🎉 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.
December 28, 1998
Ahh, Holiday GreedFest 98 is almost over. Just some belated gifts and tree disassembly left to go.
Back to what life is all about --WRITING GAMES!
The deal's almost officially closed with the publisher. Just waiting on the signed stuff to come back, and we'll be official.
As you've certainly noticed…
Back to what life is all about --WRITING GAMES!
The deal's almost officially closed with the publisher. Just waiting on the signed stuff to come back, and we'll be official.
As you've certainly noticed…
December 21, 1998
Good news continuing. Looks like the publisher is a go. Still can't give any details, but I will when I can. Suffice it to say that life is good. The sky is a bit bluer and the flowers are a bit more colorful today :)
Interestingly, I was talking to a pal of mine who's putting together a book. It se…
Interestingly, I was talking to a pal of mine who's putting together a book. It se…
December 10, 1998
Been spending a lot of time taking care of holiday errands, as I'm the one working at home. Much as I like the holidays, there's a lot to do.
Good news on the publishing front --a shelf-publisher has expressed a strong interest in the games! That's about all I can say for now. Non-disclosures and al…
Good news on the publishing front --a shelf-publisher has expressed a strong interest in the games! That's about all I can say for now. Non-disclosures and al…
December 01, 1998
Zow, December 1998. Only one month left before I start partying like it's 1999!
Still doing the publisher shuffle here. I've got a couple of CD's waiting in padded envelopes in my outbox, ready to be shipped to two more prospective publishers. Both publishers seem to be genuinely interesting. We'll …
Still doing the publisher shuffle here. I've got a couple of CD's waiting in padded envelopes in my outbox, ready to be shipped to two more prospective publishers. Both publishers seem to be genuinely interesting. We'll …
November 17, 1998
Bought a couple of new games that I had my eye on. You know, research and all :)
First off, I got Smart Games Pack 3, which is quite a nice little collection. It looks a bit like my pack, with a ton of small-format games, but it works differently. It's got about 20 games, all puzzles. As you play th…
First off, I got Smart Games Pack 3, which is quite a nice little collection. It looks a bit like my pack, with a ton of small-format games, but it works differently. It's got about 20 games, all puzzles. As you play th…
November 12, 1998
In keeping with Mr. Munch's new partnership with Amazon, I've re-done my Book Shelf page. I've added a couple of new books, a bit more commentary, and a section on the magazines I read every month. I'll probably eventually re-do the Tool Chest page to match the new look. Lemme know what you think.
I…
I…
November 09, 1998
Well, I've narrowed down my list. Actually, I've narrowed down my list quite a lot. I've basically decided that I'm gonna use Direct3D (or some abstraction thereof) for the next generation of my games. In case you're wondering why, here're my reasons for dumping Java3D and OpenGL. . .
Java3D -- Whil…
Java3D -- Whil…
November 02, 1998
Been a researchin' guy lately. Just to spark some discussion, here's my short-list of genuinely-interesting gaming technologies that I might use for future gaming efforts. . .
Java3D
Description: Sun's latest 3D class libraries which will likely go golden early next year. It's a well thought-out clas…
Java3D
Description: Sun's latest 3D class libraries which will likely go golden early next year. It's a well thought-out clas…
October 27, 1998
Lotsa miscellaneous topics today. Bear with me here. . .
Fixed a few more bugs. Got a couple of good ones from beta testers, mostly related to stuff I forgot to install.
I think I'm gonna spend the next week or so giving Java3D a close look. Java is quite cool, and Sun seems to be doing their 3D impl…
Fixed a few more bugs. Got a couple of good ones from beta testers, mostly related to stuff I forgot to install.
I think I'm gonna spend the next week or so giving Java3D a close look. Java is quite cool, and Sun seems to be doing their 3D impl…
October 21, 1998
This week, I'm trying to appreciate my "there-ness".
In the past couple of weeks, a couple of colleagues said that I was the luckiest guy on the planet, because I was actually making a living writing computer games --I'm "there". Of course, when you're inside the fish-tank, you don't realize you're …
In the past couple of weeks, a couple of colleagues said that I was the luckiest guy on the planet, because I was actually making a living writing computer games --I'm "there". Of course, when you're inside the fish-tank, you don't realize you're …
October 15, 1998
Not much new in the coding arena, but I've gotta rant here.
Rant 1: During the Genesis3D demo, there was an elder-statesman-pundit-type parked in the back of the room. During much of the demo, he chimed in with unhelpful commentary like "that's what it's all about". Finally at the end of the demo, h…
Rant 1: During the Genesis3D demo, there was an elder-statesman-pundit-type parked in the back of the room. During much of the demo, he chimed in with unhelpful commentary like "that's what it's all about". Finally at the end of the demo, h…
October 14, 1998
I've been wearing my help-file-writer's hat all week. Most of the text in the help-files has already been written in previous efforts, so it's largely a cut-n-paste affair. Putting together screen-shots to illustrate the rules is rather time-consuming, though. It's a fairly rote process, but I'm ge…
October 12, 1998
Well, the bugs are pretty few and far between (downright trivial, actually). The help-files are way behind, so I'm picking up the slack there. I renamed my common DLL's, so they won't mess up the older versions of the games. Except for a few help-files, I'm feature-complete. I figured I was close e…
October 04, 1998
Still a bug-fixing machine here. The joystick support is in all of the games, and it seems to be working quite well. I'm probably going to dump the joystick support in ZapPod! because using the joystick removes your ability to fire in two directions at once. Trust me, it's important to be able to f…
September 27, 1998
Urk, this is one of the first Sundays that I actually don't have a dozen things going on. Whatever happened to lazy Sundays? Anyway, here's the latest.
