keys a game may
 create, not having one is dangerous. Just imagine a program going into
 an infinite loop while writing values to the registry on each
 iteration. This can happen by writing while instead of if.

 It would be totally reliant on the developer to provide an installer
 that knows how to remove every key their bgt script created, where as
 a settings file harms noone even if  it is a few MB. The registry is
 something that needs to be used with lots of care, even though it is
 easy to do.

 ---
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Re: [Audyssey] More BGT news

[Willem Venter]

Hi. Why would you need to store things in the registry? Settings can
be saved in a file and if you want data not to be altered you could
encrypt that file, so what advantage is there to using the registry?
Even though important keys are protected many problems can still be
caused if keys are not removed with uninstallation and searching the
registry can become slow if it is filled with erroneous data.

On 11/20/11, Kai kaixi...@sbcglobal.net wrote:
 Use the check for Updates link in your BGT Start Menu entry.

 Kai

 - Original Message -
 From: shaun everiss sm.ever...@gmail.com
 To: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com; Gamers Discussion list
 gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2011 10:32 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] More BGT news


 where is rev2, I can only get v1.1 installer.
 At 02:40 a.m. 20/11/2011 +0100, you wrote:
Hi all,

First, let me say thanks once again to all of those who sent me so much
positive feedback over the last few days since I released BGT 1.1. This
kind of stuff is what makes my work interesting, and worthwhile.

Now, I just wanted to write and tell you that revision 2 of the engine is
available. The reason I'm mentioning it on list is because it contains a
feature that many of you have been wanting for a long time, namely the
ability to read and write in the registry. I have made a settings class
which wraps this up quite nicely, and prevents script kids from tampering
with keys and values that do not concern them.

And as usual, the revision also contains a number of bugfixes reported by
users.

The next major feature that will see the light of day is joystick support.

I have started working on this and am making good progress. So stay tuned
for that!

Kind regards,

Philip Bennefall
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Re: [Audyssey] More BGT news

[Willem Venter]

Hi Philip.
If someone is unwilling or unable to master how serialization works,
I'm not sure I trust them with my registry. Would all bgt settings be
in some central place?

On 11/20/11, Dennis Towne s...@xirr.com wrote:
 Philip,

 What good reasons do you have for encrypting a configuration file?  I
 figure there must be some, but it personally makes no sense to me.

 In my opinion, a user should be able to edit the application config
 file as easily as possible (which usually means plain text with
 limited markup or straight text key-value pairs.)  Further, they
 should be able to simply delete the file, or paste ten thousand lines
 of garbage into it if they wish, and the application should still
 start up and do its best to use defaults and ignore stuff it doesn't
 understand.

 If you're encrypting the file to store passwords, you're doing it
 wrong.  Passwords should always be stored as a salt/hash data pair.

 Dennis Towne

 Alter Aeon MUD
 http://www.alteraeon.com

 On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 2:11 PM, Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com
 wrote:
 Hi Willem,

 The reason is mainly for convenience. Certainly you can store settings in
 encrypted files, and this is indeed possible in BGT already, but some
 people
 were a bit confused as to how to extract and interpret data again etc.
 Serialization, basically. The settings object gives you a much more
 convenient method for doing this, and it was something that a lot of
 people
 had requested. I confine the registry access to a games subkey, so it is
 not
 possible to damage unrelated data from other programs. While this
 certainly
 doesn't solve the general problem of serialization and larger quantities
 of
 data should still be stored in files, this does provide a quick and easy
 solution to store simple configuration settings.

 Kind regards,

 Philip Bennefall
 - Original Message - From: Willem Venter dwill...@gmail.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2011 6:34 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] More BGT news


 Hi. Why would you need to store things in the registry? Settings can
 be saved in a file and if you want data not to be altered you could
 encrypt that file, so what advantage is there to using the registry?
 Even though important keys are protected many problems can still be
 caused if keys are not removed with uninstallation and searching the
 registry can become slow if it is filled with erroneous data.

 On 11/20/11, Kai kaixi...@sbcglobal.net wrote:

 Use the check for Updates link in your BGT Start Menu entry.

 Kai

 - Original Message -
 From: shaun everiss sm.ever...@gmail.com
 To: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com; Gamers Discussion list
 gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2011 10:32 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] More BGT news


 where is rev2, I can only get v1.1 installer.
 At 02:40 a.m. 20/11/2011 +0100, you wrote:

 Hi all,

 First, let me say thanks once again to all of those who sent me so much
 positive feedback over the last few days since I released BGT 1.1. This
 kind of stuff is what makes my work interesting, and worthwhile.

 Now, I just wanted to write and tell you that revision 2 of the engine
 is
 available. The reason I'm mentioning it on list is because it contains
 a
 feature that many of you have been wanting for a long time, namely the
 ability to read and write in the registry. I have made a settings class
 which wraps this up quite nicely, and prevents script kids from
 tampering
 with keys and values that do not concern them.

 And as usual, the revision also contains a number of bugfixes reported
 by
 users.

 The next major feature that will see the light of day is joystick
 support.

 I have started working on this and am making good progress. So stay
 tuned
 for that!

 Kind regards,

 Philip Bennefall
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Re: [Audyssey] More BGT news

[Willem Venter]

Hi Thomas.
While I hear what you say about ease of use of the built in functions
of dot net for serializing and writing to the registry, sometimes
reading a file gives valuable insight to a problem and altering
something doesn't require a hex editor or custom loader for your file.

In my opinion the registry has no functionality that you can't
duplicate by using a file. Philip could even have emulated
registry-like behavior by using a file. The larger the registry
becomes, the longer it takes to find something in it.

On 11/21/11, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Dark,

 I do see how editing an ini or conf file could help in a situation as
 you describe. Howver, on the other hand it is more simple to serialize
 the settings and save them to a file or just send the settings to the
 registry. Modern programming languages like C# .Net, Visual Basic
 .Net, and Java all have fairly simple methods for serializing objects
 which makes saving and restoring a program's state very straight
 forward and easy. That's principly why I don't use an ini or conf file
 myself.

 Cheers!




 On 11/20/11, dark d...@xgam.org wrote:
 As an interesting fact, in a couple of low vision access games I've
 played,
 editing a conf file is actually a great way around mucking about with
 options menues, sinse I can just read it in Hal.

 The most extreme form of this is in the game Rocks n diamonds, which has
 about 8 pages! of options, the learning of which could be a nightmare,
 particularly as there are some really useful options buried in the list,
 such as the ability to set scroll delay to zero so that the screen scrolls
 around the characters' position, rather than the character running all
 over
 the screen (an obscure idea but brilliant for field of vision trouble).

 Obviously this doesn't apply to audio games where presumably all the
 settings will be accessible anyhow.

 Beware the grue!

 Dark.


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Re: [Audyssey] More BGT news

[Willem Venter]

Philip, I understand your decision to include it completely, though I
still can't say I agree. Still if your paying customers request it, it
is understandable.

Kai, I did not question registry support because it was redundant. I
questioned it because Microsoft's prinsipals from which they built the
registry is flawed and dangerous. This could lead to unhappy users of
bgt games where someone for example decided to (accidentally?) dump
100 2048 kb values into a registry that usually has a size  10mb.
This would have an effect on the whole operating system of the user.
There is also no way to control the automatic removal of these keys if
a user deletes the bgt script. To my mind it just didn't seem worth
the extra effort for no gain and a big risk.





On 11/21/11, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Willem,

 Well, for what its worth I completely agree with you about the
 registry. I've always thought the Windows registry was a bad idea on
 Microsoft's part, and never use it myself because I can serialize,
 encrypt, and write the same data to a file on the hard drive thus
 invalidating any need for a registry in the first place. Plus even
 Microsoft recommends using the registry sparingly for the same reasons
 you mention. So I personally choose to avoid it altogether.

 As for using plane text ini or conf files you have a point, but I
 still contend serialization is the best way to handle it for most
 practical situations. Plus the .Net Framework has serialization
 functions that will save serialized data to an xml file that can be
 edited but has the ease of use of binary serialization. That to me is
 really the best of both worldsas you have the ease of use of the
 serialize and deserialize functions, but write the data to a plane
 text  xml file that can later be edited by hand.

 Cheers!

 On 11/20/11, Willem Venter dwill...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Thomas.
 While I hear what you say about ease of use of the built in functions
 of dot net for serializing and writing to the registry, sometimes
 reading a file gives valuable insight to a problem and altering
 something doesn't require a hex editor or custom loader for your file.

 In my opinion the registry has no functionality that you can't
 duplicate by using a file. Philip could even have emulated
 registry-like behavior by using a file. The larger the registry
 becomes, the longer it takes to find something in it.

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Re: [Audyssey] new kof xiii vid!

[Willem Venter]

Hi.
Is there a place where info about menus and gameplay is available for
these fighting games? It would be nice to play, but I think many
people on this list, me included, hesitate to buy a game they cannot
try out propperly. Personally, my sighted friends do not play or enjoy
these types of games, so sighted help isn't always available.

