Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!gatech!uflorida!unf7!tlvx!sysop From: sysop@tlvx.UUCP (SysOp) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Subject: Re: Lemmings - a tutorial Part IV Summary: Ramblings about game programming, and questions about C++ Message-ID: <471@tlvx.UUCP> Date: 4 Apr 91 08:56:49 GMT References: <23787@well.sf.ca.us> Organization: Temporal Vortex BBS of Jacksonville, Florida Lines: 89 [Ramblings about C++ at the end, but first, some ramblings about games...] In article , mykes@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz) writes: > In article mwm@pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) writes: ... > >The point I am trying to make is that game machines are game machines > >and workstations are workstations. The Genesis and Nintendo are game > >machines. Shutting them down to run a game is acceptable; that's all > >they do. The Amiga is a workstation. Shutting it down means saving the > >state of and haltingany running servers, ditto for any ongoing > >computations, disabling UUCP dialins, and the like. Shutting it down > >to play a game isn't acceptable. > > > > The Amiga 500 is not a workstation. It is a game machine just like the > Nintendo or the Genesis. 90% of people who have Amiga 500's just stick > floppies in and reboot. Er, thanks for deciding for me. Perhaps the reason that most Amiga owners reboot is because the game locks up their machine, and they have to? ("How do you quit this thing?") 'Sides, what about the other 10%? Don't they have money too? :-) (Someone at work had mentioned some game on the Mac that his son enjoyed playing, and talked like getting a CD-ROM for more things. There are definately those out there who are willing to spend the bucks for nifty things. My point, I guess, is that you shouldn't dismiss the people who own more expensive equipment too quickly, they may be willing to spend more money.) For a game machine, I oddly can program, dial BBS's, ray-trace pictures, and do other interesting and mundane things that I can't do on my Genesis. > > > The Amiga operating system is not a high performance video game operating > > system. BOBs are slower than what I use. Intuition takes 30% of the CPU > > time when you just move the mouse around Well, don't use BOB's! ("Doctor, it hurts when I do this." "Well, don't do that!") > > > >You've said this a number of times. I'm curious - why are you letting > >intuition see mouse moves when your game is running? > > > > Intuition never runs when my game is running. Neither does the rest of the > OS (thank GOD). The example I give is just one of a zillion gotchas that > the OS has for you. If you're messing with the mouse, maybe you should have put your game on pause, since you're obviously doing something else. :-) [gripes about C deleted] Perhaps the point is moot. I'm not in the target audience of 512K A500 machine owners. (BTW, I have at least one recent game that I couldn't use, because it doesn't work with my expanded memory. Use nofastmem you say? Can't. It loads with one of those custom bootblock loaders. :-/ I offer this as just one example of how not supporting the system creates problems. Oh, I did get it to work with "nofast." Lucky I had it, I guess.) -------------------------- If anyone is still reading (:-), does anyone have any tips on running Lattice C++? I want to do a simple game, and am running into difficulties. Does a higher stack size than the manual reccommends (24K) help keep away the Guru? Also, I currently have one other question. Basically, I looked at the joystick code in the RKM, and the header files using classes in C++, and I'm not sure how the classes work. I can't seem to be able to compile the original RKM code because the header files don't support the "old way". (Maybe someone can give me the hardware addresses so I can directly read the joystick port. 1/2 :-) Sorry, I couldn't resist.) (I found a cute way to almost double-buffer in a window on the workbench screen. It flickers a bit, but basically, I draw into a separate rastport and clip-blit into the window when I'm done drawing everything. From discussions with people on the net a while back, I recall that you can't just swap a pointer to make it flip between rastports. That's ok; it was fun getting this far with it. Latest trick I have is to WaitBOVP and clipblit in 2 peices. You can sorta tell where things cross the line, but that's much better than flicker-city. I sorta like it. Weird, though, I got a line carried over and drawn into my editor screen [AZ]. Any idea how that could happen? :-) ) Any word on G++ for Amiga? Comeau C++? (Does it save bandwidth to try to cram things in one message like this, or no?) -- Gary Wolfe, SYSOP of the Temporal Vortex BBS // Amiga! ..uflorida!unf7!tlvx!sysop, unf7!tlvx!sysop@bikini.cis.ufl.edu \X/ Yeah!