Hey folks, this is Toasty (you may know me as Crimson from my previous work with Salty on the old SMTC project). I've been talking with Salty about the new SMTC project, as well as helping with some debugging, and I shall get involved with it as well.
As you may or may not know, part of the reason we abandoned the old SMTC was a lack of time due to our studies at university. However, my degree is almost complete, and Salty's has been stretched to allow for more free time, and hence the prospects of piking this up again.
I'll be getting in on the action with making an editor again. This time it won't be buggy or as complex...well hopefully. I will soon have my BSc in CS, so through the years I've picked up some things to make this much better. Following the completion of my many academic projects (which should conclude in the next two weeks), I will begin work on the editor. If you have any input as to what you think I should do it in, feel free to comment, and I shall take them into consideration. I was thinking about doing it in a non-allegro program, likely using C# and .NET (Personally, I like how clean it is and how easy the classes are to work with), but this also brings up portability concerns.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday Alpha Madness
Oops, I meant to get the alpha up on Friday but was busy running down a memory leak, and I work all weekend.
Here is the link.
Send comments, but not bug reports. However, mysterious crashing should be noted but not reported, as there is very little crash or compatibility protection as of right now.
Size is 413Kb, windows executable.
Here is the link.
Send comments, but not bug reports. However, mysterious crashing should be noted but not reported, as there is very little crash or compatibility protection as of right now.
Size is 413Kb, windows executable.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Friday is release day
I'm going to try to release an alpha update every Friday. Expect this post to be updated once I actually upload something in a few hours. Until then, salivate over these fantastic features:
Clipping: Pretty much done, but no morph ball
Editable rooms: You have to use notepad and run it through a translator, but you CAN build rooms.
Precursor to doors: They're in, but they don't do anything.
Simple phyiscs: Jumping, spin jumping, blah blah.
For two weeks work, I'd say it's coming along well. More later.
Clipping: Pretty much done, but no morph ball
Editable rooms: You have to use notepad and run it through a translator, but you CAN build rooms.
Precursor to doors: They're in, but they don't do anything.
Simple phyiscs: Jumping, spin jumping, blah blah.
For two weeks work, I'd say it's coming along well. More later.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Obligatory Mission Statement
This is my mission statement for the Metroid Classic project.
First up, I recognize that Metroid has been ported to death, and that includes GBA/DS/Wii/Gamecube/PC ports (Yes, PC has been done. It's called Metroid Cubed). My goal is not to construct a simple port and recreation. That's just the first step...
The first goal is to get a functioning Metroid game working, playable from beginning to end. This will also come with a level editor which is pretty much 100% necessary to make the original game without my head exploding.
The second goal is provide modability, and that goes beyond the level editor. When making Super Metroid Classic (notice how Salty's MeTroid Conventional can still be SMTC :D ) I developed a 90% complete scripting engine complete with custom variables, functions, and the like. It never hit total functionality and I doubt many people did much with it, but it will make a return this time.
Expect this modability to also feature cool stuff like new items, enemies, and bosses too. And probably even scripted cutscene features like Super Metroid had. Those of you who saw Super Metroid Classic knew that this was mostly done as well.
The third goal is to upgrade to Metroid II: Return of Samus. Despite what you may think, Metroid II is not a major change from Metroid I, and both could easily work within the same engine. They're both 8 bit after all. I would, however, need someone to grab the graphics from Metroid II and color them so they don't look ugly.
The fourth and final objective would be upgrading this engine to Super Metroid levels. Once again, this is not that large an upgrade from Metroid I and II. The problem with Super Metroid Classic was that it was a major programming feat and I was an amateur programmer, but this time I'm not and I'm taking it in small chunks.
Intermediate objectives include interesting things like netplay (more on that later) and complete custom scenarios. I recall a lot of people making hacks for Metroid to make it harder or more baffling. I figure such scenarios would be more enjoyable in the SMTC built-for-PC engine.
So that's it. A list of my plans and what you can expect in the near future. Keep in mind that right now we're in an alpha phase. Expect some screenshots and possibly videos uploaded to youtube demonstrating my progress sometime next week.
First up, I recognize that Metroid has been ported to death, and that includes GBA/DS/Wii/Gamecube/PC ports (Yes, PC has been done. It's called Metroid Cubed). My goal is not to construct a simple port and recreation. That's just the first step...
The first goal is to get a functioning Metroid game working, playable from beginning to end. This will also come with a level editor which is pretty much 100% necessary to make the original game without my head exploding.
The second goal is provide modability, and that goes beyond the level editor. When making Super Metroid Classic (notice how Salty's MeTroid Conventional can still be SMTC :D ) I developed a 90% complete scripting engine complete with custom variables, functions, and the like. It never hit total functionality and I doubt many people did much with it, but it will make a return this time.
Expect this modability to also feature cool stuff like new items, enemies, and bosses too. And probably even scripted cutscene features like Super Metroid had. Those of you who saw Super Metroid Classic knew that this was mostly done as well.
The third goal is to upgrade to Metroid II: Return of Samus. Despite what you may think, Metroid II is not a major change from Metroid I, and both could easily work within the same engine. They're both 8 bit after all. I would, however, need someone to grab the graphics from Metroid II and color them so they don't look ugly.
The fourth and final objective would be upgrading this engine to Super Metroid levels. Once again, this is not that large an upgrade from Metroid I and II. The problem with Super Metroid Classic was that it was a major programming feat and I was an amateur programmer, but this time I'm not and I'm taking it in small chunks.
Intermediate objectives include interesting things like netplay (more on that later) and complete custom scenarios. I recall a lot of people making hacks for Metroid to make it harder or more baffling. I figure such scenarios would be more enjoyable in the SMTC built-for-PC engine.
So that's it. A list of my plans and what you can expect in the near future. Keep in mind that right now we're in an alpha phase. Expect some screenshots and possibly videos uploaded to youtube demonstrating my progress sometime next week.
Blog Creation
So I put together a blog for SMTC (new and slightly debilitated). Yep. Check here for updates.
Speaking of which, here's what's done as of this writing:
Samus movement
Clipping
Basic room construction
Some of the door code
Toasty (aka Crimson for those of you "old hands") said he'd try to start on an editor but, as usual, is swamped with school work.
I'll try to post a very simple alpha download by Friday.
Speaking of which, here's what's done as of this writing:
Samus movement
Clipping
Basic room construction
Some of the door code
Toasty (aka Crimson for those of you "old hands") said he'd try to start on an editor but, as usual, is swamped with school work.
I'll try to post a very simple alpha download by Friday.
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