I've had a couple of emails regarding my games not working on the latest version of OSX Lion. This is thanks to those wonderful people at Apple removing support for PowerPC compiled applications in the latest and greatest version of their operating system.
Yes folks, Rosetta is no more, and when you update to Lion, neither are your legacy (PowerPC) apps.
So what does this mean for Dan's Remakes? Well, in the short term I'll only be able to support people running versions of OSX earlier than Lion as I don't have access to an Intel based Mac.
Sorry and all that, but buying a new (or second hand) Apple laptop is a bit beyond my means at the present time (and with four kids and a wife to support this isn't likely to change in the near future).
However. . . .
For a number of years there has been a link to a Paypal tips jar on Dan's Remakes. This has garnered a grand total of nothing. Should anyone feel like saying "thanks" and dropping a couple of pounds / dollars / francs / yen / whatever in, then I'll put it towards getting that new (or second hand) Mac so I can start supporting OSX Lion.
I'll update the main site this weekend and will post the progress towards the fund total (should there be any).
Fund total? Well, looking at EBay it will cost me £350-400 to get a second hand Intel based Macbook. If the total gets close enough then I'll stump up the rest of the cash myself.
Click here to donate.
On the other hand - should someone have a spare Intel based Mac Laptop that they are willing to donate then get in touch at the usual address.
If a miracle happens and too much money is raised - then I'll donate the overflow to charity.
Showing posts with label Dan's Remakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dan's Remakes. Show all posts
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Chaos Caverns II - Dev Diary - Part 2
Updated 28/08/2009
As the original post is getting a bit on the long side, I'll be continuing the Chaos Caverns 2 dev diary here.
I've been taking a couple of days off to think through what direction I want to take the game in. There are still a couple of things that I'd like to add in, conveyor belts for example, but nothing that is likely to stop me from finishing the game.
I've been toying with the idea of releasing a demo of the game so far, but to be honest I'd rather release a finished (and more importantly tweaked and polished) game this time around. With that in mind I'll be putting out a call for volunteers to beta-test the game once the game is a bit further along. Interested? Then feel free to get in touch either via the comments on this blog post, the development thread on Retro Remakes or by email at dans.remakes(AT)googlemail.com.
Right, enough gabbing for now - back to coding!
28/08/2009
One of the problems with being less than artistically gifted is that doing the graphics for a game takes a lot longer than you might expect. Trying to make animated sprites takes even longer.
Rather than trying to create the sprites from scratch I'm (mainly) shinking and editing images from photographs. This is giving the game a much more "unique" look and certainly makes up for my lack of artistic talent.
As the original post is getting a bit on the long side, I'll be continuing the Chaos Caverns 2 dev diary here.
I've been taking a couple of days off to think through what direction I want to take the game in. There are still a couple of things that I'd like to add in, conveyor belts for example, but nothing that is likely to stop me from finishing the game.
I've been toying with the idea of releasing a demo of the game so far, but to be honest I'd rather release a finished (and more importantly tweaked and polished) game this time around. With that in mind I'll be putting out a call for volunteers to beta-test the game once the game is a bit further along. Interested? Then feel free to get in touch either via the comments on this blog post, the development thread on Retro Remakes or by email at dans.remakes(AT)googlemail.com.
Right, enough gabbing for now - back to coding!
28/08/2009
One of the problems with being less than artistically gifted is that doing the graphics for a game takes a lot longer than you might expect. Trying to make animated sprites takes even longer.
Rather than trying to create the sprites from scratch I'm (mainly) shinking and editing images from photographs. This is giving the game a much more "unique" look and certainly makes up for my lack of artistic talent.
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Back on the Code Face - Chaos Caverns Redux
Chaos Caverns has been worked on (and off) since 2006. It was written because, quite simply, I wanted to write a good old-fashioned platformer in the style of Manic Miner.
And so it came to pass.
Some people liked it, some people didn't. It kind of depends on whether you played the games that it is based around. Classic games like Manic Miner, Blagger, Technician Ted and Chuckie Egg didn't skimp on the difficulty, and Chaos Caverns takes the same line. All of the levels can be beaten with practice, but getting through all the levels in one go is a real challenge.
