I’ll do it on monday!

Because of said previous problem, I might have to wait until I get a better laserdisc player. But first i’ll have to sell this one. At least I have the laser discs themselves. I’m not one to lie so i’ll probably let the buyer know why i’m selling it. Maybe i’ll get my money back. Although one little thing of note, there’s a slight possibility it’s the disc, but I don’t think that’s the case.

Keith

Okay the first time i’ve posted in two catagories simultaneously, and even one catagory is a base catagory. In any case I was discussing with my friend Chris Tanner. He had looked at my post concerning learning c++ and making games. He thought I was talking about doing a learning game, that is a game I make while learning. Well then I asked if I should do that or just make a bunch of little games, he thought both, and I thought it was a good idea too. So the idea is what learning game to choose. First we have my game Enchanted Lands which already has a backstory. Advantages is I can start building my fanbase for it now while learning c++. The other is a game in episodic format, that hearkens back to the movie serials of the 30’s and 40’s I like to call “Ramshackle Rocket” - the advantage to this is each story is already written. The learning game is to be a text adventure if you don’t know that already, as from what I understand of OOP and C++ it would be ideal to make in this language. So the question, what do you think?

Keith

Okay, well time has come that I should learn c++. I know C, I know some Pascal, even know a touch of basic and asm. However C++ is the money language. Okay yes there are newer languages out there, however right now the games industry still seems to see C++ as a standard. And if I ever need to fall back on something I should use it. I’m starting with a book I manage to get for free calle Programming and Problem Solving in C++ (2nd Edition and they’re up to like 4 or 5 now), by Nell Dale, Chip Weems, and Mark Headington. Most people i’ve talked to never heard of this book but I’ve read through it. It’s an introductory mostly for people who haven’t really programmed before. I realize I know programming well enough (go to the old uhfgames pages to see 3 games i’ve made, although uhfgames.com itself does not exist anymore), but I wanted to start as though I were a beginner.

So I talked to a few people about how to approach this book. A few said to type in the examples. Been there, done that. Well in C at any rate. I don’t think I learned it that fast because it was never really that fun for me. (I’m only programming because I can’t get someone else to program my games for me, or at least not yet). One person said I should make small example programs but no games, based on concepts learned in the book. Okay little example programs I can go with, but again it’s not very fun, so i’m choosing to build little games whenever I can manage it. So some agree with me though that you should make tons of little games whenever you can do it. So I’m going through the chapter and noticing I can’t really do much but output stuff on the screen. So question is, should I make a game as soon as I can, even without having “learned” a concept that would make it easier? (by learned i mean come to it in the book. I know about input and output, and arrays and variables and everything else you learn in C) . For instance a tic-tac-toe game benfits greatly if you use an array to represent the board. But how about if I don’t get to the chapter that covers arrays. Should i make a tic-tac-toe that writes each “cell” as a seperate variable, or do I wait until i get to arrays. Tough questions — at least for me. At any rate this should prove interesting.

Okay so the 2nd chapter of this book only introduces the char type, and the string class. And it only shows how to output to the screen. The fact it shows a full working program with comments is inconsequential to my learning. In it there’s a case study or example about writing a program that prints a form letter to the screen. Now i’m looking at this, and saying form letter doesn’t sound very fun. So I came up with an idea. All I know at this point (well at a beginners point) is that I can just output text to the screen, I can use named constants, and I can use the string class (barely). So I could either write a story and use the c++ cout stream command to write it out, which is sort of useless as i can do this in any word processor. Or I could make a “madlibs” style program. Of course with madlibs you need input, but I figure I can add input when I “learn” (again come to it) it. So I figured I could use named constants (it describes named constants as well as variables) to change the story content until I get to input.

Does this sound like a good or bad idea?

Keith

Since it seems as though George Lucas will never release the theatrical originals ever again, there’s been an increasing proliferation of projects geared to preserving these for future generations. Essentially people either have the vhs or laser discs versions, capturing them to their hard drive, and either “restoring” or simply archiving them to dvd. I’ve decided to do one such project myself. Mostly because I want a dvd version of the originals, since my vhs widescreen versions are deteriorating. I went and bought me a laser disc player (not the best player, but not the most spendy either), and Star Wars Trilogy : Definitive Edition laserdiscs. I’m doing this for myself, no copies will be given or sold. And yes I own them so backup copies should be legal.

