Project Ideas - Share them!

I thought I'd look at the code you write when coding for HLA..
Not pleased..
Not pleased at all.
We need to do something better!
Whoosh!

Have been working on (temporary name) RevSoftToolchain a bit, it's not really using C++ yet other than it being compiled by a C++ compiler.
Not anywhere done yet but I'm borrowing quite a few things from GALLMapEditor This will be changed I suppose, hopefully in the near future.

The idea is that we want to be able to make games with these tools, create levels, maps, fill tiles with data like events and such, define what code goes in there (in the events), endianess and so forth (depending on what platform we are making the game for).
So we would have like a "game-maker" thing that is handmade for our needs and FOSS (e.g easy to change if need be).

For now I want to work on this, as I want it to be ready before December (actually, hopefully before June so I can actually produce something with it...) as I want to make something for a party, and I was hoping to be able to use this tool chain for that.

There already are tools like "Tiled" for making the tiles/sprites, so I don't think that would be necessary to make, but the rest of the tools in the tool chain are probably more or less required to be made from scratch.

Maybe I'm over thinking this. We could make a plan of what to make. A "higher level than Assembly but lower than C" language or a tool chain for making games, or possibly something else.

[NanoWar]

It's always good to know the problems of a programming language and what you really hate about it. Then you can try to change that.

What I dislike about ASM is the register poverty. I really want to abtract these away. And the nonexistence of function parameters (or lack of methods of documentation/discovery) annoys me.

HASM should introduce functions and implement register spilling.

It's always good to know the problems of a programming language and what you really hate about it. Then you can try to change that.

What I dislike about ASM is the register poverty. I really want to abtract these away. And the nonexistence of function parameters (or lack of methods of documentation/discovery) annoys me.

HASM should introduce functions and implement register spilling.

This.
Great advice.

And I was thinking a simple format for certain loops, maybe the way it is now is good enough though (jump to a label, anonymous or not).
Macros is something we have good enough implemented already in SPASM right? We could just use that mechanism and maybe improve on it when the time is right.
We could move this discussion into a new project page, might make it easier to find the relevant posts about HASM that way.

[chickendude]

Ooh.. i'd really like to see someone clean up GALLMapEditor into something more robust! Personally i much prefer straight assembly, it's much more enjoyable for me to write. That's why i've stayed away from computer programming all this time. I don't really care if we have other non-z80 stuff here, it's just that we've all been a part of the calc community for a long time. I wouldn't mind seeing some GBA development or tilemap tools and stuff, too, though.

The main grudge with z80 i've got is the extremely limited register set. The main grudge i've got with the 83+ series is the LCD, it just slows everything down so much. If we could get a memory-mapped LCD into the 83+, life would be so great!

add: let's finish up FamWars, then we can use that as a base for a CE port and a GBA port

Yeah, been having a chaotic mind lately, should probably settle down with fewer projects at a time xD

Yeah, I must confess, I've been looking at a lot of demo's this evening..
Makes me very tempted to make something..
Like my old C64 project, which I should finish (or rather, remake as the code is somewhere where it cannot be found).
Oooooor, we finish the FamWars project first. That should come as a priority.
Argh, so easily distracted!

[chickendude]

Let's do FamWars, first. Especially since that can be used as the basis for a tutorial on z80 game programming later on We can also use it as a foundation for a simple GBA game if we wanna play around with the GBA later on. Today let's finish the menu routine so that we can start actually building units and stuff! If we can get a good couple afternoons in we should have something playable relatively quickly (at least for a 2player game, no AI ).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5T81yHkHtI <- Doing something like this could be fun, as an idea.

[chickendude]

Actually doing anything at all could be fun

Yeah..