On 11/19/11, Clement Chou chou.clem...@gmail.com wrote:
 Menus need to be learned.. but with any other fighting game, the case is the
 same. Gameplay itself is quite accessible.
 - Original Message -
 From: Ron hopkins ard...@samobile.net
 To: gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2011 6:18 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] new kof xiii vid!


 Is this game acissable?

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Re: [Audyssey] Game concepts BGT Version 1.1 Released!

[Willem Venter]

Hi Jeremy.
I also think what actually happen is that he quoted a comment jokingly
refering to your games as crappy code being preferable over code
that took ages to write. Score one for using propper punctuation...

From a personal side, your games gave me many ideas that I hope to
expand upon to create something new in my holiday time.

On 11/20/11, Jeremy Kaldobsky jer...@kaldobsky.com wrote:
 Thank you Thomas.

 I'm actually wondering if Shaun's comment sounded differently than he
 intended it.  This happens from time to time, and I am leaning in that
 direction because I don't ever remember anything blatantly negative coming
 from him in the past concerning my games.  I'm trying to give the benefit of
 the doubt since I know I have not given it in the past, and wish I had.


 Hi Shaun,

 No offense, but calling Jeremy's games crappy code is
 pretty
 offensive. Although I may disagree with his choice of
 programming
 languages etc his games are both good and he tries to make
 his games
 as stable as possible given the short turn around time
 between
 releases. I haven't encountered anything I would call
 crappy code. So
 please don't be so negative when commenting on his work.

 Thanks.


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Re: [Audyssey] rail racer, was: Re: question about input methods for swamp

[Willem Venter]

Hi Che.
This is great news. Will the registration system change too? I gave up
on RR the last time because the system kept telling me I was not
registered and I went through about three keys.



On 11/14/11, dark d...@xgam.org wrote:
 Hi che.

 That's great news! I've wondered what's happened to rr recently as last time
 I tried the online option didn't seem to be working, and frankly I've always
 found the track editer a bit of a pain.

 Having a demo for people to create and race tracks is a great idea I think
 and should bring more people into playing the game.

 Let me know as soon as it's ready and I'll update the rr page on
 audiogames.net and also post some news.

 All the best,

 Dark.


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[Audyssey] freeciv

[Willem Venter]

Hi all.
A sighted friend recently told me about a game called freeciv. For
those of you who never heard of it, it is a  game where you build up
your tribe to conker the world by defeating the other players or
sending a space ship into space to find DNA which you use to clone an
alien. The game allows you to play multiple races which start off with
different advantages. You start at 4000 bc and guide your civilization
from a primitive level of technology to the space age while balancing
diplomacy, war, technology advances, production and global warming.

The information I've gathered shows that the client can be used with
jaws and or Window eyes etc. Is this still true? I could not really
make any headway in the game with jaws. I also tried it on linux, but
reading the text inside the windows with orca 3.2 did not work.

There was also a discussion on this list a few years back, discussing
a custom front-end that can provide the information to us better with
either sapi or something like the new screen reader library. What
would the more experienced players of freeciv suggest as a good layout
of a frontend?

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Re: [Audyssey] Perilous Hearts preorders?

[Willem Venter]

Hi pilip.
I would also preorder given the chance. You have been around a long
time and you've invested too much into this community for me not to
trust you with my money.

On 11/10/11, dark d...@xgam.org wrote:
 Hi Philip.

 Even though my last preorder, airik the clerric didn't work out particularly
 well owing to the stupid windows xp bug, I can be certain that perilous
 hearts will! run without problems sinse it uses bgt which I know is fine.

 On this basis I'd be happy to preorder myself. However, Might I suggest
 rather than saying The game will be out on this day or your money back you
 might want to offer something that gives you a litle more lee way in case of
 flood, fire, crashes or something else.

 Something like the game will be out by the end of January 2012 or your
 money back picking the month of the game release rather than a day.

 This covers you in case of accidents of one sort or another and will
 hopefully prevent all the whiners starting up if an accident does happen.

 Other than that, I'd hate to see the game not get it's ful attention due to
 lack of funds, so would be glad to contribute financially with a preorder.

 Beware the grue!

 Dark.
 - Original Message -
 From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2011 10:24 PM
 Subject: [Audyssey] Perilous Hearts preorders?


 Hi all,

 I'm really very happy with the response I received for the game audio demo

 of Perilous Hearts, and so I wanted to ask the community a question. Would

 you consider placing a preorder for this game if the possibility was
 there? I know that the history of game preorders has been rocky in this
 community, but the difference in my case would be that you would agree to
 a small contract before ordering that basically would say:

 1. You get a slightly discounted rate when you preorder.

 2. We give you a definite release date. If the game is not released on
 this exact date or earlier, within a 24 hour period, you are entitled to a

 full refund.

 3. You would not have any kind of special privilege when it comes to
 requesting feature x, but I would certainly pay more attention to
 suggestions from preorder users provided that I personally thought they
 were good ones.

 Naturally, if I went down this root I would put up a playable demo of the
 game at the same time as I made preordering available. This would not
 include all the cut scenes etc that the finished game will contain and it
 would still use Sapi, but the game play would stretch as far as level 2
 which is where the real demo will also end.

 The reason I am considering this is because the funds for the game are
 running out, and so I cannot justify spending a lot more money on it out
 of my own pocket. But if I had some money from preorders I would be able
 to invest that to make the game the best it can possibly be.

 I would very much appreciate feedback on this.

 Thanks!

 Kind regards,

 Philip Bennefall
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Re: [Audyssey] Castaways version 1.6b including Mission 3

[Willem Venter]

Hi Jeremy.
I'm glad to see the new update. I will be trying it soon. Thanks a lot.
I have a few questions about the new units:
Does the walls stop your own units too?
I have been wondering about the strengths /weaknesses between rangers,
knites and cavalry in general for a while now. How much more effective
is cavalry over nights aside from speed?
I assume you need weat to feed the horses?

I look forward to playing.

On 8/15/11, Jeremy Kaldobsky jer...@kaldobsky.com wrote:
 You are attempting to start up a settlement to plunder the area's resources,
 and build up catapults that will be shipped back to serve in your nation's
 army.  You need to build 12 catapults to win the game, but the other nations
 will send troops to try to stop you.

 This looks fantastic.

 What is the goal of Mission Three?
 Thanks.
 Christina


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Re: [Audyssey] Programming elitists was: Re: Jeremy's incredible programming speed

[Willem Venter]

Ryan, I remember that time. If you recall I was one of those who
backed you up too.

In the end, Thomas admitted he was biest toward python and no insults
and name calling was required, just reason and statement of fact.

On 7/20/11, Ryan Strunk ryan.str...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hey Willem,
 I've also had to defend my stance on Python with Tom, and while I
 understand the need for diplomacy, I think there's also something to
 be said for mis-information. My Python response became necessary
 because Tom was telling aspiring programmers that Python was not a
 viable language. So much of his opinion was being stated as fact, and
 those interested in learning were taking it as such. It's hard not to
 be offended when, amongst a small community of developers, one of
 those self-same developers feels the need to criticize his peers. It's
 not like this market has much competition, after all.
 Tom stated in his first response to Che that he doesn't understand why
 people always mischaracterize what he says. If several people seem to
 take his words in the wrong light, perhaps he needs to reflect on that
 before getting upset at others for not understanding him.

 On 7/20/11, Willem dwill...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi all.
 Firstly, a lot of this nonsense could have been avoided with a little
 common sense and a lot less self important attitudes. Yes, Thomas did
 not always express himself diplomaticly enough, but also some people
 needled him repeatedly until he snapped. Saying this, an opinion is just
 that, an opinion and thomas had no right forcing his on people.

 I think people like Che and to a lesser extend Jeremy were over
 sensitive about the whole vb issue. Unnecisary atacking of people won't
 change their mind and helps nothing in the end. Thomas's email was
 totally uncalled for too and was really childish, but he wasn't the only
 one.

 I hope we can all learn to ignore the people or opinions we don't like.
 If you can't convince someone with reason, nothing will change their
 mind. There is something like a block sender list, after all.


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Re: [Audyssey] This is all crazy

[Willem Venter]

For the most part I agree with you Jeremy, but what did you acumplish
by  saying something like I think thomas feels left out and needs more
attention in the thread of castaways you refer to. It could not
convince him or change anything he already said.

I hope we can get back to gaming now.

On 7/20/11, Jeremy Kaldobsky jer...@kaldobsky.com wrote:
 Richard, I am completely behind you on this!  Well written, and I was
 personally surprised when I started seeing the messages changing in Thomas'
 favor on this.  Whether intentional, or not, the extra drama put into his
 last post seems to have blinded people from what was really going on.  If
 Thomas was being harassed off-list, by people expecting his games to be
 finished, then that is very unfortunate, but also totally unrelated to any
 of what has just happened between him and Che.

