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Tutorials?


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Judging from the feedback I've had in PM some people would like to enter but they find the examples a bit too confusing (too much hex and magic numbers) or its been a long time since they did any programming and don't know where to start. With that in mind, would entrants find a set of tutorials useful? Off the top of my head it would cover:

  • Getting the tools.
  • Setting up the tools and a template project.
  • Putting text on screen.
  • Putting a sprite on screen.
  • Moving a sprite under player control.
  • Sprite collision.
  • Adding sound FX and music.
  • Adding bells and whistles e.g. title pages, game over screen, high score tables etc.
  • More advanced control techniques e.g. 2 and 4 way "gates".
  • More advanced AI?
We are already working on addressing the "too much hex and magic numbers" with a constants file that will be geared towards learning less about the intricacies of STIC (video controller) and more about having fun with the language.

 

Thoughts?

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Would an "install" package for the tools help? I can prepare one for Windows and Mac OS X if people think it would be useful.

 

It would include:

  • jzIntv emulator
  • IntyBASIC compiler (DZ's Special Distro)
  • Sample games
  • Documents

 

Anything else?

 

-dZ.

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Then I'll get right on it.

 

I'll do it this week-end, so if anybody has any new tutorials or samples that they would like to include, please let me know.

 

Óscar, please let me know if there are any specific instructions you'd like me to follow in preparing this distribution. After all, it's your property and I want to respect your wishes. :)

 

-dZ.

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Then I'll get right on it.

 

I'll do it this week-end, so if anybody has any new tutorials or samples that they would like to include, please let me know.

 

Óscar, please let me know if there are any specific instructions you'd like me to follow in preparing this distribution. After all, it's your property and I want to respect your wishes. :)

 

-dZ.

 

Hmmm, none came to my mind. Go ahead :)

 

I would have a suggestion, to include IntyPak and IntyLander in the distro, these will be in the new version of IntyBASIC.

 

Also you could take one of these examples and heavily comment it, and/or replace hexadecimal constants with your proposal of constants (const.bas). ;)

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No worries. I'm preparing the package right now and creating a nice BATCH file for Windows (the heathens don't have Perl by default!) that allows a single command to build the source.

 

Let me know whenever you have an updated version of the compiler and the additional game sources and I'll add them to the package.

 

-dZ.

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This sounds great guys - thanks!

 

The thing that looks the most complicated to me is creating a playfield and I wish there were more detailed instructions on how to do this. batari basic is so much easier in this regard - just x's and .'s:

 playfield:
 .....................X..........
 ..........X.........XXX.........
 .........XXX....X..XXXXX........
 .....X..XXXXX...X....X..........
 .....X....X....XXX..X.X....X....
 ....XXX..X.X...XXX..XXX....X....
 ...XXXXX.XXX..XXXXX..XX...XXX...
 ..XXXXXXX.X..XXXXXXX..X..XXXXX..
 .XX.XXX.XX..X.XX.XX.X...XXXXXXX.
 .X.X...X.X.X.X..X..X.X.X..XXX.X.
 ..XXXXXXX....XXXXXXX....XX...X..
 ...XXXXX.....XX...XX.....XXXXX..
 ...X..XX...X.XX...XX.X...XX..X..
 ...X..XX...XX..XXX..XX...XX..X..
 ..XXXX.X....XXX...XXX....X.XXXX.
 ......XX.....XXXXXXX.....XX.....
 ...XXXXXX....XXXXXXX....XXXXXX..
 ...XXXXXX.X..X.X.X.X..X.XXXXXX..
 ....XXXX.XXXX.X.X.X.XXXX.XXXX...
 ....XXXX.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.XXX...
 .X..XXX.XXXXXX....XXXXXXXX..X...
 X...XX.XXXXXX.XXXX.XXXXXXXXX....
 X.X...XXXXXX.X....X.XXXXXXXX.X.X
 .X..XXXXXXXX.X....X.XXXXXXXX..X.
 .X.XXXXXXXXX.X....X.XXXXXXXXX.X.
 XXXXXXXXXXX.XX....XX.XXXXXXXXXXX
 XX............................XX
 X..............................X
 XXX.X.X.X.X.X......X.X.X.X.X.XXX
 XXXXXXXXXXXXX......XXXXXXXXXXXXX
end

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This sounds great guys - thanks!

No worries!We are all here to have some fun in our hobby.

 

The thing that looks the most complicated to me is creating a playfield and I wish there were more detailed instructions on how to do this. batari basic is so much easier in this regard - just x's and .'s:

Have you looked at using intycolor? That will convert a bitmap into statements you can use in your games. You have to follow the BACKTAB rules for STIC depending if you are using foreground/background mode or colour stack mode.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've written some Perl to convert the less-than-perfect TS output into IntyBASIC DATA statements. It's special-purpose, but can probably be turned into something generic enough. TS has been such a timesaver!

The only time I've used an additional tool after TileStudio has been to Run Length Encode (RLE) compress level data. Its built in scripting language is quite flexible.

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  • 2 weeks later...

If the people who want to follow the tutorial series can get the IntyBASIC SDK downloaded and configured this weekend, we can start the series next weekend. I'll be taking it slowly at the start so that there is plenty of time for questions and tinkering.

 

Looking forward to following along with this, thanks in advance for your efforts!

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  • 4 weeks later...

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