[chickendude]

*winkwinknudgenudge*

I've been struggling with programming languages again lately.
I'm pretty disturbed that Garbage Collection is so common nowadays..
I used to love the lisp-family languages, but now even the thought that Lisp was where GC was invented just makes me feel annoyed.
Why can't more languages be like C or even Assembly languages? :-/
My major nitpick with assembly language is that it's kinda annoying to make large projects in it and that works on more than one architecture..

*Sigh*

I just wish I had the energy to do things like designing a language, make it's compiler and actually use the language afterwards..

[NanoWar]

Designing a language is hard. You sure you like LISP?? I find C#, Ruby very nice. Have you tried C++?

[chickendude]

That's why i've mostly stuck to handheld machines, (generally) only one architecture to worry about and it's easier/simpler to get used to the hardware.

Btw, has anyone picked up a CE yet?

Designing a language is hard.

I never said it wasn't.

You sure you like LISP??

I did say I used to like Lisp-family languages..
Lisp is the source of garbage collection, e.g the source of lots of evil.

I find C#, Ruby very nice. Have you tried C++?

C++ is a mess, although it has some useful things, but most of it is a horrible mess design-wise, e.g feature on feature on feature on top of another language.
C# has garbage collection and does everything on the heap.
Ruby I haven't done much in, but I did try to make some game solver thingy in ruby.

That's why i've mostly stuck to handheld machines, (generally) only one architecture to worry about and it's easier/simpler to get used to the hardware.

Btw, has anyone picked up a CE yet?

Yeah, handhelds are in that regard amazing..
Oh, and no, I got a Nintendo DS lite instead of a TI84+CE

[NanoWar]

1. Think of a project
2. Choose a programming language

What do you want to do? Pick the right tool for the job.

I really dislike C++ and Java, but eventually I will have used both.
Most people use JavaScript + browser nowadays anyway.

I want a TI84+CE real bad. Where/When can I buy one?

[chickendude]

They've already hit stores in the US and they're on TaoBao here in China. They're also on Amazon in the US. Some of the folks at would probably know where to get it in Europe. The site for the 83 Premium CE (French version of the 84+CE) says it will be available in May. Or you could order it online and pay the shipping.

I really want one, too, but next year i'll be a bit short on cash, i'm not sure if i should pick one up or not, at least not until i'm sure that i'll actually start programming it.

EDIT: Then let's start on putting that DS to some educational use! By which i mean writing some games for it, of course

I'm a NIH kind of person who like to do most of everything from scratch (or on my own), and by that I mean I would design a language to do something I could probably do a lot easier in a language like haskell or scheme (or say java or C++)..
So yeah, the easiest route would probably be "use the language designed for that purpose", but since I like doing low-level stuff, it's hard to use anything other than asm or C.
Oh well.
This is great though, I like the part of Rust that you can choose to not use the GC, but the problem is that libraries you want to use may use GC, so they collide and don't work.
Uuurgh.
Rust completely without GC would be nice to have.

Actually, I take that back, I still like the Lisp family, but I guess I'm not a fan of the Garbage Collection and that makes me reluctant to use it for anything other than playing around with new techniques and algorithms and so forth (like AI), if I had to do anything that needed efficiency or speed or such (e.g Games or Graphical-Demos), I'd make it in C or Asm..

Me and Chickendude are working on a NDS project as you've probably noticed NanoWar. I'm having fun with that.
Also, I've read up a little about Rust and will continue doing so, as the language seems to be very nice.
And GC isn't in the core language!
Although it's used a lot in (3rd party?) libraries as it's (Garbage Collection) defined in the standard library or something IIRC.
This is fun.
Working on something is fun, and makes me not think as much about my bitter reality

And my bitter reality caught up with me.
Or rather, friends giving advice about programming languages..

[chickendude]

The NDSRPG project is coming along nicely, though the past few days have been a little quiet. add got some work done on the text "engine" and there's also been some work done on a tilemap editor in Python We could probably make a topic about it here in a bit, perhaps when the text engine is a bit more polished.

[NanoWar]

Yes I noticed. Any screenshots?