 I think people are taking sides, because they aren't paying attention to
 what the issue has been.  I'll give an example, that will hopefully
 illustrate the point I am trying to make.  If my neighbor was a racist, and
 he was unjustly hurtful to people, it would be wrong of me to stand by his
 side if one of those people started to argue with him.  Even though he was
 never mean to me, I have to look at the current situation, and admit that he
 Was! doing wrong to that person, or group of people.  When people take
 Thomas' side on this, because he was wrote helpful posts, because he worked
 on games they enjoy, or because he is a nice person, then they are making
 this very same mistake.  This argument is a result of how he speaks to other
 programmers, so if you are not one, you can't use the fact that he was kind
 to you as defense for his actions.

 Excuses have been made, that Thomas is simply misunderstood, but I doubt
 that is the case most of the time.  Before I Ever! had any personal dealings
 with Thomas, I read posts where he clearly put down other developers, and
 made himself seem like their superior.  I had seen this done to other
 people, and eventually I stepped in to defend someone who I felt was being
 treated especially bad by Thomas.  I can't remember who it was now, but at
 the time they were so fed up with his posts, that they were considering
 giving up programming altogether.  By stepping in to the conversation, I
 became a target myself, and I had Thomas criticizing how I do things.  He
 wouldn't stop posting more, so eventually I told him off, and vowed never to
 argue with him about programming languages again!

 Since that time, I've seen him poke at a few other people, but as soon as
 the castaways game started to get popular, there was Thomas, posting a huge
 put down of my methods, for no reason whatsoever.  Many of you probably
 remember it, as it was not posted long ago.  There was no reason to post
 anything about programming languages, but Thomas decided to go off on a
 familiar rant, presumably to point out that my game's success wasn't as
 deserving because it was not done his way.  Several people openly posted
 about how inappropriate he was with his negative comments.

 Like it or not, Thomas seems to believe that he is better than many other
 developers around here.  Instead of letting people do things their own way,
 he insists on pressuring others do follow in his footsteps, and won't stop
 even if you tell him you are happy with your own choice.

 Please keep this in mind before you take sides.  Be fair, and remember that
 even if someone wasn't bothering You! personally, it doesn't mean he/she
 wasn't bothering other people in an unfair way.  Sorry if people don't agree
 with me, but that is how I see it.

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Re: [Audyssey] CASTAWAYS SUGGESTION.

[Willem Venter]

Hi Jeremy. You can download the microsoft voices called Mike and mary
from microsoft. Also espeak has some decent though tinny-sounding
voices which does the job.

A hop to your favourite search engine will have to do as I don't have
any links. Of corse there are also many high quality voices you can
buy.

I also know the espeak voices are accessible from the windows 64 bit
control panel.

On 7/20/11, shaun everiss sm.ever...@gmail.com wrote:
 well to be honest I have been using nvda with espeak.
 Its low quality but it does the job.

Since I only have 1 voice myself, I can't really test my own code if
I tried to include options for changing those settings.  I'm new at
sapi voices, and I wouldn't even know where to begin, in finding more.

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Re: [Audyssey] Castaways, translated in to other languages.

[Willem Venter]

Hi Jeremy. Could you add the option of a text file in which we can
place more names to add to the game? People can then also share and
combine the files to make one huge base of names.

On 7/20/11, Jeremy Kaldobsky jer...@kaldobsky.com wrote:
 Odds are, the game won't be self voicing, simply because there are 1000
 custom names alone.  Multiplayer will become more and more integrated into
 the game, as it is developed, so there would be a lot of need to switch back
 to synth voices anyways.

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Re: [Audyssey] Castaways, translated in to other languages.

[Willem Venter]

hahaha Jeremy. You never know. Someone might ocr all the electronic
telephone directories they can find and dump all the names into a text
file.

On 7/21/11, Mauricio Almeida mauricio...@uol.com.br wrote:
 blind games brazil, specifically daniela and I,  will take the portuguese
 translation, as discussed
 privately.
 It's an honor to work with you.

 mauricio
 -Mensagem original-
 De: Jeremy Kaldobsky jer...@kaldobsky.com
 Para: audyssey gamers@audyssey.org
 Data: Quarta, 20 de Julho de 2011 12:38
 Assunto: [Audyssey] Castaways, translated in to other languages.

 Hey guys, I'm still busy coding the next version, but I've finished one of
 the pieces and it will require help from some of you!  As some of you know,
 I only speak
 English, and some people have contacted me because they would like to see
 Castaways translated into other languages.  I already have someone willing
 to do a French
 translation, but if you know other languages, and are willing to help, I'd
 appreciate it!

 Here is how it works.  Download this text file.
 www.kaldobsky.com/audiogames/castawayslang.zip
 Inside, you will find every piece of dialog Castaways displays, although
 they are broken into pieces.  There are 2 copies of each line, and it is
 important that
 the first line is left in English, exactly as it is written.  The line under
 it, is to be replaced with a translation.  If there is punctuation in the
 original line,
 try to keep it in the translated line as well.

 There are some places where similar messages seem like a bit of a waste.
 Some people may wonder why we don't just translate each word individually,
 but here is
 why I am doing it this way.  If I change all of the words from English, to
 another language, the way it is worded will no longer sound natural.
 Different languages
 arrange words differently, and sometimes extra words, or less words, are
 needed to get the right message across.  By letting you change an entire
 sentence, you can
 make it sound correct, in the new language.

 When finished, you should have the original English line, and the new
 translated line under it.  Please email the finished files back to me, and I
 will handle the
 rest.

 Please be mindful of capital letters and spelling.  If you decide to
 translate this into another language, please post on here what language you
 are doing.  This
 will help ensure, others do not spend time doing the exact same one.  When
 these are all handed back in, I will probably post them so that everyone can
 give them
 a final check, before they officially go into the game.  Thanks in advance
 guys!

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Re: [Audyssey] MOTA Voice Output

[Willem Venter]

Hi Thomas. I don't think the voice is the problem. Now you know that
pauses are a problem, simply handle the problem. There isn't such a
thing as a perfect voice.

On 6/26/11, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Phil,

 I think you are right. I was relistening to various voice clips
 earlier and I don't think it is the speech rate, but the fact Tom
 doesn't seem to pause between words the way a human would. A human
 usually takes a short breath between words, inserting a little pause
 there, where Tom tends to run it all together. So Climb Up: Up Arrow
 sounds like one endless string of words or sounds without a proper
 pause between them. Heather on the other hand is set to the same
 speech rate, but she pauses between words making it clearer to hear.
 So I think I might be better off using a different Sapi voice that
 pauses properly between words.

 Cheers!


 On 6/26/11, Phil Vlasak p...@pcsgames.net wrote:
 Hi Thomas,
 I am just not a fan of Scansoft Tom, as I think the voice is of lesser
 quality than some of the others.
  I noticed that some of the voices had  larger download sizes and most of
 the time, the larger the download the clearer the voice sounded to me.
 I suspect that some of the voices were either recorded or converted to a
 lower bit rate.
 Originally they had 8 and 16 bit rates on the voices but recently I
 noticed
 some 24 bit  that sounded much clearer.
 If you are going to stay with Tom, I do have a few suggestions.
 I think the main problem in understanding the voice is that the words are
 blended together too much.
 You could try increasing the pause between words from the Text Aloud menu.
 Or you could add a punctuation mark between some of the words.
 In  Actions_Selection2.wav
 You have him saying
 Climb Up: up arrow.
 but it sounds like
 climb upup parrow.
 A colon does not pause the voice as much as a comma does.
 I suggest adding commas in between words to make a sentence like this
 clearer.
 such as,
 climb, up, up, arrow.
 Phil

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Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News

[Willem Venter]

Thomas, why do you say 2d panning isn't supported in openAL? As I
understand it, 3d audio simply adds forward/backward and up/down
movement to the standard left/right panning of 1d sound.

So in effect, keeping the forward and up/down coordinates fixed while
varying the x should, and does, pan a sound.


On 6/18/11, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Charles,

 Yeah, it is, but for some reason 2d stereo panning isn't widely
 supported with audio APIs any more. Which means I have to go back to
 DirectSound for that 2d stereo panning that people want, because
 OpenAL and other audio APIs simply do not have that functionality.

 Now, for the 3d version of Mysteries of the Ancients it would be
 something of a different story. I could use OpenAL which has virtual
 3d audio, 5.1 surround sound, etc which is exactly what I want for a
 3d FPS game. Which is what OpenAL was designed to do. So perhaps, just
 perhaps, when I look at releasing the 3d version I might be able to
 build it using the cross-platform engine as panning won't be a major
 factor there. the only issue I can think of is getting joysticks and
 mice working with SDL. So I'm thinking that cross-platform could be
 possible provided we don't need 2d stereo panning but just 5.1
 surround sound which OpenAL does very well, and OpenAL is the default
 audio library on Mac OS and Linux, and their are versions available
 for Windows as well.

