nms@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (n.m.scribner) (10/04/89)
My son is trying to write an action game of tahe D&D variety in Basic on a C64. He is a novice programmer. Are there any tool sets available which would make his task easier. Neal Scribner (ATT-BL, homxc!nms)
labc-2aa@web-4h.berkeley.edu (Greg Burrell) (10/05/89)
In article <4493@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> nms@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (n.m.scribner,ho,) writes: > >My son is trying to write an action game of tahe D&D variety in Basic >on a C64. He is a novice programmer. Are there any tool sets available >which would make his task easier. I tend to think that "action" and "Basic" are contradictory terms since Commodore Basic tends to be hideously slow. However, game writing is a good way to learn. My suggestions are: 1) Commodore put out a cartridge called (I think) the Super Expander which basically added a lot of sound and graphics commands to Basic plus maybe a few other goodies. 2) There is another cartridge or disk called Simon's Basic which also extends the language. If he is using graphics and sound, he might look for: 1) a sprite editor to take a lot of the tedium out of designing graphic shapes and animation. There are dozens of public domain ones available. Also, most Commodore graphics books have the listing for a sprite editor. 2) A character editor so that he can easily redefine the character set. Basically, you can change the set of characters to look like anything you want. For example, if walls are made of brick, you can redefine the letter A to look like a little brick, then all you have to do is print a row of 'A's (bricks) and there you have a wall of bricks. Look up this technique in any commodore graphics book. 3) A sound editor might be useful in designing game sounds. Basically you can make a sound and play it over and over as you change parts of it. Any book that deals with sound will have a type in listing. Personally I recommend a set of books put out by Compute magazine. They contain a lot of listings for the above mentioned programs as well as several other utilities that might make things a little easier. Good Luck. -Greg Greg Burrell labc-2aa@WEB.berkeley.edu University of California, Berkeley
bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig) (10/06/89)
To develop a really neat kind of D&D game, why not get Adventure
Construction Set from Electronic Arts? Sure, it's slooow, but it
still is very complete, highly customizeable, and fun to play. (All
right, it's not exactly Pac-Man, but then again if you can stand
sitting at a table for hours playing D&D, you can probably bear the
infrequently long disk accesses and slow screen updates.
I mean it. I think ACS is a pretty neat program. It's got some nifty
music to it, too. Try it!
<< Brian >>
--
| Brian S. Kendig | I feel more like I | bskendig |
| Computer Engineering | did when I got here | @phoenix.Princeton.EDU |
| Princeton University | than I do now. | @PUCC.BITNET |
| Systems Engineering, NASA Space Station Freedom / General Electric WP3 |stephans@neabbs.UUCP (STEPHAN SPEELMANS) (10/13/89)
Hi There, try Game Maker from Activision. It really does make you to a wonderfull game 'maker'. And you can make an Action-game very easy.