Well, eventually I stopped development on Chaos Caverns as, to be honest, coding it wasn't fun anymore and I wanted to move on to other things. Around sixteen levels were completed for it, some based around the originals, some entirely new.
I'd always planned on having around 26 levels, many of them based on some of the other platform games of the time, but fell short of that goal. I've re-started development and have knocked out a set of "Chuckie Egg" themed levels (see the above screenshot).
My plan is to add new levels, drop some of the old ones and make some updates to the game code. I don't know how far I'll get, but it is nice to get back to coding something purely for the enjoyment of it.
I've no firm plans on any release dates yet, I'll have to see how things progress.
And so it came to pass.
Some people liked it, some people didn't. It kind of depends on whether you played the games that it is based around. Classic games like Manic Miner, Blagger, Technician Ted and Chuckie Egg didn't skimp on the difficulty, and Chaos Caverns takes the same line. All of the levels can be beaten with practice, but getting through all the levels in one go is a real challenge.
Well, eventually I stopped development on Chaos Caverns as, to be honest, coding it wasn't fun anymore and I wanted to move on to other things. Around sixteen levels were completed for it, some based around the originals, some entirely new.
I'd always planned on having around 26 levels, many of them based on some of the other platform games of the time, but fell short of that goal. I've re-started development and have knocked out a set of "Chuckie Egg" themed levels (see the above screenshot).
My plan is to add new levels, drop some of the old ones and make some updates to the game code. I don't know how far I'll get, but it is nice to get back to coding something purely for the enjoyment of it.
I've no firm plans on any release dates yet, I'll have to see how things progress.
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
Arcadia - Test 4 coming soon
As I said in my previous post I'm updating and polishing some of my existing games before moving on to the new stuff, and Arcadia is the second game to get the treatment.
I've had a lot more to do here to get the code up to scratch, but now there are separate Windows and Linux releases of the game (rather than two binaries in one archive), all the graphics are embedded into the game, the joystick code has been updated to include a "deadzone" (required for some analogue joypads), separate DirectX and OpenGL modes for Windows and some other bug fixes and code cleanups.
All in all the game isn't in too bad a shape now, so once I've compiled the Windows and MacOS X versions (and uploaded them onto the site) then it'll be on to the next target: RetroVaders.
I've had a lot more to do here to get the code up to scratch, but now there are separate Windows and Linux releases of the game (rather than two binaries in one archive), all the graphics are embedded into the game, the joystick code has been updated to include a "deadzone" (required for some analogue joypads), separate DirectX and OpenGL modes for Windows and some other bug fixes and code cleanups.
All in all the game isn't in too bad a shape now, so once I've compiled the Windows and MacOS X versions (and uploaded them onto the site) then it'll be on to the next target: RetroVaders.
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Dan's Remakes - May Update
After a quiet couple of months on the remakes front I'm back in business.
There have been a couple of issues that I've been wanting to resolve before moving on with newer stuff, one relating to Windows, the other to Windows and Linux.
The main one with Windows is to do with BlitzMax and they way it works (or fails to) with some graphics cards. The method I'd been trying of autodetecting what display mode should work (DirectX or OpenGL) doesn't always work - sometimes leaving you with a black screen.
I didn't want to have to go back to having two binaries for Windows, so I've set RetroRoids up to accept command-line parameters to force it to use one method or the other. I've also used an MSI installer package to distribute the game, which includes shortcuts for both modes (and for the readme).
Hopefully that should sort things out permanently for Windows.
The other issue relates to packing games. If RetroRoids is going to work for regular users when installed then the configuration file needs to be written somewhere other than the install directory. This is true on Windows as well as on Linux. So the other change is for the configuration files to be written into the users home directory / user profile.
Now that this is sorted I'll be putting some effort into trying to provide Debian / Ubuntu packages of my games.
There have been a couple of issues that I've been wanting to resolve before moving on with newer stuff, one relating to Windows, the other to Windows and Linux.
