2008-01-15

New Toy

Posted in Cybiko at 23:53 by PlayerOne

I bought myself a Cybiko Xtreme on Ebay last week. It’s obsolete and the community seems to be pretty much dead in the water, but I won’t let a little thing like that stop me, and I plan to develop a game or two for it. Maybe even in the near future (geological time).

I must admit, I had never heard of the Cybiko until a recent post on Retro Remakes, but it looks like just the kind of thing I enjoy messing with, a bit like the Pokemon Mini.

I contemplated doing something for the Nintendo DS over my Christmas break. I got the development environment set up, and read around a bit, but in the end I wasn’t really struck by any inspiration. I’m a bit worried that the DS is not restrictive enough for me. I seem to need to some constraints to spark my creativity.

2007-04-19

Cortex on the PC

Posted in Cortex at 19:59 by PlayerOne

Finally, a version of Cortex that can be played by more than 5 people in the world. :-)

I posted it over on my PC games site. It is quite different visually, and possibly harder because of it.

Maybe if I only had one site I’d update it more often?

Nah.

2006-12-31

Super Saver

Posted in Pokemon Mini, Cortex at 21:09 by PlayerOne

Cortex v0.70 is here, now with added saving. There were still a few things that needed to be ironed out, but it now seems to be nicely functional.

I wouldn’t really recommend using it on your main PM until a few other people have tested it, though. I’m fairly confident that it won’t overwrite data from other games, but it’s still early days and there could easily be a bug or two lurking.

The old version is still available if you don’t want to risk it.

Incidentally, I decided to share one slot for all my games, given that there are only six (and a bit?) of them. Assuming I ever write anything else for the PM.

2006-12-30

EEPROM Browser

Posted in Pokemon Mini at 16:21 by PlayerOne

I’ve been working on a few sub-projects for the Pokemon Mini on and off for a while, and two of them have come together over the Christmas break to result in the EEPROM Browser, which, while maybe not inherently exciting, does mean that I will soon be able to save the progress from Cortex, one of the two major outstanding features (along with sound).

The PM saves games to an internal 8k EEPROM, and although quite a bit was known about it, no-one had really managed to use it until now. I still need to figure out how to write to it, but I think the browser has unlocked some of the mysteries for me. There is source included in the zip, but I’ll try to write up something proper before too long.

The other mini-project was the 3×5 font used in the browser (4×6 including the spacing). This allows 24×10 characters on the screen, which is almost a reasonable amount of text. The bin file included with the source contains the 96 characters from space (0×20) through to erm, another space (0×7f), and the source contains some functions to draw them.

2006-07-09

Cortex in New Version Shock

Posted in Pokemon Mini at 16:51 by PlayerOne

Yes, the first bearable weekend weather in a while, and a rash promise to Lupin, mean that I have indeed released an update of Cortex.
If I can even remember how to do links, you should be able to get version 0.61 here.
The main change is the new front-end, including a level selection screen and instructions. It seems to be working pretty well, and it led me to discover two nasty bugs in the game code, but there are still a few more things I’d like to add.
The two biggies - sound and saving - are also still not done, but hey, at least the project is alive.

2006-05-29

Is This An Update I See Before Me?

Posted in Cortex at 20:30 by PlayerOne

It has belatedly occurred to me that the next version of Cortex should be a portable C version. The two existing versions are particularly unusual, in J2ME and Assembly, and the second is a complete rewrite rather than a port, but I think the rest of my target devices should have enough power and enough in common that porting from a generic C base is the sensible route.

This will also mean that there will be a PC version, which wasn’t originally on the cards.

I don’t have a lot of time or energy for my own projects now I’m back in the world of employment, but hopefully I can muster some enthusiasm for this, although it will probably have to wait until after the Retro Remakes competition.

2006-01-15

Flash Cart

Posted in Pokemon Mini at 01:51 by PlayerOne

Long time no update. I have been working on something, but I still haven’t really decided where to keep it, so I’ve kept quiet about it.
Anyway, back on Cortex, I have now received a Flash cart and programmer from Lupin, which means I can finally get to work on the sound and saves. Maybe that will drive me to get the game completed.

2005-08-08

Jim’ll Fix It

Posted in Pokemon Mini at 23:31 by PlayerOne

I have uploaded a fixed version of Cortex for the Pokemon Mini, at the same address as before, following Lupin’s tests on real hardware.
Version 0.53 fixes the scrolling, spreads the heaviest calculations over several frames, fixes a map bug and a few other things.
The step counter and best scores and the level selection screen are the main things remaining to be done, along with a fair bit of sharpening up on the UI and general friendliness. I wonder how much I can do before my attention is again distracted by something shiny.

2005-07-30

State of Play

Posted in Pokemon Mini at 18:09 by PlayerOne

The Pokemon Mini version of Cortex was well underway before I decided what to do about a website, and has been playable for a couple of weeks now. I used the magic of deadlines to motivate myself, by deciding to demonstrate the game at the Coders’ Workshop Meet on the 16th July.
Here’s the screenshot from Pokeme (with added border):
Pokemon Mini version
It can be downloaded from the Cortex page, until I think of a better way to manage the downloads.
It should be fully playable, but there are a few things that need tidying up, and still to be added are the selection screen; move counter and records; sound and music (both absent from the original); and possibly instructions and stuff.

Diary Moved

Posted in Midnight at 17:13 by PlayerOne

I have brought the Midnight diary into WordPress now, in the vain hope that I might update it a bit more often.
The old stuff is still available here.
I am intending to put some serious time into Midnight, soon, and finally bringing it to version 1.0. It’s been sitting around for too long, and my inability to finish the last 5% of anything is beginning to embarrass me. :-)

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