 On 6/17/11, Charles Rivard woofer...@sbcglobal.net wrote:
 Maybe this decision to put out a twentieth beta of MOTA for Windows is the
 way to go, but I hate to hear that the cross platforming is temporarily
 shelved, even though I am a Windows user, because I know that's not at all
 what you want to do.  Wile it might be a business decision, I still think
 it
 is a bummer.

 ---
 Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to
 heart.

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Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News

[Willem Venter]

Thomas, as far as I know, as long as you move the listener according
to the right scale of movement, smooth panning is possible and sounds
better than directX.

On 6/18/11, dark d...@xgam.org wrote:
 Hi Tom.

 just one quick question.

 If you use 3D sound only, will the game stil be playable with headphones?

 i have a very good set of 5.1 logitech speakers, however even for the first
 person audio games we have, I always prefer playing on headphones simply
 because I've found that I simply cannot get the same precision in
 positioning audio when using speakers, and for fine tasks such as targiting
 weapons, determining direction of multiple sound sources and the like I
 would find speakers far harder to play on however good the game audio was.

 i hope therefore if the 3D engine used 5.1 we could stil use headphones.

 Beware the grue!

 Dark.
 - Original Message -
 From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Saturday, June 18, 2011 10:54 AM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News


 Hi Charles,

 Yeah, it is, but for some reason 2d stereo panning isn't widely
 supported with audio APIs any more. Which means I have to go back to
 DirectSound for that 2d stereo panning that people want, because
 OpenAL and other audio APIs simply do not have that functionality.

 Now, for the 3d version of Mysteries of the Ancients it would be
 something of a different story. I could use OpenAL which has virtual
 3d audio, 5.1 surround sound, etc which is exactly what I want for a
 3d FPS game. Which is what OpenAL was designed to do. So perhaps, just
 perhaps, when I look at releasing the 3d version I might be able to
 build it using the cross-platform engine as panning won't be a major
 factor there. the only issue I can think of is getting joysticks and
 mice working with SDL. So I'm thinking that cross-platform could be
 possible provided we don't need 2d stereo panning but just 5.1
 surround sound which OpenAL does very well, and OpenAL is the default
 audio library on Mac OS and Linux, and their are versions available
 for Windows as well.

 On 6/17/11, Charles Rivard woofer...@sbcglobal.net wrote:
 Maybe this decision to put out a twentieth beta of MOTA for Windows is
 the
 way to go, but I hate to hear that the cross platforming is temporarily
 shelved, even though I am a Windows user, because I know that's not at
 all
 what you want to do.  Wile it might be a business decision, I still think

 it
 is a bummer.

 ---
 Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to
 heart.

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Re: [Audyssey] Temporal. Aprone's time traveling strategy game.

[Willem Venter]

Hi Jeremy.
This is a very interesting project, I'm glad you didn't trash it. Great job!

I didn't finnish the first mission yet, though I managed to take out 7
guards so far, but managing your passed selves are surprisingly
tricky.

On 6/13/11, Jeremy Kaldobsky jer...@kaldobsky.com wrote:
 I've just uploaded version 1.2b, which actually contains a major bug fix for
 mission 2.  If you are on mission 2, I highly recommend you take the time to
 grab this update otherwise you might not even be able to beat it.

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[Audyssey] Fwd: Release of BG Code Breaker 1.0

[Willem Venter]

-- Forwarded message --
From: ga...@spoonbillsoftware.com.au
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:19:28 +0800
Subject: Release of BG Code Breaker 1.0
To:

Hi,
You are receiving this email because you have previously ordered a
Blind Gamers game from Spoonbill Software.

This is to announce the release of a new blind accessible word game
entitled BG Code Breaker.

BG Code Breaker is a blind accessible version of the game known
variously as Code Breaker, Code Cracker or Codewords. The 26 letters
of the alphabet are coded using a simple substitution code which
randomly assigns a number from 1 to 26 to each letter. You are then
presented with a list of words, the letters of which have been coded
according to the substitution code. To start you off, three letters
have been decoded. The aim of the game is to completely solve the code
by decoding all the other letters, making as few errors as possible.

This is the 18th game in Spoonbill Software's Blind Gamers series. You
can browse descriptions of all 18 games at:

www.spoonbillsoftware.com.au/blindgamers.htm

To order this game, just reply to this email stating your full name
and country of residence.

If you want to be removed from the automatic notification list, please
let me know, and I will make sure that you are not bothered again by
unsolicited emails.

If you do want to be contacted whenever upgrades or new games are
released, please make sure you keep me informed of your latest email
address.

Ian Humphreys
Spoonbill Software
Albany, Western Australia

June 2011

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Re: [Audyssey] from an end user - Re: disrespect for gamers: was Re: Lunimals version 2.5b

[Willem Venter]

Hi Charles.
What you say is partially correct. However in theory it is more
complecated. Programmers use libraries, which are basicly segments of
a program, like the direct x dll's windows 7 users have to copy over
from an xp machine. If these libraries are not maintained, they simply
stop working with new operating systems. This is where using the older
visual basic  becomes a problem for the end user. Microsoft realized
that there were serious flaws in the concept of visual basic as it
was, and created a new language called vb  dot net, with similar
sintax for writing programs. Because Microsoft controls development,
the chances of an update for newer operating systems is 0. If it was a
more open standard, like java, python or freeBasic, I'm sure there
would be further development by users. This is why I would also not
recommend going .net, as microsoft could ditch it any time they feel
it is not profetable enough.


some old programs still work on windows. As an example, I have a mud
client that was written in 1995, which runs without a hitch on my
windows 7 64 bit machine, 15 years after the developer stopped
development, so age is not always a good  indecator weather a program
would work, there are many factors involved.

On 6/9/11, Charles Rivard woofer...@sbcglobal.net wrote:
 I might get some geeky answers to this, and I might not.  Anyway, this whole
 issue about what programming language should or should not be used, and why
 or why not, is interesting to me, but might not be to others.  What it boils
 down to, to me, is this:  A program, or in this case a computer game, is
 what?  It's a set of instructions that the programmer wants a computer to
 read, process, and follow based on the commands given by the end user.  Does
 the end user care about the language used to instruct their computer?  No.
 The end user cares about whether their computer does or does not interpret
 the programmer's instructions correctly.  Does this game, regardless of how
 it was written operate as it should on my computer?  That's what counts.  If
 a programmer writes programs that won't work on my PC, I'm not going to want
 more programs from that programmer.  The industry dictates that I buy a new
 machine that is capable of using the most up to date operating system, and
 now all the games I have spent my money on, and the games I have gotten at
 no charge won't work on the newest technology.  So, I buy the new PC.  What
 about all this fun software of the past?  It's obsolete.  It's useless.
 Now, games are designed to work with Windows 7, which I have.  Will they
 work on Windows 12 10 years from now?  Here we go again.  And it doesn't
 stop.  I don't think that Shoot #'97 would work on the PC I currently
 have.  It was a fun game, though.  Wouldn't it be great if there were such a
 program as a language converter that could translate a program that won't
 work on your new system into something that would?  There are so many
 programming languages, each with it's good and bad points, you probably
 couldn't handle them all.  But how about the most commonly used ones for
 running on Windows 98, XP, and Windows 7?  Oops, there are more and more Mac
 users all the time, and that other open source OS that I never can remember
 the spelling of.  Linnex?  There's the compatibility issue.  This message
 was longer than intended.  I gotta relax.  Now, where's that nineteenth beta
 of MOTA!  Whew!  Good thing I've got it!

 ---
 Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to
 heart.
 - Original Message -
 From: Jeremy Kaldobsky jer...@kaldobsky.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2011 11:14 AM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] disrespect for gamers: was Re: Lunimals version 2.5b


Well it seems that while I've been sleeping, this argument over
 programming languages has flared up once again.  It seems like this
 happens at some point each month, and that is exactly why some of my
 fellow VB6 users view it as attacks rather than suggestions.  In other
 aspects of life, you've undoubtedly had someone disagree with you about
 something, and they felt compelled to share their view in an effort to get

 you to do things their way.  That's normal, and should be expected during
 life.  If you listened to their opinion, but stuck to your own, at what
 point does it become inappropriate for them to bring it up again and
 again?  Perhaps you'll listen to the same arguments 3 or 4 times, but when

 the other person is compelled to repeatedly push their opinion on you, it
 becomes a hostile situation.

I'm not writing this to any one specific individual, so please let me
 make that clear.  This is being written, generally, to the long list of
 people who are still pushing the same views after months and months.
 Actually, this has probably been going on for a lot longer, but I haven't
 been on audyssey for very long.

I want to dispel this idea that we VB6 

Re: [Audyssey] Lunimals version 2.5b

[Willem Venter]

Hi Jeremy.
While I can see you feel very strongly about this, my question was not
meant as an attack. Instead I think we as a community should come up
with a solution. I just read an article where some companies project
that at least 40% of all netbooks will have arm processors at the end
of next year. As netbooks are a cheep form of computing, I can see
many blind gamers going that route. The majority of audiogames will be
affected, as they use older technology from microsoft which they don't
seem interested in updating for arm. These games include Jim Kitchen's
games, GMA, LWorks and many fun games like BSC games that are no
longer developed actively.