Got all of the outstanding recently-reported bugs fixed. Got a couple of new ones though, and I'm always adding little features, ensuring that there…
Got all of the outstanding recently-reported bugs fixed. Got a couple of new ones though, and I'm always adding little features, ensuring that there…
September 15, 1998
Today, I'm a bug-fixin' machine. I spent all morning bringing up all of the games and writing down any bugs that creeped in. Most of the ones I found are related to replacing the bitmap engine. A couple are related to the replaced timer stuff. One I just can't figure out at all :)
Surprisingly, I'm …
Surprisingly, I'm …
September 10, 1998
Been doing tons of little tweaks to the games. Lots of stuff I'd been meaning to do for a while.
In the functionality arena, I fixed a long-standing bug that was making the bitmaps look too dark on some 24-bit cards. I was worried that my fix was gonna slow things down, but it doesn't seem to be hav…
In the functionality arena, I fixed a long-standing bug that was making the bitmaps look too dark on some 24-bit cards. I was worried that my fix was gonna slow things down, but it doesn't seem to be hav…
September 02, 1998
This week, I decided to defy all conventional wisdom and every project-management text that demands that you not change tools near the end of your project. Yes, I charged ahead and upgraded to Visual C++ 6.0. I've got the main library DLL's compiling just fine. The games currently compile fine with…
August 27, 1998
Still doing housekeeping. Updating the copyrights everywhere. Because of this, I must give another plug to PFE (mentioned in my "Tool Chest") links. Using PFE, I was able to load up all of my source files (about 70), update the copyrights, and save the files back out. I could've done it with the Vi…
August 26, 1998
Lots and lots of housekeeping going on here. When you're getting near the end of your project, you're generally inundated with all of the little nitpicky stuff that you forgot to do before. Lots of little bugs and typos that you ignored during the project come back with a vengeance when your projec…
August 24, 1998
The Code Zone Trading Post is open!
Well, it seems that I'm getting quite an accumulation of stuff that I'm not using. Lots of it is free stuff that I got at the CGDC, and I have no use for. Some of it is stuff that I got mailed to me, and I'm still not sure why. Some of it is just stuff that I'm no…
Well, it seems that I'm getting quite an accumulation of stuff that I'm not using. Lots of it is free stuff that I got at the CGDC, and I have no use for. Some of it is stuff that I got mailed to me, and I'm still not sure why. Some of it is just stuff that I'm no…
August 17, 1998
Awright, I'm home. Finally got to take a much-needed vacation with the wife and minivan. Traveled to Nevada and Wyoming, attending a buncha amateur high-power rocket launches and fireworks shows. Amazingly enough, I did manage to return with all of my fingers. Sorry about not letting you know that …
August 03, 1998
Finally did a lot of much-needed additions to the official Code Zone Web Site. It now has screen shots and info from all of the games up to the present.
I'll probably be in housekeeping mode for the time being, as I've got a lot of rough edges to smooth off. A lot's been done, but there's still a lo…
I'll probably be in housekeeping mode for the time being, as I've got a lot of rough edges to smooth off. A lot's been done, but there's still a lo…
July 31, 1998
Oops! Got going in so many directions that the diary took a back-seat. Here's a late-breaking update.
Yes indeed, I was chosen as Gamasutra's Geek of the Week, starting today. I figured "what the hell, it'll get my name out there", so I filled out the application. Haven't gotten much feedback so far…
Yes indeed, I was chosen as Gamasutra's Geek of the Week, starting today. I figured "what the hell, it'll get my name out there", so I filled out the application. Haven't gotten much feedback so far…
July 20, 1998
All the basics for Invaders from Beyond! are now in place. The outer game logic is now working (completing levels, destroying ships, ending the game, etc). I've got aliens that get meaner as the game goes on and about a half-dozen different missiles dropping from the sky. I've got aliens that "get …
July 17, 1998
Invaders from Beyond! is coming along well. I haven't really improved the graphics (other than the missile bitmaps), but a lot of the behaviors are in place. The aliens can now descend, collide with the player, and fire back. They currently only fire back randomly, but that'll be improved as time g…
July 14, 1998
First off, a big congratulations to John Munsch et al. for the first birthday of devgames.com! FWIW, I used to be a coworker of Mr. Munsch during the early days of Multimedia Windows 3.0 over at Tandy. Mr. Munsch got the cool sexy multimedia projects, while I was consigned to the doldrums of the do…
July 10, 1998
For my next trick, I decided to do an arcade game. Since I like adding twists to the classics, I thought it'd be fun to see what I could do with Space Invaders. My working title is Invaders From Beyond!, because Killer Alien Entities from Beyond the Reaches of Human Existence didn't fit on the titl…
July 07, 1998
Finally putting the finishing turtle-wax on Backgammon. It turned out to be a bit more of a can-o-worms than I thought it'd be, but it did turn out rather nicely. I also got a few good comments from my number 1 playtester and wife.
I had a chance to draw three more Backgammon boards over the weekend…
I had a chance to draw three more Backgammon boards over the weekend…
June 29, 1998
Still working on Backgammon. It's pretty-much on schedule, but there are tons of nasty little movement rules, the game itself takes place in three different stages (playing, racing, and going home), and the home and bar have to be treated differently from rest of the board. All in all, it ain't the…
Advertisement
Popular Blogs
Advertisement