MMLL Development Diary

Lobo · **Reply #750 on:** October 30, 2009, 10:00:28 pm

Interesting, but not as much as this old Chinese proverb~

"When I die, I want to die in my sleep like my Grandad, not screaming in terror like the passengers of his car!"

flash · **Reply #751 on:** October 30, 2009, 10:03:13 pm

You liked that then LOL....

It was not mine, I think it was actually Des O'Connor who originally said it? Though I could be wrong. (wouldn't be the first time)

Lobo · **Reply #752 on:** October 30, 2009, 10:11:48 pm

Whatever it was, it's worth at least 4 (THREE) LoLs.

headkaze · **Reply #753 on:** October 31, 2009, 02:12:00 am

It's going to be difficult for Flash and I understand this and I can already tell he is just about throwing up after going through my TDG code. But that is why the first game we do on iPhone is going to be done together. I'm so serious about iPhone now and have been looking an iMac's and MacBooks and crying at how expensive Apple gear is

Anyway the good thing is I can dual boot the Mac into Win7 and OSX so I will have the best of both worlds.

Would love to see the whole crew back with us in iPhone, and it would be cool if sverx could port his xm player to iPhone and perhaps even get a bit more involved in coding. It's going to be a hard slog for all of us, I have never touched a Mac, and I have never touched an iPhone so were all starting from scratch here. And this is actually what I want to do for a crust, because I have so many freeware projects I do for fun now, I would still rather make games and apps for iPhone than to do 9 to 5. Right now it's a hard struggle doing freelance coding work, I would much rather write a game then have some time off to drink and party and have flexible hours and work from home and have a great bunch of guys to work with.

Anyway it's great to hear the RetroBytes team sound interested in working on future projects and perhaps just want to see how things go and play it by ear. My main concern now is getting Flash motivated and looking at "C" code. I have alot of faith in him and am sure it will grow on him. Afterall to me it's like the difference between meccano and leggo; they are just different ways to make things but you can still make cool stuff from either of them. Now.. to just get Flash off the meccano and playing with leggo

Lobo · **Reply #754 on:** October 31, 2009, 02:27:40 am

Yeah, you need at least leopard 10.5, maybe a macbook (goes up to 3gigs ram, single or dual cpu), the latest check I did on ebay was about $600 to $800 depends on HD and RAM (usually 1.83 single/1 or 2 gigs RAM). Do a check, maybe somewhere around your place you can find a cheaper, used/refurbished and such. We have like anual hardware sale in a neighborhood where you can score a system like that for dirt cheap dammit, pity it's already done (august) as I wanted to get me hands around one of them macs as well but got busy to visit the show. Maybe there's something along the line of that where you live?

Same goes for iphone, you don't really need it, especially if you have a cellphone already, just get a refurbished/used ipodtouch from ebay or such places. It's the same thing, sans the phone, of course. I've seen the latest model (8gigs) which is $199 in store being sold used for 140 or even less depending on how fast you are to score a bid. Definitely you can save on this though.

As for motivating Flash, a kick in the butt is a cheap way to get things done (I would do it for free but air fare is sorta expensive).

headkaze · **Reply #755 on:** October 31, 2009, 02:44:23 am

I've been looking at the more expensive iMac's and MacBook Pro's because I want a powerful machine to run Win7 through VM. With the iMac I'm looking at a 3.33 Ghz Core Duo, 8 gig RAM, 1 TB drive and 20" screen. It's still cheaper than the MacBook I'm looking at which is a 2.7 Ghz Core Duo, 4 gig RAM 15" display. I would rather the MacBook though but it depends on the finances I can scrape together after selling my current notebook etc.

As for getting an iTouch instead of iPhone the problem is the iTouch also lacks a camera doesn't it? One of the first apps I wanted to write was going to use the video camera. Plus I've been told by a few people (including Flash) to save up and get the iPhone. Again that will be dependant on the finances. Altogether though I'm looking at spending around $4000 AUD.

Lobo · **Reply #756 on:** October 31, 2009, 03:30:23 am

Yeah, touch doesn't have a camera. Not a biggie in general as I think I've used the camera on iphone like 11 times but if you need it then I guess it's the iphone you're looking at.

Maybe we can all chip in at least for iphone, dunno, if four of us add at least $50 then you're quite close to say used iphone 8gigs, guys?

flash · **Reply #757 on:** October 31, 2009, 09:31:09 am

I would be happy to fire a few 'bucks' in HK's direction to help toward an iPhone (best option imho)

As for a dev system,

I am using the latest MacBookPro 13" system. The screens vertical res is 800px and 80% of MMLL was written on it using a VM and Win7 (though I have WinXP at the moment as the win7 was beta). This is a great machine and using parallels desktop 4 as a vm server works a treat. The machine is a dual boot so I can natively run OSX or Windows from separate partitions. You can also run the bootcamp partition as a vm within OSX using parallels.

As to the power. It originally came with 2 gig (upgraded to 4) and a 160g drive (upgraded to 500g) and runs at a fair ol' lick. So, personally HK, I would go that little bit further and go for a MacBookPro. the 15" is a great compromise between size and speed.