Many gamers are also moving to other platforms like linux, as the cost
and restrictions related to windows software is becoming prohibitive.

On 6/7/11, Jeremy Kaldobsky jer...@kaldobsky.com wrote:
 If we all focused on what the next operating system will be, what the next
 popular devices will be, or what the next popular programming language will
 be, it would take 10 times longer to produce any games.  I think there are
 enough examples of this exact thought process to prove my point.  We do!
 need some people to be thinking that way, but you also need people who worry
 more about here and now.

 --- On Tue, 6/7/11, Willem dwill...@gmail.com wrote:

 From: Willem dwill...@gmail.com
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Lunimals version 2.5b
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Date: Tuesday, June 7, 2011, 3:27 AM
 Hi.
 I know that visual basic support have been discontinued by
 microsoft.
 What will happen when the next virsion of windows comes out
 that can run on arm devices? I'm pretty sure copying and
 registering a dll won't make it work.
 - Original Message - From: Jeremy Kaldobsky
 jer...@kaldobsky.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 8:49 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Lunimals version 2.5b


  I don't have any plans to do that.  I know it
 would prevent anyone from having to register Direct X7, but
 most people don't end up having to do that anyway, and those
 who do, only have to do it once and they are set for any
 game that uses Direct X7.  Registering the file is
 pretty easy to do, and only a few people seem to have had
 trouble following the steps in the read me file.
 
  Eventually I'll stop being lazy, and I'll move over to
 a newer version of Direct X, but I have no real incentive to
 do so right now.
 
  ---
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Re: [Audyssey] disrespect for gamers: was Re: Lunimals version 2.5b

[Willem Venter]

Hi Jeremy.
You completely missed my point. As an end user, I don't care if you
use smoke signals to code your games, as long as I can run them on a
normal pc. Up to now it has usually been possible, all be it with a
little effort in some cases.

I really like all your games. I spent hours on lunar animals alone the
past weeks, not to mention the other free games from Jim Kitchen that
I would hate to lose, but if they don't work, they don't work and
that's where what language you use becomes the end user's problem, as
I won't be able to run your games if I get a new arm-based pc for
christmas.

That is only half of the issue. I spent hundreds of dollars on
non-free audio games which will also stop working in the immediate
future from what I can deduce from the information microsoft have been
releasing the passed while.

Again, it has nothing to do with you or the language that you chose to
use, and everything to do with incompatibility. Please stop being
oversensitive.

On 6/9/11, Jeremy Kaldobsky jer...@kaldobsky.com wrote:
 Well it seems that while I've been sleeping, this argument over
 programming languages has flared up once again.  It seems like this happens
 at some point each month, and that is exactly why some of my fellow VB6
 users view it as attacks rather than suggestions.  In other aspects of life,
 you've undoubtedly had someone disagree with you about something, and they
 felt compelled to share their view in an effort to get you to do things
 their way.  That's normal, and should be expected during life.  If you
 listened to their opinion, but stuck to your own, at what point does it
 become inappropriate for them to bring it up again and again?  Perhaps
 you'll listen to the same arguments 3 or 4 times, but when the other person
 is compelled to repeatedly push their opinion on you, it becomes a hostile
 situation.

 I'm not writing this to any one specific individual, so please let me
 make that clear.  This is being written, generally, to the long list of
 people who are still pushing the same views after months and months.
 Actually, this has probably been going on for a lot longer, but I haven't
 been on audyssey for very long.

 I want to dispel this idea that we VB6 users are only using it because
 we don't know any other languages.  I feel that view paints us as ignorant
 programmers who are only rejecting your view because we don't know any
 better.  This is not the case, and I, for one, happen to know just as many
 languages as the people who don't want me using VB6.  Admittedly I would be
 rusty with most of them, since I haven't used them in years, but I prefer to
 be viewed as a peer rather than a programming novice who isn't experienced
 enough to know what's best for him.  From my experience, there is a
 stereotypical progression in how programmers think.  When they start out,
 they stick to what they know because it is all they know.  Like a child
 clinging to pool floaties, it is scary to first venture away from what is
 keeping you safe.  As the programmers begins learning more, they become
 excited by everything that's out there, and so they quickly begin learning
  everything they can about everything!  This is usually when a programmer
 will fill their belt with several programming languages they have learned
 to use.  When they've branched out sufficiently, they begin to see the need
 to narrow their focus back down, and so they will use friends and society to
 form strong opinions about why one/some languages and methods are superior.
 This becomes their justification for abandoning their previous way of
 thinking, and often leads programmers to become so opinionated that they
 will attack others who do not agree with them.  The programmers in this
 category, and believe me I've known more than I'd like to, defend their
 views with the same level of passion you see on protest picket lines,
 political debates, and religious arguments.  Personally I think it is a
 terrible shame, but programmers or not, people are still people, and people
 suck.  Like an old person who eventually stops caring what other people
 think,
  sooner or later programmers break out of their opinionated shell.  When you
 are so passionate about a single view, you may be able to admit their is
 another side, but you can't ever weigh it in in an unbiased way.  A person
 who is stuck focused on compatibility issues is going to view everything
 through those goggles.  For my fellow VB6 programmers, we simply have to
 accept that everything and anything we say will be viewed from that
 perspective and we stand no chance in changing it.

 Countless times in movies we see the diplomat and the war general facing
 some situation.  No matter how events unfold, good or bad, the diplomat will
 twist it and view it as an opportunity to grow and build relationships, and
 the war general will twist and view it as a trap or security risk.  These
 are common examples of how people all into a 

Re: [Audyssey] disrespect for gamers: was Re: Lunimals version 2.5b

[Willem Venter]

Hi Charles and Jeremy.

Charles, on the new windows 7 machines, some dos programs stop working
or have  random errors. This is because the machine's architecture
have changed too much to run them like a normal program. A dos mode is
emulated by the machine, which doesn't always give the expected
results, as there as so many things that could go wrong  with an
emulation.

Jeremy, it's not a question if it won't work, I'm telling you visual
basic applications won't work on any arm-based machine as things
stand. This is because arm processors use a different instruction set
that is not compattible with intel's  x86 or x64 instruction set. I'm
pretty sure microsoft won't recompile the visual basic libraries. They
already refused to include the vb libraries in windows 7 even though
they were compatible.

On 6/9/11, Charles Rivard woofer...@sbcglobal.net wrote:
 Are there games that are designed to be played using DOS that absolutely
 cannot be played on most systems?  How long ago was it said that DOS would
 be no more?  How about a paperless society with the advent of being able to
 send files to one another?  We now use more paper than ever before.

 ---
 Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to
 heart.
 - Original Message -
 From: Jeremy Kaldobsky jer...@kaldobsky.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2011 4:24 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] disrespect for gamers: was Re: Lunimals version 2.5b


I understand that the issue is about users being able to play the game.
For many years, since Microsoft first stopped supporting VB6, people have
been saying that any day no one will be able to use software written with

it.  Obviously with each passing year this gets closer to the truth, but we

have different opinions on the seriousness of this problem right now.  As
I've said, when things change, I'll re-evaluate my position on the
languages I use.

 You're probably right that the next generation of windows won't support
 VB6 at all, but then again, you might be wrong.  Before Vista released,
 many people told me that it would be impossible to run VB6 applications on

 it, and it didn't turn out that way.  It's entirely possible that some
 small change will allow VB6 apps to run on Windows X, just as it has
 allowed Windows Vista and Windows 7 users to run them.  If not, then
 that's life and we will deal with the new situation.  We are both playing
 a guessing game, clearly some of you guess that all VB6 titles will be
 lost forever, and I am guessing that probably won't be the case, or at
 least I'm not so convinced that I'm willing to change how I'm currently
 doing things.

 Dennis, when you say people can't play the games, I assume you mean the
 theoretical date when some new windows absolutely can't run VB6 games.  As

 things stand at the moment, I'm unaware of any version of windows (2000
 and later) that can't run VB6 games.


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Re: [Audyssey] Towers of War

[Willem Venter]

On map 1, there's nothing like a hugely upgraded microwave at d4 to
grill all them beasties, but that I put in only later. I never use
sniper towers as it is not powerfull enough and for what it does it is
too slow.

On 5/22/11, dark d...@xgam.org wrote:
 I personally disagree ken on microwave towers first, myself I always go for
 rifle towers, then microwave, then frost and poison and finally cannon and
 relativity, but ultimately I try to end up with fewer towers with mega
 upgrades rather than many smaller towers, sinse especially the rifle tower
 really can get deadly when it's upgraded.

 Beware the grue!

 Dark.
 - Original Message -
 From: The Addictor kenwdow...@neo.rr.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2011 5:05 AM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Towers of War


 Save up your money, because you earn interest.  That's the big key.  Start

 by putting two microwave towers in the middle of the path.  Then, as you
 save up money, put a frost tower and a poison tower at the very beginning.