The main one with Windows is to do with BlitzMax and they way it works (or fails to) with some graphics cards. The method I'd been trying of autodetecting what display mode should work (DirectX or OpenGL) doesn't always work - sometimes leaving you with a black screen.
I didn't want to have to go back to having two binaries for Windows, so I've set RetroRoids up to accept command-line parameters to force it to use one method or the other. I've also used an MSI installer package to distribute the game, which includes shortcuts for both modes (and for the readme).
Hopefully that should sort things out permanently for Windows.
The other issue relates to packing games. If RetroRoids is going to work for regular users when installed then the configuration file needs to be written somewhere other than the install directory. This is true on Windows as well as on Linux. So the other change is for the configuration files to be written into the users home directory / user profile.
Now that this is sorted I'll be putting some effort into trying to provide Debian / Ubuntu packages of my games.
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Cavern Lander - Tech Demo 1
Over the Easter weekend I've had a browse through the code for "Cavern Lander", which started as an experiment with the RetroRoids code to see how much work it would take to add in gravity effects.
I'd got it to a point where it pretty much worked before a large dose of the curse of the hobby programmer known as "real life" stepped in and curtailed my coding activities for a couple of weeks.
To get myself back up to speed I decided to pick up the code again - and after sorting out some niggling bugs and cleaning the code up further I'd got a stable code-base to build the game on.
I'm not counting this as a proper demo release purely because the game is so early in its development - but as a technical demo to see how a gravity game would work I think it does its job quite well.
The initial feedback has been positive too so I'll spend some more time on the game over the next couple of weeks and see what I end up with.
The game itself plays a bit like a cross between Lander, Thrust and ChopLifter, in that you have to pilot your ship through a series of caves, land to rescue miners and transport them to the blue landing platform at the start of the cave complex.
Currently the main hazard is gravity itself, but the final game should add more features like fuel and gun emplacements into the mix.
For more information (and screen shots) head on over to http://dans-remakes.sytes.net.
I'd got it to a point where it pretty much worked before a large dose of the curse of the hobby programmer known as "real life" stepped in and curtailed my coding activities for a couple of weeks.
To get myself back up to speed I decided to pick up the code again - and after sorting out some niggling bugs and cleaning the code up further I'd got a stable code-base to build the game on.
I'm not counting this as a proper demo release purely because the game is so early in its development - but as a technical demo to see how a gravity game would work I think it does its job quite well.
The initial feedback has been positive too so I'll spend some more time on the game over the next couple of weeks and see what I end up with.
The game itself plays a bit like a cross between Lander, Thrust and ChopLifter, in that you have to pilot your ship through a series of caves, land to rescue miners and transport them to the blue landing platform at the start of the cave complex.
Currently the main hazard is gravity itself, but the final game should add more features like fuel and gun emplacements into the mix.
For more information (and screen shots) head on over to http://dans-remakes.sytes.net.
Thursday, 21 February 2008
This Week I Have Mostly Been Playing: Hover Bovver 2
Most games easily fit into one or more categories. Shoot-em-ups, platformers, RPGs, there is a category for pretty much every game. Then there are games like this. Mow-em-up perhaps? Third person lawner? I'll have to think about this.
It's a lot less bovver. . . . .
So what is the game about eh? Well, in a nutshell, you need to mow your lawn. Sounds simple? Not in this garden it isn't. You see, you've had to borrow your neighbor's lawnmower and he wants it back. Not only that, but if you mow the flowers you'll have an angry gardener to deal with.
Luckily your dog is on hand to chase off your pursuers, but watch out, the more he chases them, the less happy with you he'll be. As if that wasn't enough you also have to make sure your mower doesn't overheat, so don't mow too much grass in one go. Mow enough of the lawn and sheep will come out to help eat the grass
Not to mention the mole hills, dog mess and other obstacles that you'll encounter as the game progresses.
With comical sound effects, cute graphics and frantic gameplay this is one time you won't mind mowing the lawn.