And, I will play with Lego... I want to build something better than as slightly suspect analogy LOL...

flash · **Reply #758 on:** October 31, 2009, 02:37:47 pm

This was just posted on World of Stuart from Chupacabra

Quote

Well - beat the game last night. Cleared Willywood and all the Secret levels (afaik). Twenty of 'em. Now to do the speedruns.

As I said, by far the best homebrew I've played. I'd have bought this at retail (even faster if it had the original levels included). Great, great work and thanks to all involved. There's not a single aspect of the game that's lacking.

Edit: btw - Willywood! *Juvenile sniggers*

That is nice to read and fills me with a warm glow

What I do find a little annoying with forums in general is that people will insist on posting in other forums problems with our games when we offer links to our forum where the 'people in the know' reside.
Oh well, perhaps I am just getting old and fucking grumpy?

flash · **Reply #759 on:** October 31, 2009, 03:20:51 pm

and from RobF on RetroRemakes,

Quote

Most of the alternate levels I've played have involved either lots of fiddly jumping, awkward waiting around for nasties to move out the way and so on - which isn't bad, it's just a long way from the perfection that is Matt Smith's levels and y'know, you shouldn't really be hanging around for longer than a blip to clear a level. It's a slightly broken flow.

But fuck, gripes about other peoples level design aside, this is clearly one of the best bloody DS games out there including all the commercial stuff. It's fucking fabtastic.

That has filled my bucket full of joy now!!

See Lobo, they are not all cunts!! LOL

Lobo · **Reply #760 on:** October 31, 2009, 05:21:35 pm

Quote from: Flash on October 31, 2009, 03:20:51 pm

See Lobo, they are not all c**ts!! LOL

Still cunts!

Can't believe that some people have already finished it or even unlocked the WW levels. My skills are like-Airlock level!
And yeah, we should really add some bucks to his treasure chest, would make it a bit easier to get the bloody thing sorted, so just email us thy paypal account or such.

flash · **Reply #761 on:** October 31, 2009, 05:59:23 pm

Some people are pretty good!!

I did manage to make a vid and it is linked from the main page or general news.

Just realised that MMLL took 10 weeks to create - seems so so much longer? Aug 13th - Oct 27th

Lobo · **Reply #762 on:** October 31, 2009, 06:54:09 pm

Quote from: Flash on October 31, 2009, 05:59:23 pm

Just realised that MMLL took 10 weeks to create - seems so so much longer? Aug 13th - Oct 27th

To me it feels as if it was started back in 1647.

flash · **Reply #763 on:** October 31, 2009, 07:20:06 pm

Quote from: Lobo on October 31, 2009, 06:54:09 pm

To me it feels as if it was started back in 1647.

Exactly, weird lol

Lobo · **Reply #764 on:** October 31, 2009, 07:28:41 pm

I only remember cause it was a terrible plague that year and we got to burn a bunch of heretics that's all.

headkaze · **Reply #765 on:** October 31, 2009, 10:20:09 pm

I really appreciate that offer there guys but I'm going to see how much I can get together first. I have a couple of software SDK's that I'm in the process of trying to sell and recently finished a web design job along with selling my notebook. Anyway we will see.

Got a bit of work done on TDG yesterday and have most of the character movement sorted I think as well as figured out a relatively robust event system. So not too far away from finishing it now methinks.. I really hope to by the end of this month anyway.

Lobo · **Reply #766 on:** October 31, 2009, 11:12:44 pm

Well, let us know how it goes with finances but if you can't have the phone by the end of November, I chipy anyway.

Cool if TDG comes by the end of Nov, that's huuuuge. Bloody two kickbutt games in such a short period, as Lemmy would say 'Orgasmatron!!!'.

flash · **Reply #767 on:** October 31, 2009, 11:28:16 pm

Quote from: Lobo on October 31, 2009, 11:12:44 pm

Well, let us know how it goes with finances but if you can't have the phone by the end of November, I chipy anyway.

and so will I!

spacefractal · **Reply #768 on:** November 01, 2009, 12:14:16 am

Would been fun for a Manic Miner or such game for IPhone. Due Multi Touch that should not been a problem to due some controls for that game.

Another game that could been fun to do to DS /or PC( is "Bounty Bob Strikes Back", which have a very awesome hiscore table (its still unique even this day) and a nice gameplay and a quite hard but fun game. I have not seen a remake of that game. Howver there is Miner 2049 remake recently which is pretty nice.

That game could nicely designed for DS as well IPhone (only need onscreen 3 buttons, left right and jump).

Lobo · **Reply #769 on:** November 01, 2009, 12:53:32 am

I was playing the Manic Miner C64 on iphone and oddly it behaved better than I expected. I thought that rigid control systems were not the best for touch option but it did work better than some other pixel precision games (Mikie for example is almost impossible to play cause of that).