 Put all these at the edge of the path.  Later you can keep adding towers,
 but where you position them is key.  For example, poison works slow, so
 don't put it anywhere but at the beginning of the path--same with frost.
 Cannons can go pretty much anywhere, and so can sniper rifles.  Microwaves

 shoot out their energy in all directions, so them at the turnings of the
 path.  Just remember not to add too much at once--one microwave tower
 should do for the first two levels.  Keep adding--slowly, and save often.
 Ken Downey
 The Addictor
 www.TheAddictor.com

 - Original Message -
 From: Damien Pendleton dam...@x-sight-interactive.net
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Saturday, May 21, 2011 1:59 PM
 Subject: [Audyssey] Towers of War


 Hi,
 Can anyone give me any hints as to how Towers of War should be played?
 I've tried it out for about a week now, building different towers etc,
 but I'm constantly losing on level 5 if not before.
 Thanks.
 Regards,
 Damien.
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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production -Re:bringsbackmemories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

[Willem Venter]

Hi Jeremy.
Thanks for the bio. From the quality and number of the games you
produce, I surmised that you have been programming for a while as
proficiency only comes with time and practice.

Over the years I can remember only one other developer, Ian Humfrees
from spoonbill games who released as many games at a short stage of
time.

Making a game is no joke, even if some make it look easy. I also agree
with those who said that any idea implimented well will be enjoyed.
The most important thing is choice. A few years ago for example, there
were only one strategy game with resource management, Galaxy ranger,
made around 2005. Then soundRTS came out in 2007 or 8, followed by
time of conflict and towers of wa last year and now lunar animals.
People take heart if some project is received well and they can learn
from mistakes other people made and players also know better what
would work and what doesn't.

As a blind programmer who likes strategy I am now considering creating
my own strategy game. This would however not have been possible
without the examples, as I have not been exposed to sighted strategy
games.



On 5/19/11, Charles Rivard woofer...@sbcglobal.net wrote:
 Not using a preexisting outline or story idea just because it already exists
 sure is narrowing your possibilities.  I think that only using original
 ideas for a game is like severing your body in order to save your little
 finger, or like cutting 7 fingers off because they are multiples of the
 eighth.

 ---
 Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to
 heart.
 - Original Message -
 From: Jeremy Kaldobsky jer...@kaldobsky.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 9:57 AM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game
 production -Re:bringsbackmemories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed


 Dark,

I might have given the wrong impression with my last post.  I didn't
 mean to suggest that the developers Should ignore using existing ideas, I
 just meant that it is probably what they are doing nonetheless.  As you
 said, if the developers adopt that mentality we would have fewer games.
 If I've been reading this topic correctly, that is exactly what others are

 claiming has happened.

I don't believe all of the developers are worried about repeating
 existing game styles, but I know I do.  Because this is something I know I

 personally do, I find it reasonable to assume that some others would do
 the same.  I can't really conclude that all do, or that most do, but I can

 say for sure that at least some do.

When I was on vacation in January, I wrote Daytona, but I also
 partially completed a game where you defend a bunker from dragons, a game
 where you are a world war 2 era solder who was sent out to investigate a
 UFO crash (turns out to be a huge alien robot bent on destruction), work
 on a game similar in style to Daytona, and I even started on a side
 scroller with an Indiana Jones feel.  Daytona was the only one that felt
 unique enough for me to take it all the way to being released.  If I had
 no other game ideas, I would probably have stuck to one that was closer to

 some existing game, but it is easy enough for me to just hop onto a
 different game idea so why not?  lol!  Rail racer was released around that

 time as well, so after playing it I removed any car racing games off of my

 list of game ideas to make.  I believe I'll continue to do the same thing
 as I encounter more and more audio games coming out.

If I put myself into another audio game developer's shoes, if I had an
 idea that was very similar to Daytona I wouldn't even bother making it.
 Yeah, it would be unique in its own way, but I would worry that everyone
 would be comparing it to the existing game.  Maybe you aren't a wizard,
 and maybe the mouse movements are meant to run machinery, but in the end I

 would assume moving the mouse to form shapes is still just moving the
 mouse to form shapes.  Hopefully I'm wrong and other developers aren't
 stuck in the same mindset as I am, but I don't think I'm wrong.


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 If you have any 

Re: [Audyssey] periless hearts, was Speech on Blastbay products

[Willem Venter]

I agree. There is a big difference between games and real life. It
reminds me of the guy who thought he managed to enchant a broomstick
like in Harry Potter and jumped off a roof. While you can easily do
this in Sarah and the castle of witchcraft and wizardy, this would be
a bad idea in real life.


You should always know where the game stops and life begins, else life
could very quickly become interesting.

Right, I'm off to try and break into a bank...

On 5/19/11, Matheus Rheine an...@bol.com.br wrote:
 i wonder why sighted games can contain brutal violence, not only against
 human, but animals and everything, just as an example check out one of
 the call of duty games, i think it was modern warfare 2, it had a scene
 that you had to kill innocent peoples that were in the streets, there
 was no way of avoiding it, and it was shocking.
 now why blind games can't have that kind of stuff? we are special and
 different peoples in a perfect world were violence is nonexistent? we can't
 have adult
 games? only games with adult words like hangman, concentration, etc?
 i'm glad that you can choose to kill these monkeys and i really hope
 that you add even human vs human combat in the game.
 this email is not to offend you phil, but just to comment on what you
 said, if these peoples don't like what they see in the game, it's easy,
 philip is not forcing anyone to play it.
 -Mensagem original-
 De: Phil Vlasak p...@pcsgames.net
 Para: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com,Gamers Discussion list
 gamers@audyssey.org
 Data: Quinta, 19 de Maio de 2011 12:02
 Assunto: Re: [Audyssey] periless hearts, was Speech on Blastbay products

 Hi Philip,
 I see a distinction between killing adult humans and monkeys.
 Killing monkeys is like killing human children and babies.
 Most of them are considered not aggressive and not as smart as adult humans.
 It is good that you don't have to kill them to win the game.
 Phil

 - Original Message -
 From: Philip Bennefall phi...@blastbay.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 11:49 AM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] periless hearts, was Speech on Blastbay products


 Hi Phil,

 Personally I don't see this as a problem. You kill humans in games all the
 time, and that's just as harmless as killing monkeys since in both cases,
 it's obviously not real. You do not need to kill the monkeys in this game,
 but you can. So if people don't want to, they don't have to. I think this
 very much falls in the category of having to tell the difference between
 real life and games, whether it be when killing humans or monkeys or
 wolves etc.

 Kind regards,

 Philip Bennefall
 - Original Message -
 From: Phil Vlasak p...@pcsgames.net
 To: phi...@blastbay.com; Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 4:45 PM
 Subject: periless hearts, was Speech on Blastbay products


 Hi Philip,
 Many people would object to the killing of monkeys in a game.
 That is unless they could attack and harm you.
 The same would apply to dogs and cats.
 That is why in Monkey business, you can only net them and in Shades of
 doom
 the dogs are mutant and will attack you.
 If you want monkeys in the game you could say they were carrying a disease
 like rabies.Phil


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Re: [Audyssey] Python resources, possibly somewhat o/t

[Willem Venter]

Hi Thomas.
Just my two sens worth :
I study computer sience and I'm currently third year. While we use c
and java as our main development languages, python is a compulsary
module too, simply because proof of concepts are so easy to program.
Also doing tournaments like IT challenge or Google codeJam is much
easier with python.
As for braces, python has a similar issue with indentation, which I
guess leads to better looking code, but I find annoying.

On 4/24/11, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Ryan,

 Yeah, I understand. I mean it is taking me 10 times longer to write
 Mysteries of the Ancients than it would in something like Python
 simply because the language is so much more complex. When you think
 about how many braces, brackets, and other syntax goes into a standard
 C++ application it all adds up to extra time typing all of that where
 in Python you can just double space and start your new function
 without having to remember if you added enough right braces to the end
 of your function to properly terminate that block of code.

 All the same there are some things that just rilly turn me off about
 Python. For example, the way the Python developers decided somewhere a
 long the way not to use technical terminology and rename everything to
 be Python specific. As someone who was trained professionally in
 languages like C++, Java, etc it really gets me that instead of
 calling object serialization by its technical name they call it
 pickling. Instead of calling an array an array they have dictionaries,
 lists, toupals, etc which just seems weird to me. So that's one reason
 I said Python teaches people bad habits and would have to relearn
 terminology and things like that if they take up another language.
 Python tends to forsake the technical terminology, and other things a
 pro would learn in college in order to be more understandable to
 someone without the high priced education. I understand how calling an
 array a list or dictionary  might be easier to grasp than a name such
 as an array, but the fact of the mmatter is they are technically
 arrays with a different name. Although, where they got the name
 pickling for object serialization I'll never know. Its a bit silly to
 my mind.

