pinback wrote:And don't forget to get the inside scoop over at the The Creeping Maw BBS!!!

Yes! I will try to keep updates on the official TCM BBS, but here is a taste of things to come!

"Today... I am building a spaceship."

Worm wrote:So it's column based like COBOL?

I don't think it's completely column based, but I'll check when that book shows up.

COBOL was pretty strict about what had to be where, wasn't it? I learned Fortran first and I remember thinking that COBOL was even more of a fussy fancy-pants language than Fortran was. Cripes, I can't remember any of this. The only column-based thing I can remember of Fortran was that you had to put something in character 72 to get your line extended. Was there more?! I thought there was more.

Help me, FORTRAN experts!!

And don't forget to get the inside scoop over at the The Creeping Maw BBS!!!

bruce wrote:Want me to do the physics for the game?

I'll give it a crack but if I get stuck, you betcha. Physics has always been a sticking point for me. Not the subject, natch, but the real-world phenomen.... okay, I'm out.

So it's column based like COBOL?

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:The name of this base will shortly be changing. I am going to develop a Vectrex game. Here is its description:

This was originally posted in the Necrotic Drift base, which was the base I used to develop ND.

"Hey, I don't get access to all the bases?!!? What gives?!?!" Well you're not missing anything. If it were anything worth reading I'd make it public. We don't even make fun of ADRIFT there.

Anyway, I'll be using this thread to list fun facts about the 6809 compiler, the first of which is that there is a difference between this:
...and this!
Ha ha! Hilarious. This is going to be a pleasure to make, I can tell.

First...

ANOTHER MAJOR WEBSITE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

http://creepingmaw.com now features a BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM!!! Featuring the software "BBBB" -> "Ben's Bad Bulletin Board"! Which I wrote from scratch in the space of about three hours today! So it totally sucks! But, you know, it'll get better. and hey, it kinda works!!!!!!!! Just go to "Base Index" to try it out!!!


Second...

Hey, can we move this into the Retro Gaming base? Get a little exposure going?

[EDIT: MOVED!!]

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:I see I was assigned a delivery date there. Hmm!

Hey Bruce, does this thing sound feasible? Essentially there is:

o A Mine Storm style ship, that can shoot.

Easy-peasy.

o Collision detection between the Space Cthulu and everything else, and everything else blowing apart when it touches it.

So, like, a rock in Asteroids, only collides with other rocks too. Also, spelled "Cthulhu."

o "Gravity" (was this in Space War for the thing? I will check on that due to handy emulation!!!)

In the arcade Space War it's a configurable option.

o A tractor beam, which is like gravity. Momentum will need to be worked in, but again, I think there are routines for that.

Sure, that just produces acceleration along the vector between the tractor beam originator and the target, maybe with distance reducing the power. Acceleration is just a change in velocity, so, yeah, this is easy to figure out. Want me to do the physics for the game?

o The ability to send off lasers with one button and distribute "shields" with another.

Should be possible.

I mean, I think all of this is doable, but you are the expert on these things. I guess I am worried about how many vectors can be drawn to the screen at once.

I don't know the answer to that. Gotta be in the programmer's guide somewhere though.

(Don't get me wrong, I am "worried" about the fact that I am going to try to develop something fairly big in a language that I've used but only in a different flavor, but that's not going to stop me, I am finally going to kill the Assembly beast DEAD with this.)

Um, just so you know, 6809 assembly doesn't have a whole lot in common with x86 assembly, but, shit, it's just loading values from memory into registers, storing values from registers into memory, and doing math, when you get right down to it.

Bruce

I see I was assigned a delivery date there. Hmm!

Hey Bruce, does this thing sound feasible? Essentially there is:

o A Mine Storm style ship, that can shoot.

o Collision detection between the Space Cthulu and everything else, and everything else blowing apart when it touches it.

o "Gravity" (was this in Space War for the thing? I will check on that due to handy emulation!!!)

o A tractor beam, which is like gravity. Momentum will need to be worked in, but again, I think there are routines for that.

o The ability to send off lasers with one button and distribute "shields" with another.

I mean, I think all of this is doable, but you are the expert on these things. I guess I am worried about how many vectors can be drawn to the screen at once. (Don't get me wrong, I am "worried" about the fact that I am going to try to develop something fairly big in a language that I've used but only in a different flavor, but that's not going to stop me, I am finally going to kill the Assembly beast DEAD with this.)

BWA-HAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA

This is the greatest thing I have ever seen. Yes... yes this is how I hoped it would look.

Progress update! After spending three hours Wednesday night and an hour last night I have successfully output "The Creeping Maw" to the screen! This is notable because there are sixteen characters in that and everything I can see as documentation deals with strings at about five. We have STRINGS, ladies and gentlemen!

Screenshot coming.

MAJOR WEBSITE UPDATE:

http://www.creepingmaw.com

Man. I can't believe some idiot payed $9 for that piece of shit.

We apparently have our first fan site!

http://www.creepingmaw.com

... I am not affiliated with that in any way. Though I will hopefully be able to provide updates to the site administrator! Whoever you are.

I'm going to hurt you if you don't stop putting in these clock threads. I can't affect the system clock of my web host. Jesus Mary.

The name of this base will shortly be changing. I am going to develop a Vectrex game. Here is its description:

The game is tentatively called THE CREEPING MAW. Imagine if you will a spaceship. A very small thing, it has the ability to fire a laser, use a shield, engage a kind of tractor beam and distribute previously gathered armor.

At the very top of the screen is a giant Space Cthulu. It has tentacles that are thrashing about. Width-wise it takes up the whole width, but it only comes maybe 15% of the way down from the top of the screen.

There are, on the first board, several stick figure people who are floating in space. They are gradually moving towards the horrible, hungry maw of the Space Cthulu due to its gravity.

You have to save them!

You save them by running into them. Making this tricky are:

o Space mines
o Other, unfriendly ships, some of which can shoot at you

OK, so here's the basic gameplay:

The humans are moving towards the Space Cthulu.

If the Space Cthulu touches the human, it kills them. (If it touches anything, it kills it)

You have a tractor beam that can help pull them closer.

You can collect armor by moving onto it.

You can fire off the armor towards a human and get them armed, at which case if they touch an enemy spaceship they will destroy it

You can use the tractor beam to move the armored humans into the enemy spaceships, flinging them around

When you save all the humans you go to the next board


... So what do you think? As you get to the later boards there could be more humans, more mines, more enemy spacecraft and some asteroids or whatever. Keeping in mind at all times there's this terrible many-tentacled, extra-dimensional demon up on top of the screen flinging its tentacles around.

Too stupid?