Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!caen!kuhub.cc.ukans.edu!arritt
From: arritt@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: Want pointers to _good_ msdos games
Message-ID: <27672.2781f0a3@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Date: 2 Jan 91 20:39:31 GMT
References: <1990Dec26.224913.12338@cs.dal.ca>
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
Lines: 27

In article <1990Dec26.224913.12338@cs.dal.ca>, gauthier@ug.cs.dal.ca (Paul Gauthier) writes:
> Almost every PD/Shareware game I've come across on local BBS systems
> and the anonymous FTP sites that I've looked on has been of terrible
> quality. I found a really enjoyable 3D Chess program, a bazillion versions
> of Tetris clones, but that's about it. Almost everything else is written
> so poorly as to be unplayable.

A problem with many PD/Shareware games is that they use bizarre sets
of keystrokes for the commands.  This can be overcome by writing simple
mouse menus (assuming you have a mouse) to replace the keys.  It really
helps e.g. in a shoot-em-up game to fire a weapon by hitting a mouse
button or move your ship by moving the mouse, instead of having to hit
the space bar to fire the weapon or Ctrl-Alt-LeftShift-,-ScrollLock
[whatever] to move the ship.

It is VERY EASY to learn to program the mouse using the software that
comes with many of the mice (mine is Logitech, I don't know about the
others).  Once you set up your first menu it is simple to adapt this as a
template for other games.  (Or even non-game software.)
________________________________________________________________________
Raymond W. Arritt                     | 
Assistant Professor                   |
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy        |  "everyone knew that as time went
Univ. of Kansas                       |   by they'd get a little bit older
Lawrence, KS  66045                   |   and a little bit slower..."
arritt@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu             |               
arritt@ukanvax.bitnet                 |