🎉 Celebrating 25 Years of GameDev.net! 🎉
Not many can claim 25 years on the Internet! Join us in celebrating this milestone. Learn more about our history, and thank you for being a part of our community!
Southlake, TX
Imparting game development wisdom of dubious quality a ridiculously long time.
April 08, 2004
What I really want is a Flash reference that documents everything, including all of the quirks.
For a while I'd been using Colin Moock's ActionScript reference, and that was quite nice. I wanted to get something that covered ActionScript 2.0, so I just got the new Macromedia Press ActionScript 2.0 D…
For a while I'd been using Colin Moock's ActionScript reference, and that was quite nice. I wanted to get something that covered ActionScript 2.0, so I just got the new Macromedia Press ActionScript 2.0 D…
April 08, 2004
I found an outstanding freebie that I've been meaning to post, but always had something different to say.
This one's JCreator, and it's a great Java IDE. For the longest time I'd been using Kawa as my Java IDE. One thing I'd always liked about Kawa was that it stole its user interface motif almost c…
This one's JCreator, and it's a great Java IDE. For the longest time I'd been using Kawa as my Java IDE. One thing I'd always liked about Kawa was that it stole its user interface motif almost c…
March 31, 2004
Sorry it's been a few days, but I've been in California doing coverage of the 2004 Game Developer's Conference. All in all, I had a strong feeling of Deja Vu. It seemed like I was attending the previous year's everything. From the lectures to the roundtables to the expo hall to the food, everything…
March 16, 2004
Over the years I've cultivated a genuine and deep-seated dislike for Java. The latest round came over the last few days when I wrote a new testing applet for DrDave. I figured it would be a pretty simple affair, as it's a cut down version of stuff I'd done for him before. It just presents you with …
March 15, 2004
A couple of folks (and a couple of parents) have wanted to see the new digs, so here are a few pictures. It's quite an unusual place.
Here's the pic from the guest driveway. As you can see, the first floor is about six feet below grade on this side of the house. The house is built on a hill, so the …
Here's the pic from the guest driveway. As you can see, the first floor is about six feet below grade on this side of the house. The house is built on a hill, so the …
March 05, 2004
As you can see, I've temporarily reverted to the old 'no database back-end' version while I do some work on the website on the back end. I decided a while back that the site is getting awfully crusty and needs a much-deserved revamp. Expect to see a new PHP-based website before long with dynamic co…
March 02, 2004
Just a note that I'm in the process of changing hosting providers, and I'm gonna have to move everything over. My knowledge of setting up stuff in perl (which this site uses to generate the page you're reading now) is extremely limited, so there may be some downtime in moving over the diary. We'll …
February 28, 2004
Miss Maggie turned two years old on Monday.
Man the time flies by. It really doesn't seem like two years since I was sound asleep in the delivery room. . .
Okay, might as well tell you that story.
About 24 hours before Maggie got borned, Shelly went into labor (as women tend to do before their kids ge…
Man the time flies by. It really doesn't seem like two years since I was sound asleep in the delivery room. . .
Okay, might as well tell you that story.
About 24 hours before Maggie got borned, Shelly went into labor (as women tend to do before their kids ge…
February 25, 2004
Yeah, it could end up being one of those bad "intentional cheese" films, like Straight To Hell, but the trailer for this one is pure genius. The guy who wrote this strikes me as someone who has genuine affection for low budget 1950's monster movies.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/lost_s…
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/lost_s…
February 24, 2004
Just saw John Munsch's entry on date classes, and I too am puzzled by why date and time classes are inevitably so unworkable. For my own edification, I now present my own date class that's simple, elegant, and probably completely unusable.
First off, let's dispense with making "date" and "time" two …
First off, let's dispense with making "date" and "time" two …
February 18, 2004
Just got back yesterday from fabulous Las Vegas where the wife and I took a short vacation from the critter (who was staying with Shelly's sister) to enjoy eating, drinking, and gambling. We stayed at the Las Vegas Club, which has been one of our mainstays in Vegas. It ain't Caesar's Palace, but it…
February 12, 2004
Yep, got the machine back only a scant week after sending it to the repair place.
I was getting impatient with 'em when they kept giving me the same diagnosis. They told me on the phone that they were getting ready to format the drives and reinstall Windows when I told 'em not to lay another finger …
I was getting impatient with 'em when they kept giving me the same diagnosis. They told me on the phone that they were getting ready to format the drives and reinstall Windows when I told 'em not to lay another finger …
February 11, 2004
Sorry about the lack of updates. My computer is having some odd problems following a "power event" over the weekend. It appears that doing any kind of communication over the ethernet port now causes the machine to reboot, so it's in the shop. Hence I'm on the laptop in Shelly's office until further…
February 03, 2004
I'm getting ready to do a big redesign of the tired old Code Zone website. One of the things that's gonna be retired is the old Game Development Common Sense page. Since I think it still has a buncha valuable advice, I'm not in a hurry to let it disappear completely. Hence, I'm gonna post the entir…
February 01, 2004
Saw a weird story over at http://overclockers.com/tips1133/ that's been circulating around. Basically a guy ended up with the case and power supply from a dead Mac G5 (the new dual-processor high-end Macintosh machine). He decided it'd be cute to put an Athlon motherboard in it.
Nothing interesting …
Nothing interesting …
January 31, 2004
Yeah, I know I promised it long ago, but I finally got around to moving all of my old diary entries to this new format. That means that I've now got developer diary entries stretching back to March of 1998.
