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Topic:   Moving up...   (Read 29347 times)

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GabrielCA

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Moving up...
« on: February 20, 2010, 08:30:15 PM »
After using GameMaker for approximately 4 years, I moved on to METAL Basic (which I still think is pretty good and recommend to anybody), briefly experimented with Flash and finaly settled to C.

I believe the main difference between GameMaker and more advanced game creation tools is its lack of double buffering (for sprites, etc.) and of direct screen access.
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Gan

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Re: Moving up...
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2010, 08:41:22 PM »
Hey, and awesome. :)
Going to just pure C or maybe an off-branch like Obj-C or C++? Also what IDE would you use? I tried going to pure C a while ago and found little success getting a good IDE.


-Gan
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GabrielCA

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Re: Moving up...
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2010, 08:49:30 PM »
For a while I used Apple's old MPW (eventually with SDL)
I now use Apple's (old) ProjectBuilder (or, alternatively, Code::Blocks on Windows) and SDL. In both cases, I stick with pure C.

Oddly enough, both Microsoft and Apple have their own variants of C (respectively, C# and Objective-C)
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Gan

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Re: Moving up...
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2010, 08:52:35 PM »
Oh, that's cool. I hear that they have a beta Code::Blocks for mac. Anyways, can you compile to 10.4-6 with ProjectBuilder?


-Gan
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GabrielCA

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Re: Moving up...
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2010, 08:56:37 PM »
I have no idea... I've only recently 'migrated' from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X (old version)

Macintosh forward compatibility...
I've managed to run a test application both in System 6 and Mac OS 9. Everything was identical except for the fonts, colors and GUI.

Is the forward compatibility as good in Mac OS X ?
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Gan

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Re: Moving up...
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2010, 09:22:41 PM »
Whoa! That's like stone age stuff. Is it worth it to build for older OSes?
No, forward capability isn't so good. Too many new and improved stuff.


-Gan
« Last Edit: February 20, 2010, 10:31:45 PM by Gandolf »
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GabrielCA

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Re: Moving up...
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2010, 09:10:36 AM »
One thing that I find useful about programming on older machines is that as they are slower, they force the programmer to write faster, more optimal code...
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Swamp7hing

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Re: Moving up...
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2010, 12:11:27 PM »
^ Oh, and welcome to the GMG. :)
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Gan

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Re: Moving up...
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2010, 01:03:51 PM »
Quote
One thing that I find useful about programming on older machines is that as they are slower, they force the programmer to write faster, more optimal code...
So very true. I only just realized this morning that my app can take up to 200 mb of memory if played for 2 min. Yeah, now I'm hard core researching into memory management. Wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't tried to port it to mac. I can definitely see from your view point, having a too powerful machine can hide issues you'll have later.


-Gan
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GabrielCA

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Re: Moving up...
« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2010, 03:24:47 PM »
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^ Oh, and welcome to the GMG. :)
Thank you, Swap7hing

The challenge of writing optimized code is probably one of the main differences between computer programming today and programming about 20 years ago, when often assembly was the only solution
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WarHampster

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Re: Moving up...
« Reply #10 on: February 21, 2010, 05:05:15 PM »
Welcome ;)

If you're into intense optimization look into homebrew programming, I think that the Gameboy Advance is a lot of fun, but you can always go DS if you want something more modern. Programming handheld consoles (particularly older ones) is a challenge because you really need to work with the hardware and manage memory very efficiently. For example, on pretty much any handheld or retro console you use the vertical blank as a timer, and need to be really careful about how much you put in video RAM.

BTW, do you know any assembly? I keep trying to learn but get discouraged at the lack of "beginner friendly" tutorials, and the fact that everyone who actively programs ASM seems to be over 50.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2010, 05:06:35 PM by WarHampster »
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GabrielCA

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Assembly
« Reply #11 on: February 21, 2010, 05:14:13 PM »
I don't really know assembly, although I tried to make 6502 programs for a short period. I did find very insightful and begginer friendly information, understood the basics, but failed to find a good development environment...

In the end, I made up an assembly-like language and challenged myself to program it... this forced me to be 'creative'.
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Silverwind

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Re: Moving up...
« Reply #12 on: February 21, 2010, 05:29:22 PM »
Why on earth would anyone want to program in assembly?
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WarHampster

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Re: Moving up...
« Reply #13 on: February 21, 2010, 05:29:40 PM »
Wait, you made a language? Elaborate  :o
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GabrielCA

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Re: Moving up...
« Reply #14 on: February 21, 2010, 05:33:55 PM »
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Wait, you made a language? Elaborate  :o
Yes, a few years ago...
It was rather primitive, as at the moment of its conception I had little knowledge of assembly, etc. I wrote an assembler and later a macro-assembler in BASIC, and wrote interpreters in BASIC and in C... Its primitive design made programming the system somewhat complex, so I sort of challenged myself to make programs for it. To this date, the best I have managed to get done is a BREAKOUT clone...
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