The game runs under Windows, and Linux users can run it under Cedega (like I did).
Head on over to Llamasoft to give it a shot. Ewe won't regret it!
It's a lot less bovver. . . . .
So what is the game about eh? Well, in a nutshell, you need to mow your lawn. Sounds simple? Not in this garden it isn't. You see, you've had to borrow your neighbor's lawnmower and he wants it back. Not only that, but if you mow the flowers you'll have an angry gardener to deal with.
Luckily your dog is on hand to chase off your pursuers, but watch out, the more he chases them, the less happy with you he'll be. As if that wasn't enough you also have to make sure your mower doesn't overheat, so don't mow too much grass in one go. Mow enough of the lawn and sheep will come out to help eat the grass
Not to mention the mole hills, dog mess and other obstacles that you'll encounter as the game progresses.
With comical sound effects, cute graphics and frantic gameplay this is one time you won't mind mowing the lawn.
The game runs under Windows, and Linux users can run it under Cedega (like I did).
Head on over to Llamasoft to give it a shot. Ewe won't regret it!
Sunday, 17 February 2008
Dan's Remakes February update.
The latest from Dan's Remakes.
First things first, RetroRoids has been updated to 1.20. This will probably be the final release of the game. It was partly a bugfix release, adding things like a joypad deadzone to allow XBox 360 controllers to work with the game, and partly a release to add the final "polish" to the game.
Following on from RetroRoids there will be another new game, based around an updated version of the game engine.
Gravity has been added into the mix and a new original game will be coming soon. Yes, that's right, original. Well, fairly original. It won't be directly based on any existing game, although it obviously bears some resemblance to Gravitar, Thrust, Space Taxi, Lander and probably others too.
Now onto Batty Junior. Although this game has been "on holiday" for a bit, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and finish off the single player game. In all honesty there isn't a lot left to do, so once I'll have to look towards finishing that bit off before moving on to the new (unnamed) game.
There may be some (minor) updates to some of my other games too. Chaos Caverns has had a bugfix release to add in a DirectX version of the game. There may well be another update to Chaos Caverns and RetroVaders later on this month to add in the deadzone for the XBox 360 joypads.
First things first, RetroRoids has been updated to 1.20. This will probably be the final release of the game. It was partly a bugfix release, adding things like a joypad deadzone to allow XBox 360 controllers to work with the game, and partly a release to add the final "polish" to the game.
Following on from RetroRoids there will be another new game, based around an updated version of the game engine.
Gravity has been added into the mix and a new original game will be coming soon. Yes, that's right, original. Well, fairly original. It won't be directly based on any existing game, although it obviously bears some resemblance to Gravitar, Thrust, Space Taxi, Lander and probably others too.
Now onto Batty Junior. Although this game has been "on holiday" for a bit, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and finish off the single player game. In all honesty there isn't a lot left to do, so once I'll have to look towards finishing that bit off before moving on to the new (unnamed) game.
There may be some (minor) updates to some of my other games too. Chaos Caverns has had a bugfix release to add in a DirectX version of the game. There may well be another update to Chaos Caverns and RetroVaders later on this month to add in the deadzone for the XBox 360 joypads.
Thursday, 31 January 2008
Released: RetroRoids v1.10 - RetroRoids Deluxe
RetroRoids 1.10 (codename: RetroRoids Deluxe) is now available for Linux and Windows. The MacOS version will be ready later on tonight.
So what's new I hear you ask?
Quite a bit. There are now two game modes: RetroRoids and Original.
Original mode is basically the same as RetroRoids 1.00 (minus the power-ups). As in the original asteroids there is a chance of the ship exploding when using hyperspace. The speed of the asteroids has been reduced slightly, and the ship rotates slightly faster.
RetroRoids mode is the new version of the game. The asteroids start slower (but increase in speed with each new level). Destroying the UFO (which now appears from both sides of the screen) drops a random power-up.
Clearing a level without loosing a life activates the bonus multiplier (x2 and x4 all scores).