 Anyway, as you said we are both creating games and that is the
 important thing. In the end how you write it doesn't matter as long as
 it works.

 One advantage you have with Python that I don't have with C++ is
 cross-platform support.  Since Python is primarily a runtime language
 most of your game will use modules like PyGame that wraps some native
 C++ library like SDL. Since you aren't bound to SDL directly you can
 install the pyc files and run them anywhere there is a compatible
 Python runtime and PyGame installation without recompiling. All the
 low-level stuff like native code is done by the C/C++ guys leaving you
 free to write your games without worrying about the APIs you are
 using.

 With C++ I have to recompile the game, and even sometimes modify
 sections of the program to compile it on a new target platform.
 However, since there usually are no handy third-party wrappers for
 things I usually get stuck using some sort of operating system
 specific code like SAPI, the Win32 API, DirectX, whatever meaning I
 have to do a lot of upgrading to support Mac/Linux. This is an issue
 I'm really trying to solve as it gets tiring rewriting this or that to
 support one operating system or the other. Most likely after MOTA is
 done I'll write some third-party wrappers for OS specific things
 meaning I can just include this or that library during compile time
 and forget it.

 Cheers!






 On 4/24/11, Ryan Strunk ryan.str...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hey Tom,

 Fair points both, and I can well understand one's bias toward a particular
 language. I myself am kindly disposed to Python if you hadn't noticed. For
 me it really came down to basic understanding. I hated having to write out
 a
 complex program to print hello world, especially when every book I read
 said things like Don't worry about the class and void stuff yet. We'll
 get
 to those in chapter 8. If we don't get to understand them immediately,
 why
 do we use them now? With Python, I just type print 'hello world' and I'm
 done. I love the fact that when I want to test health subtraction, I can
 just launch the shell with those particular methods and test them
 interactively. It's cut down on any number of semantic errors as a result.

 That said, I'm jealous of things like XNA that have all sorts of sound
 craziness that I don't have. I suppose I'll just have to port some open
 source libraries and use them myself.

 In the end, we're both making games, and I think that's the important
 part.

 Ryan

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Re: [Audyssey] Unleash Your Potential!

[Willem Venter]

Ray of light,
from what he wrote on his blog on this list, he has most of his
project in place, which is more than many other people that made
announcements could say.

Good luck Ryan.

On 4/24/11, Yohandy yohand...@gmail.com wrote:
 Not trying to sound negative here, but it seems that every once in a while
 we get some announcement on here about some huge audio game project coming
 out. it never materializes and we're left waiting for this non-existent
 game. let's hope we aren't disappointed yet again. I learned to take these
 announcements with a grain of salt, and so should everyone else. usually
 when these announcements are posted, the game is still in the planning
 stages and nothing ever comes of it. all this does is give most gamers hope.
 I really hope I'm wrong this time and that this game does indeed come out.



 - Original Message -
 From: GreyMatter Info i...@greymatterproductions.com
 To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2011 7:30 PM
 Subject: [Audyssey] Unleash Your Potential!


 Inside every one of us is a warrior just itching for a fight.
 It is powerful.
 It is swift.
 It is eager for battle.
 I will set your warrior free ...

 My name is Ryan Strunk, and I am the lead designer for Grey Matter
 Productions, a new company dedicated to producing high-quality audio
 games.
 In the near future, we will be releasing our first offering: a game which
 will allow you to step into the ring against some of the meanest,
 toughest,
 and craziest boxers this side of your cerebral cortex. For details on the
 game as they become available, check out our official blog at
 www.greymatterproductions.com/blog or follow us on twitter at gmpupdates.
 Otherwise, you'll hear from us when it's time to strap on your gloves.

 Until then ...
 Ryan


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Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News 3/31/2011

[Willem Venter]

Hi Thomas.
I'm glad to see you've weathered the storm and hope things will go better soon.

All the changes you mentioned sound very exciting! I can't wait for
the 3d fps beta!

On 3/31/11, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Charles,

 Yeah, tell me about it. For a couple of days there I thought I was
 going to die. You know how when you get a serious case of the flu all
 you do is sleep, throw up, sleep, throw up, break out in chills, throw
 up, sweat to death, throw up, etc.There were a couple of nasty days
 were I couldn't keep anything down. I tried hot tea and chicken noodle
 soop and that came right back up. I tried taking some medicine and
 that came right back up too so had to rough it. Let's just say work of
 any kind wasn't on my mind for a good two or three entire days. It was
 all I could do to get out of the bed, use the bathroom, and get back
 into bed. I was so physically drained that I think I was probably
 sleeping 12 to 16 hours at a stretch. So game programming definitely
 wasn't too important.

 Cheers!


 On 3/31/11, Charles Rivard woofer...@sbcglobal.net wrote:
 A great update, and, as far as the health of the family, I'm sure glad to
 hear that things are getting back to whatever normal?? is.  It only goes
 to
 show that there is more to life than your job or your secondary job,
 namely,
 life on the home front.

 ---
 Shepherds are the best beasts!

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Re: [Audyssey] bug in danger city

[Willem Venter]

Although damion has the source code, he is not actively developing it.
In fact, no one is. It is abandonware.

On 2/4/11, Jack F mymonkeyboy2...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Damien,
 I'd like to tell you about 2 miner bugs that I encountered in danger
 city the last few month I had of beta testing the game. The first one
 is not really a bug, but a little problem which confuses me in
 gameplay. I'd like it if you change the thug's footstep sounds. With
 both footsteps being the same, I get confused about who's walking.
 Also, this one's not really a bug, but a learn game sounds menu and a
 pause game feature would be grate. A bug I've encountered is that when
 I complete act 3, I hear act complete. Points: 1705 your total score
 is... then the bomb explodes. Then it says the total score then the
 game closes. I'd also like an indicator when jumping mines. It goes
 like this. You're walking, and hear your footsteps change, once you
 hear it you wood imediatly jump over it. Also I would much rather
 prefer less mines in act 3. Also if you would change the mine sounds
 because they make so much of a humming wound that it's hard to
 distinguish whether there's one on the left or right, even with
 headphones. Please fix these in the next beta release.
 best regards, Jack

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Re: [Audyssey] game objects in memory

[Willem Venter]

Hi Cara and all.
Thanks for the discussion. Reading all this was very informative and
helpfull. An observation I might make is that if you work only in
radians, multiplying
and dividing with the constant (pi/180) becomes redundent.  This will
save some small calculation and simplify the code. If you really want
to see the normal
degree form of the angle you could just use standard functions to
convert it back for displaying.


On 12/12/10, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi Cara,

 Got it. I apologize if I was a bit short with you a bit earlier. It is
 just the fact I've written and rewritten this engine code so many
 times I'm ready to scream. One of those cases wereI feel like I can't
 do anything write, and the worst part of it is I'm both college
 educated and have a programming degree. I shouldn't have this much
 grief over something like this. Although, to be fair to myself some of
 it wasn't my personal fault.

 For example, when I was looking at going cross-platform Travis highly
 recommended SFML  for Linux, Mac, and Windows. So I checked out the
 API. On the surface it seamed exactly like what I needed, and
 abandoned my plans to use SDL 1.2.13 and went with SFML 1.6 instead.
 Next thing I know the game is causing massive crashes all over the
 place, and many users reported the almighty blue screen of death.
 Initially I thought it was something I did, my own mistakes, etc and
 so ran it through the Visual Studio debuggers. Much to my surprise
 after I did a step by step debug it comes up with an error found in
 sfml-window.dll. So I go and report it to the developer of the project
 ask him if they know about this bug and what could be done to resolve
 it etc. Basically, the guy knew about it, and doesn't kno how to fix
 the bug at this time. His recommendation, upgrade your Windows vidio
 drivers. This immediately became a tech support nightmare, and the
 reason I'm pulling SFML 1.6 completely out of beta 17 and going with
 my original plan of using SDL 1.2.13. At least it is stable and has no
 vidio driver problems I'm aware of.

 So at this point I've got the cross-platform engine ripped apart and
 I'm now in the process of redesigning all the low level subsystems
 like the window manager, input, audio, networking support, etc. What a
 bite in the butt!

 On the bright side I have rewritten the window subsystem and have
 basic keyboard support back in place with SDL and so far so good. I'm
 probably going to work on joystick and mouse support tomorrow and the
 window and input subsystems will be ready to go.


 As for audio I'm still not sure where to go with that. I'd like to use
 OpenAL, but I feel as though I'll have to rite some bit of middleware
 like a library that wraps OpenAL and can load ogg, mp3, wma files, etc
 which will be a very time consuming project. In the mean time FMOD
 would give me that and more which would at least get the engine up and
 running again for beta 17.

 So the basic point of what I was saying here is I've already got a
 long development cycle ahead with low level stuff. If there was a need
 to change more things to do proper collision detection now would be
 the time to do it, but I don't want to add more time to the
 development cycle than absolutely necessary.

 Smile.

