04-10-2004, 09:04 PM
Now i put away programming for a short time to review
Building Trouble.
(I am started programming my game 2 days before. Now i
think i am done with the basics of the graphic engine:
i think it is a very good one in the pure QB world -
but everyone thinks this on his games, not? )
So lets start with it.
First of all, the PureQB score. There is absolutely
nothing more than QB in this game's code, so it can
get 25 points. There is an interesting thing in the
game: the sprites are included in the source in GET /
PUT format as LONG arrays. This must have made with
a special QB drawing program what could output in that
style (I would never type those tons of numbers...).
BT.EXE can work without any external files, this way
everything is included in that one file.
The game worked on it's top speed until i slowed down
my machine to 15Mhz, but it was still playable on 8Mhz
too. This worth 22 points.
So the technical part of it is almost perfect:
25 + 22 = 47 points
Now the game itself.
The graphic of the game takes place on the popular
320 * 200 mode with 256 colors. It not uses the A000
memory area, just oly the built - in GET and PUT
routines of QB. This way the gameplay is a bit
flickery in some cases since the game not looks at
the VGA ports before updating the screen. On the other
hand it is a very good thing at speed that it only
redraws the areas of the playfield when they are really
needed to redraw. But sometimes it forgets to do this,
and some parts of the sprites are being left on the
screen... It makes the dark side darker that the sprites
are not transparent: they have got a black background
what deletes everything behind them. On the other hand
they look better than an usual middle class QB game's
sprites, and they are really moving.
Finally it can get 4 points out of 9.
Now the game's useability. It is working. Or not. The
game uses the keyboard port to get the states of the
arrow keys what may work, or may not. I have not got
Windows XP, but i think it will not run on it. At all
controlling is not bad, rather outdated. Someone who is
familiar with typing may welcome this way, but if does
not know where that stupid key is then he is lost. On
the other hand playing the game is easy (if the keys
are working), everyone should be able to handle that
five keys what are needed.
For handling this game gets 6 points.
It is a good thing to have a game with sounds. Many
programmer here forgets to add sound to their games.
This one as most of the other pureQB games use the PC
speaker to generate some tones. There are some intro
musics which are good, and a few sound effects in the
game. They can be turned off from the main menu, then
the game remembers this setting what is a good point.
On the other hand if the music is on, the intro make
us waiting for some seconds before we can use the menus.
At all for the sound this game can get 4 points (/9).
This game was not designed for the story. In this case
it is like Project Speed: Microrush, this game was
written only to play too. It has got an Arabic theme as
we have to get back our oil from the bad mans (Kuwait?
Iran?) At all, it can get the same score as Microrush:
1 points.
The game's idea can not said to be unique since there are
many other games where we have to work with bombs. On the
other hand they are almost always topdown - view, but in
this game the gravity counts (things are falling down from
the top). It can get 2 points for this.
At the challenge side it is not really good. Since half of
the maps are generated impossible (I played it much,
believe or not, it is true), the author built in a restart
function what can be used any time if you are running out
of time or having any other problems. And those maps are
completely random so it can happen that only 1 bad guy is
lingering on the map, but opposite to this it is possible
to be attacked by a 10 man army on the first level. The
programming technique of this game really hurts... The only
positive thing of it that nobody can fall through walls, and
the bombs always blow up what is next to them.
So 1 point for challenge, and 1 point for technique.
Finally the replay value. If you can get used to restart
when you get an impossible map, it can be played as much
like Tetris. 2 points.
Finally: 4 + 6 + 4 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 21 points
So the scores:
47 points for PureQB
21 points for the game
Final score: 42%
This game if it's bugs had fixed would have been a very nice
demonstration of PureQB coding.
I got 42100 points in Microrush. Hard game
I think my sprite editor still leaves some garbage in QBMs...
Building Trouble.
(I am started programming my game 2 days before. Now i
think i am done with the basics of the graphic engine:
i think it is a very good one in the pure QB world -
but everyone thinks this on his games, not? )
So lets start with it.
First of all, the PureQB score. There is absolutely
nothing more than QB in this game's code, so it can
get 25 points. There is an interesting thing in the
game: the sprites are included in the source in GET /
PUT format as LONG arrays. This must have made with
a special QB drawing program what could output in that
style (I would never type those tons of numbers...).
BT.EXE can work without any external files, this way
everything is included in that one file.
The game worked on it's top speed until i slowed down
my machine to 15Mhz, but it was still playable on 8Mhz
too. This worth 22 points.
So the technical part of it is almost perfect:
25 + 22 = 47 points
Now the game itself.
The graphic of the game takes place on the popular
320 * 200 mode with 256 colors. It not uses the A000
memory area, just oly the built - in GET and PUT
routines of QB. This way the gameplay is a bit
flickery in some cases since the game not looks at
the VGA ports before updating the screen. On the other
hand it is a very good thing at speed that it only
redraws the areas of the playfield when they are really
needed to redraw. But sometimes it forgets to do this,
and some parts of the sprites are being left on the
screen... It makes the dark side darker that the sprites
are not transparent: they have got a black background
what deletes everything behind them. On the other hand
they look better than an usual middle class QB game's
sprites, and they are really moving.
Finally it can get 4 points out of 9.
Now the game's useability. It is working. Or not. The
game uses the keyboard port to get the states of the
arrow keys what may work, or may not. I have not got
Windows XP, but i think it will not run on it. At all
controlling is not bad, rather outdated. Someone who is
familiar with typing may welcome this way, but if does
not know where that stupid key is then he is lost. On
the other hand playing the game is easy (if the keys
are working), everyone should be able to handle that
five keys what are needed.
For handling this game gets 6 points.
It is a good thing to have a game with sounds. Many
programmer here forgets to add sound to their games.
This one as most of the other pureQB games use the PC
speaker to generate some tones. There are some intro
musics which are good, and a few sound effects in the
game. They can be turned off from the main menu, then
the game remembers this setting what is a good point.
On the other hand if the music is on, the intro make
us waiting for some seconds before we can use the menus.
At all for the sound this game can get 4 points (/9).
This game was not designed for the story. In this case
it is like Project Speed: Microrush, this game was
written only to play too. It has got an Arabic theme as
we have to get back our oil from the bad mans (Kuwait?
Iran?) At all, it can get the same score as Microrush:
1 points.
The game's idea can not said to be unique since there are
many other games where we have to work with bombs. On the
other hand they are almost always topdown - view, but in
this game the gravity counts (things are falling down from
the top). It can get 2 points for this.
At the challenge side it is not really good. Since half of
the maps are generated impossible (I played it much,
believe or not, it is true), the author built in a restart
function what can be used any time if you are running out
of time or having any other problems. And those maps are
completely random so it can happen that only 1 bad guy is
lingering on the map, but opposite to this it is possible
to be attacked by a 10 man army on the first level. The
programming technique of this game really hurts... The only
positive thing of it that nobody can fall through walls, and
the bombs always blow up what is next to them.
So 1 point for challenge, and 1 point for technique.
Finally the replay value. If you can get used to restart
when you get an impossible map, it can be played as much
like Tetris. 2 points.
Finally: 4 + 6 + 4 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 21 points
So the scores:
47 points for PureQB
21 points for the game
Final score: 42%
This game if it's bugs had fixed would have been a very nice
demonstration of PureQB coding.
I got 42100 points in Microrush. Hard game
I think my sprite editor still leaves some garbage in QBMs...