However, for the iphone game I would prefer something different than -

A) remake

B) Miner type of games

C) Platformer in general (unless it's something ours/original/fits the design)

Rather, I would concentrate on either original concept or in case we go with some kinda platformer, to be something preferably not owned by anyone out there. That would disqualify MM or BountyBob and millions of others.
Plus, dunno if anyone here would be thrilled to do any of the aforementioned games on DS any time soon, especially as MMLL should be about enough for platformer fans for say, a decade at least.

sverx · **Reply #770 on:** November 02, 2009, 08:48:04 am

Hello again... I've been off-line the whole weekend so I've had to read a lot, and I'll surely forget something in my reply... forgive me. Here we go.

First: maybe having a 'Donate' button closer to the download links on this page will double our earnings easily

Btw you're not going to make a living from this so actually it's just an idea that could help you fill the gap of the cost between an iPod and an iPhone, uh?

Then: about libXM7... well, it's C, so it's virtually portable to any platform, including the iPhone of course. NDS has hardware channels with hardware mixing among them, though, and I don't know what about iPhone. Maybe software mixing routines will be required, and here's where ASM coding it's deeply needed, you know

[Is there an iPhone emulator around? Where can I read specs about the sound capabilities of that piece?]

Last: well, actually I can't say I'm part of your team... I didn't even write a single line of code of MMLL, even if you're using my library and I've been working on that libXM7/zlib integration (let's call it so...lol). What I mean at the end of this is: I'd love to be part of it but I've still got to prove I can be useful.

Very last: I started working on a remake some days ago, more details will follow soon, hopefully.

Forgot something? I bet

flash · **Reply #771 on:** November 02, 2009, 09:14:23 pm

Rev.Stu has pointed me in the direction of a bit of MMLL fun here that I think you all may enjoy (I did!)

http://forum.stillwater-rock.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=6658&page=1

Sweet!!

Lobo · **Reply #772 on:** November 02, 2009, 09:26:28 pm

Quote from: sverx on November 02, 2009, 08:48:04 am

Is there an iPhone emulator around? Where can I read specs about the sound capabilities of that piece?

There's one in SDK, from what I've heard it emulates accelerometer and sound OK? Flash should know. All the technical components can be probably seen in docs that come with SDK or on Apple developer pages FAQs.

Quote from: sverx on November 02, 2009, 08:48:04 am

Last: well, actually I can't say I'm part of your team...

All you have to do is usual sacrifice the virgin, drink the blood of the damned and you're in. We're not asking too much?

Flash, what is that link about, it gives me login page on Way of the Rodent, care to give some details, snapshot?

headkaze · **Reply #773 on:** November 02, 2009, 10:29:03 pm

Quote from: Flash on November 02, 2009, 09:14:23 pm

Rev.Stu has pointed me in the direction of a bit of MMLL fun here that I think you all may enjoy (I did!)

http://forum.stillwater-rock.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=6658&page=1

Sweet!!

Damn it have to be a member to view that. What's it about?

I have been speaking with a business partner of mine recently who is interested in remaking some MAME games. Although he thinks there may be some issues contacting the original IP holders. But it's another avenue to think about.

flash · **Reply #774 on:** November 02, 2009, 11:16:42 pm

Quote from: Lobo on November 02, 2009, 09:26:28 pm

Flash, what is that link about, it gives me login page on Way of the Rodent, care to give some details, snapshot?

You have to register sadly, and there is 7 pages about MMLL so a bit too much to snapshot.

It is mostly a challenge to see who can get the highest score this week..

FUCK they should have done the same with Warhawk!!

Lobo · **Reply #775 on:** November 02, 2009, 11:18:09 pm

I don't think it's really possible to get any permission without actually paying the royalties to the original owners or whoever holds the ip. Regardless of whether it's MAME or any machine really, 5, 10, 20 years old - no matter.
Just because noone remembers these titles nor plays them or sells them anymore doesn't mean they're up for grabs.

For all that, inspired with certain title is Ok but just picking it up and remaking while keeping the title/gameplay/else of the original, especially for sale, methinks is a bad idea.

flash · **Reply #776 on:** November 02, 2009, 11:27:50 pm

Quote from: Lobo on November 02, 2009, 11:18:09 pm

I don't think it's really possible to get any permission without actually paying the royalties to the original owners or whoever holds the ip. Regardless of whether it's MAME or any machine really, 5, 10, 20 years old - no matter.
Just because noone remembers these titles nor plays them or sells them anymore doesn't mean they're up for grabs.

For all that, inspired with certain title is Ok but just picking it up and remaking while keeping the title/gameplay/else of the original, especially for sale, methinks is a bad idea.

There are a few mame games that are pd, but these perhaps are not worth converting... Saying that I would be interested in hearing more.

Lobo · **Reply #777 on:** November 02, 2009, 11:42:25 pm

Probably those which are PD are not the ones that anyone wants to play, most likely. You got better chances in doing on your own at the end of the day than porting mediocre game or hoping to get the green light from ip holders.

flash · **Reply #778 on:** November 02, 2009, 11:56:07 pm

Ok, ideas,

Monkey King,

Mr. Ee!

Pac Muncher

Galaxibirds

Solar Squirrel

Space Invasion,

Um!!

Lobo · **Reply #779 on:** November 03, 2009, 12:06:40 am

Shorter~

"Space Monkey Kings Vs. Mr. GalaxyMuncherInvader "