That also means I can finally mercy-kill the old diary entries. Say goodbye to 'em because th…
That also means I can finally mercy-kill the old diary entries. Say goodbye to 'em because th…
January 27, 2004
Saw this on somebody's web-log. It's a tutorial on how to make a tile-based world in a game.
The author also has a temporary test-game. It's just using temporary Sonic graphics, but it's a pretty phenomenal example of what you can do with a Flash tile engine.
The author also has a temporary test-game. It's just using temporary Sonic graphics, but it's a pretty phenomenal example of what you can do with a Flash tile engine.
January 26, 2004
Just saw a press-release for version 2 of Flash Studio Pro, created a scant 2 months after I purchased version 1 thank you very much. One thing that makes me happy is that they're getting rid of the old OCX requirement, which is a plus.
You see, there are two ways to create a standalone .EXE out of …
You see, there are two ways to create a standalone .EXE out of …
January 21, 2004
Found this very cool game at http://www.freshsensation.com/samorost.swf
It's basically an interactive Roger Dean album cover with an odd sci-fi story. I like how it's pretty-much completely text-free, and it'd easily be playable in any language.
It's also got that Myst-feel, in which you don't really…
It's basically an interactive Roger Dean album cover with an odd sci-fi story. I like how it's pretty-much completely text-free, and it'd easily be playable in any language.
It's also got that Myst-feel, in which you don't really…
January 12, 2004
One of the handier tools I use in my Flash development toolkit is the eHelp RoboFlash toolkit. It's got the following tools. . .
1. Convertor for PowerPoint, which is a rather rudimentary utility that can convert PowerPoint presentations into Flash movies.
2. Extractor, which can disassemble a Flash …
1. Convertor for PowerPoint, which is a rather rudimentary utility that can convert PowerPoint presentations into Flash movies.
2. Extractor, which can disassemble a Flash …
December 29, 2003
First off, I updated the "dancing duck" from days before. If you wanna see this stuff without musical accompaniment, click the duck and he'll cease his endless hula.
Now then, I've been experimenting a bit with bitmaps versus vectors for Flash stuff, just to see how things perform. I actually found …
Now then, I've been experimenting a bit with bitmaps versus vectors for Flash stuff, just to see how things perform. I actually found …
December 24, 2003
The new Battlestar Galactica, that is. It had a lot going over the old series. . .
1. The Cylons actually had a motivation. They weren't just some Star-Wars-Stormtrooper knockoffs who were battling us simply because they were evil. You learn not only why they wanna wipe out humanity, but how.
2. The …
1. The Cylons actually had a motivation. They weren't just some Star-Wars-Stormtrooper knockoffs who were battling us simply because they were evil. You learn not only why they wanna wipe out humanity, but how.
2. The …
December 12, 2003
Here's a quick preview of what I'm working on. . .
Yes, it's an animated 3D rubber duck doing a hula dance to the tune of "Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay".
Funny thing is, it actually makes sense in my game.
. . .and yes I know it's compiled for the Flash 7 player. It's time you updated your player anyway, so qu…
Yes, it's an animated 3D rubber duck doing a hula dance to the tune of "Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay".
Funny thing is, it actually makes sense in my game.
. . .and yes I know it's compiled for the Flash 7 player. It's time you updated your player anyway, so qu…
December 06, 2003
And by that I mean it's the time of year when Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro start duking it out for low price king in the "it's almost photoshop" battle. I've seen Elements going for $40 after rebates for a while, but the following is the best I've seen so far.
Best Buy has PSP Power Suite f…
Best Buy has PSP Power Suite f…
November 29, 2003
After seeing a commercial for the LeapPad "Leapster" toy, I got to wondering. Maggie's got a "My First LeapPad" that she loves dearly, even though it's a bit mature for her and she just has fun poking it with the pen and listening to what Dora says. After seeing the Leapster's software on TV, I won…
November 27, 2003
I saw this a long time ago but for some reason never posted it. The Underdogs (a site devoted to old versions of classic game software) posted about the best review of my old "24 Games" pack that I'd ever seen. Like most folks, he wasn't wild about all of the games, but he had some very nice things…
November 22, 2003
And you also need Gregory Peck, and since we ain't got no Gregory Peck no more, Flash is gonna be around some time longer!
John basks in his impenetrable logic
Anyway, after reading and then writing about MS's possible Flash-Killer(tm), somebody posted a mention of MS's existing Flash-Killer(tm) in t…
John basks in his impenetrable logic
Anyway, after reading and then writing about MS's possible Flash-Killer(tm), somebody posted a mention of MS's existing Flash-Killer(tm) in t…
November 10, 2003
First Microsoft announces that they're going into Flash's territory with a new web product codenamed "sparkle", then they buy up a big chunk of Creature House, which is a company that makes a pretty phenomenal vector rendering engine that's the guts of their "Expression" vector drawing package.
A Fl…
A Fl…
November 07, 2003
Remember all that blather yesterday about getting PSP for $29? Well, you can toss it out the window now. Not only did one of the rebates expire, but BB cranked up the price of the suite from $99 to $129.
Now instead of being $29 after rebates, it's $99. And that's not much of a deal at all.
Although,…
Now instead of being $29 after rebates, it's $99. And that's not much of a deal at all.
Although,…
November 06, 2003
Lessee. I've got a couple of things game developers would want.
- Game Developer's Market Guide book
- Java 2 Game Programming book (by the way, I don't know why this got such lousy reviews. I thought it was rather good)
- Secrets of the Game Business book
- Ontrack SystemSuite 4 & Partition Commander (bet…
Advertisement
Popular Blogs
Advertisement