In any case, what I plan to do is to do a straight capture and burn so i can watch them. Then I plan to capture them in a lossless codec or out to an image sequence so I can play with it to my heart’s content. Removing things like jumpcuts, garbage mattes (little gray or green blocks you see around tie fighters in space scenes), matte lines, and generally cleaning it up as best I can with the resolution I got. So far though i’ve just gone through testing, trying to figure out why I get this nasty picture where the scanlines seem to be changing brightness, producing a shimmering effect on my tv, and a not so acceptable image on my computer. Here is two frames from a “paused” scene that is, i paused it recorded that chose two seperate frames, to show the difference and then reduced the contrast so you could see it better –

– Right click and “View Image” to see it at it’s full size. This is the output from the laser disc player I got on ebay. For 20 bucks it’s not that bad, however this is probably not good enough for me to preserve. I’m going to try changing cables and such, and see if I can’t get a better picture. Or maybe i’ll even buy another LD player. In any case this should prove interesting and fun.

Keith

A magical world where all your dreams can come true, you can slay a dragon, romance a princess, or become a king. You can help the dwarves mine gold and precious jewels, you can fight witches or wizards, or try your hand at being a fairy godmother… All is in the realm of possiblity… Or if you like you may just stay at one of our many fine hotels, with enough magic in them to keep you entertained for a relaxing getaway weekend.

At least that’s what the brochure says. EL’s primary source of income was the tourist trade has had a huge slump. Tourism dropping off, what with the news of evil witches and wizards, and fierce dragons - real ones! The dwarves are getting greedy. They used to mine for the fun of it, but now rarely see anyone. There’s also news of someone long since gone who’s returned to take over the magical realm. Perhaps to use EL’s magic to rule all the other realms connected to it. And then there’s the news of EL’s favorite son, Prince Matthew who decided when he reached 18 he would go off and see the worlds, and perhaps decide whether or not he wants to return. Only problem is, no one has heard from him since. And his Father King Daniel has died and since turned over rule of the kingdom over to the council of elders headed by a man with delusions of grandeur. Who’s only thought is to take over the neighboring worlds. Now the Fairy Godmother acadamy has become a secret society, letting no one in, and more importantly letting no one leave who has joined before. The Wizard’s Acadamy has been closed until further notice. And it’s been heard that the Knight school has been increasing their training schedule and using real weapons (not magical ones used to fight magical dragons on the weekly vacation).

Okay that sets the stage for what I hope to be a funny and enchanting GRAPHIC ADVENTURE GAME full of magic and mayhem, and perhaps a little warped sense of humor. I’ve only written stuff down for chracters I want in the game, some puzzles, some in-jokes. Nothing to major on this yet, but more will be forthcoming. In fact I plan to do a little each day and update my blog after I do.

note : graphic as opposed to a text adventure game heh, i’m still in the old mindset.

Previously: None.

Keith

Well here’s the first post for my platform game Hypno-Joe. It’s about a little guy who’s nothing more than a brain with legs, feet, and eyeballs, and that’s it. He’s a guy who seems to win the Intergalactic Science Fair every year, always beating out the local evil scientist — Dr. Stupink! This time for the last time as our infamous evil scientist has a plan to win next year’s Intergalactic Science Fair. In any case that’s all i’m going to say for now. Here’s a pic of what Joe looks like -

Keith

Well it’s about 10:18 in the morning here my time (pacific) and i’m messing with my blog. Still learning how to use word press. I created an about me page which merely lists my name but I will continue to add and improve as time goes on. I’ve created several catagories now. 2 Parent catagories which may or may not end up having posts in them, and two sub catagories for game projects which will have posts in them, a video projects catagory which may or may not have posts, with a sub catagory for a star wars preservation project i’m starting. I also added a single programming catagory. For now it will just detail my journey into the wonderful world of c++ (Okay it’s not that wonderful, i just wanted to fancy it up a bit ;-) ). In any case stay tuned.

Keith

Well my name is Keith Weatherby II aka Uhfgood and this is my blog. This is my official first post, where the actual first post was just the default message that I edited. I’m still really really new to blogging, and i’m hoping anyone who reads this will bear with me. I’m still trying to figure out what the heck a trackback is, but i’ll be sure to read the docs for wordpress thoroughly. This is cool though. I’m hoping to document progress on my many game projects. Anyways here’s hoping someone actually will end up reading it.

Keith

Um great, blogging for the first time. Just setting everything up. Here I hope to document my progress on any number of projects including development of my platform-game Hypno-Joe. Please stay tuned :-)