After the first level as well as the standard asteroids you may also (but not always) encounter the Killer Satellite. Shooting the Satellite causes the fragments to home in on you - so make sure you've got somewhere to run to. . . .
There are other tweaks to the graphics and sound (and some bugfixes too) - check out the changelog for the full list.
Available to download now at http://dans-remakes.sytes.net.
So what's new I hear you ask?
Quite a bit. There are now two game modes: RetroRoids and Original.
Original mode is basically the same as RetroRoids 1.00 (minus the power-ups). As in the original asteroids there is a chance of the ship exploding when using hyperspace. The speed of the asteroids has been reduced slightly, and the ship rotates slightly faster.
RetroRoids mode is the new version of the game. The asteroids start slower (but increase in speed with each new level). Destroying the UFO (which now appears from both sides of the screen) drops a random power-up.
Clearing a level without loosing a life activates the bonus multiplier (x2 and x4 all scores).
After the first level as well as the standard asteroids you may also (but not always) encounter the Killer Satellite. Shooting the Satellite causes the fragments to home in on you - so make sure you've got somewhere to run to. . . .
There are other tweaks to the graphics and sound (and some bugfixes too) - check out the changelog for the full list.
Available to download now at http://dans-remakes.sytes.net.
Saturday, 19 January 2008
Released: RetroRoids v1.00
RetroRoids, the second in the series of "Retro" games from Dan's Remakes is now available for download from http://dans-remakes.sytes.net.
Featuring asteroids, animated backdrop, power-ups and more. As with RetroVaders the look of the game can be tweaked from the options menu.
Currently available for Windows and Linux, with the MacOS X version following soon.
Featuring asteroids, animated backdrop, power-ups and more. As with RetroVaders the look of the game can be tweaked from the options menu.
Currently available for Windows and Linux, with the MacOS X version following soon.
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
Dan's Remakes - Moving on up
For the past year or so I've been using my "free" webspace that was provided by my service provider - a rip-roaring 55meg of space. Unfortunately now that I'm releasing software for Windows, Linux and Mac my games now take up three times as much space as they used to.
The upshot of this is that the site and downloads is now pushing 40meg which means that sometime this year I'll be out of space.
I'd had a look last year at an alternative host, but had the problem of some very restrictive bandwidth limits.
I'd also had a bit of a look at Google Pages when it was first in beta. The 100meg of space is certainly attractive, but the built-in web editor didn't really do it for me and the thought of redesigning the entire site to fit in with Google didn't appeal.
Well, I've had another look at Google Pages and have discovered that I'd missed something. That something is the "upload file" facility. Now if the worst came to the worst I could always upload the binaries and still use my original site for the pages, but I've also found that you can also upload full HTML pages, so after a bit of a fiddle I've got together stage one of the new Dan's Remakes site.
I'll be converting the rest of the site this week and re-directing dan-remakes.sytes.net to point to it.
I'll be keeping the original site up to date for a while, but once I'm happy that the new site works OK then I'll be ditching it entirely.
The big bonus here is that I'll not be tied to a single service provider any more, not to mention the extra space.
The upshot of this is that the site and downloads is now pushing 40meg which means that sometime this year I'll be out of space.
I'd had a look last year at an alternative host, but had the problem of some very restrictive bandwidth limits.
I'd also had a bit of a look at Google Pages when it was first in beta. The 100meg of space is certainly attractive, but the built-in web editor didn't really do it for me and the thought of redesigning the entire site to fit in with Google didn't appeal.
Well, I've had another look at Google Pages and have discovered that I'd missed something. That something is the "upload file" facility. Now if the worst came to the worst I could always upload the binaries and still use my original site for the pages, but I've also found that you can also upload full HTML pages, so after a bit of a fiddle I've got together stage one of the new Dan's Remakes site.
I'll be converting the rest of the site this week and re-directing dan-remakes.sytes.net to point to it.
I'll be keeping the original site up to date for a while, but once I'm happy that the new site works OK then I'll be ditching it entirely.
The big bonus here is that I'll not be tied to a single service provider any more, not to mention the extra space.
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