 On 12/12/10, Cara Quinn caraqu...@draconisentertainment.com wrote:
 Hi thomas;

 Just one last note for the evening.

 when I switched your z to y, it was for clarity's sake for the email. I'd
 assumed you would adapt the new code with your current orientation as I'd
 made other changes as you'd asked. The formulae are right but I was using
 x
 and y to show what I was doing in a standard way. -Only for clarity in my
 note. :)

 So sorry I obviously didn't make that clear enough.

 There's no reason, even in a worst case scenario that you should ever need
 to rewrite that much code for changes like these. I'll need to check back
 in
 with DX, but last I checked, you could essentially flip your world around
 any way you wanted it simply by changing two coordinates. -And, as I'd
 just
 mentioned, even if you change back y to z as I thought you would, the
 other
 changes I made will give you proper calculations. -but at the end of the
 day, if your engine is already essentially doing what you need then why
 change it at all? -this was, afterall, just a lil' experiment, yes? -I'm
 sure not asking you to change your style. :) I'm just personally working
 in
 one of the paradigms we were chatting about and having success with it.
 -But
 this is your baby after all. -If I can make suggestions that help, then
 great! If not, then don't use them. Yes? :)

 Anyway, Talk witcha on the 'morrow and have a terrific night!…

 Smiles,

 Cara :)


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Re: [Audyssey] Creating Accessible Star Wars Games

[Willem Venter]

Hi Thomas.
I'd say go and live your dream. It's always nice doing something with
your whole heart. Even if you get  ordered not to distribute the games
from your website, there are always channels to distribute the games
through.

Personally, I have little knoledge of starwars, so I look forward to
it in that way as well. It would be a new world opening up for me.

Good luck with the last prechristmas code crunch on mota as well.

On 12/2/10, Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi all,

 Thanks to all the discussion about accessible Star Wars games over the
 last day or two I've decided to reconsider my position on releasing
 some Star Wars projects I've had in mind for litterally years now. It
 really has been something I have dreamed of doing as long as I can
 remember, and I'm personally fed up with rediculous rules and
 procedures that would bar me from persuing my own happiness and
 enjoyment. For one thing despite what they say I don't really think
 they would try and sue me over it as long as I kept the games as
 freeware and specified that these were designed for VI gamers. After
 all, it would likely cost them more to take it to court than they
 could get out of me in a settlement/lawsuit. About the most they would
 do if they found out about the games is get a judgment to have the
 content/material removed from my website. That would be a pain in the
 butt to be sure, but no biggy as I'm sure someone would slap it up on
 Sendspace, Dropbox, etc the next day and share it anyway.

 More importantly as I said earlier this has been a dream of mine. Ever
 since I was old enough to watch television the first time I saw the
 original Star Wars movie I became a serious fan of the movies, books,
 toys, games , etc. Just ask my wife as I've got a large glass display
 case in my living room filled with hundreds of Star Wars action
 figures i've collected since i was three or four years old to the
 present. In the mid 90's when the Star Wars PC games began coming out
 like Dark Forces, Rebel Asalt, Jedi Knight, etc I purchased each and
 everyone. Unfortunately, for me as the games were coming out I was
 also really starting to lose my vision so the graphics were pretty
 much just blobs of color on the screen.  I could play them, sort of,
 but had to depend on cheat codes to help me as everything was fuzzy
 and not very clear. All the same, I was very happy witht the games,
 and played them constantly. once I lost my sight I was pretty
 disappointed over the fact I owned all these cool games and couldn't
 play them. While in college I decided I'd be a programmer and write my
 own Star Wars games. Now, 12 years later I still really haven't done
 it, because of copyrights and licensing. Both of which had originally
 been created without any thought or planning for special cases such as
 being barred from a certain product based on disability. So what to do
 about it?


 Well, the answer seams quite simply. I should do what my heart tells
 me is right, and that is to follow my personal dreams. Go ahead and
 take the plunge and just write the games I want to play regardless of
 rules and regulations. After all, i have the means and  motive. to do
 it. I shouldn't let that go because of some company's short-sighted
 polacies.

 When it comes to the means I'm litterally the perfect developer to do
 the job. For one thing I have personal experience with the games
 themselves so have a pretty good idea of what the final product should
 be like. I went to college, learned to program, and obviously have the
 technical skills to create a full 3D FPS game similar to the
 originals.  I've got the original media to work with. In fact, I still
 own all the original software cds in my closet, and all I'd need to do
 is grab the discs, unpack the gob files, and grab the sounds, music,
 etc I'd need for the project. Finally, I just spent like two years
 working on the Genesis Engine which was designed specifically for this
 type of game. Since all that work is done I have the tools to do the
 job at my disposal.

 When it comes to motivation I have plenty of that as well. It was
 precisely because of the FPS games of the 1990's Tomb Raider, Jedi
 Knight, Doom, Quake, Soldier of Fortune, etc that got me into writing
 accesible games in the first place. When I showed up on Audyssey
 around 2000 or 2001 I looked around and was disappointed the only game
 that was up to my previous standards was Shades of Doom. Everything
 else was disappointing, and not at all what I had been hoping for.
 Which brings me back to my point.

 Back around 1998 my favorite Star Wars game was Mysteries of the Sith.
 For one reason it was the first Star Wars game to feature Mara Jade as
 a playable character, and I've always been a fan of her's since she
 first showed up in Timithy Zon's book, Heir to the Empire.  Not only
 that it was a good game with decent graphics for the time, lots of
 action, and it was fun.  I've pretty much decided 

Re: [Audyssey] problem with Entombed not working

[Willem Venter]

Lori, some of the components of entombed require the visual c++
runtimes. Download it at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=9b2da534-3e03-4391-8a4d-074b9f2bc1bfdisplaylang=en
hth.

On 11/25/10, Lori Duncan lori_dunca...@hotmail.com wrote:
 Well I've updated both net framework and direct x and nothing is happening,
 I'm still getting a microsoft error report.  :(
 - Original Message -
 From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com
 To: gamers@audyssey.org
 Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2010 9:42 PM
 Subject: Re: [Audyssey] problem with Entombed not working


 Hi,

 Ok. Just to compare notes I'm running Windows 7 with .NET Framework
 4.0 and XNA Framework 3.0. Entombed runs fine on my system. So I'd say
 if you have .NET 4.0 and XNA Framework 3 the game should in theory
 work fine on XP, Vista, Windows 7 etc.


 On 11/24/10, Lori Duncan lori_dunca...@hotmail.com wrote:
 Hi Tom I'm downloading the xna now, I hope this works, my net framework
 and
 direct x are up to date, keep everything crossed, including eyes Smile

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Re: [Audyssey] educating south africa about the blind gaming community

[Willem Venter]

Maybe you could send this to the nabsa mailing list. As far as I know
we are not more than 4 or 5 South Africans on this list.

On 11/25/10, NIcol nicoljaco...@telkomsa.net wrote:
 Hi all
 For those of you who reside in south Africa, on rsg, south africa's global
 Afrikaans radio station, on Sunday afternoons, Fanie du Toit presents a
 program dealing with various types of disabilities and how disabled people
 live, how their social lives are, and many other subjects regarding
 disabilities. Translated directly from Afrikaans, the program is entitled:
 living world of the disabled. I have been thinking: What if I contact Fanie
 and ask if its possible for me or another blind person living in south
 Africa that would be interested to go to the studio of rsg and do a
 presentation about games for the blind.
 I think it will be an excellent way to educate the whole of south Africa who
 is listening to rsg, about games for the blind.
 What do you all think about this idea?
 If you think it's a good idea, what genre of  game do you think should be
 emphasized if  such  a presentation is to be  delivered?
 Not only does people in south Africa listen to rsg, but also people around
 the world on their website. Just think how amazing it will be if a lot of
 people can be informed about the blind gaming community.
 Not all sighted people are  even aware that blind people can also play
 games. I would like to  enjoy the privilege  of  doing  such a presentation,
 but if another blind person in south Africa  wish to do the show, they are
 more than welcome.
 I just thought of discussing with the list what you all think of a
 presentation about blind gaming on rsg.
 If you guys think it's a good idea, do those of you residing  in south
 Africa know how to contact fanie du toit about this initiative?
 I would like to hear what you think about this.
 Happy gaming.



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Re: [Audyssey] problem with Entombed not working

[Willem Venter]

Hello.
You can try searching for the 2008 c++ runtimes on google and that
should fix your problem.

On 11/24/10, Lori Duncan lori_dunca...@hotmail.com wrote:
 Hi does anyone know if Entombed uses Microsoft components to work?  I've had
 this error which freezes the game at start up and when it sends an error
 report it's only to Microsoft's website who are not of any help at all.  How
 can I sort this, I've tried re-enstalling the game, deleating the saved
 games folder and also removing the whole thing and starting from scrach but
 nothing works.  I've submitted a support ticket but haven't gotten an answer
 back yet.  I'd be glad of any help with the microsoft thing.  Thanks from
 Lori
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