Valve recently announced that their Steamworks SDK would include a feature called Steam Cloud in a future update. What Steam Cloud does is implement my own most-wanted feature – a way to keep saved games in sync across multiple PCs. (At one point I even thought I would write my own software, registering steamsync.com.)
In any event, it’s unlikely that Steam Cloud will be back-ported to many (if any) existing titles on Steam. That means I still need a solution for keeping my Peggle save file in sync between my desktop and laptops. :)
So if you’re a Live Mesh user, here’s how keep some of your PopCap Games save files in sync on Windows Vista:
Why “Effective”? Well, you could mesh individual save folders but I prefer to keep things simple. It doesn’t hurt if one of the meshed devices doesn’t have all of the same games installed as the others.
With the closing of Funland last year, Union Station may have Toronto’s last downtown arcade. The games are mostly crap, but there is this one bootleg Ms. Pac-Man machine with alternate mazes:
If you aren’t familiar with the mazes, you can see that something is wrong because the bonus fruit travels through walls!
In the notes for Cannon III I said that I would take a look at using an Xbox 360 controller instead of the mouse… This kind of broke the quick movements necessary to play the game so Cannon Zero is mouse-only.
Cannon III is complete. Just as Cannon II borrowed a lot from Cannon I, this game reuses code from Cannon II except now we’re using the XNA framework. The assets file provided by 3D Buzz contained some enhanced graphics labelled XNA, so I used those instead of the boring default sprites.
Here’s a video of Cannon III in action:
That wraps up XNA Xtreme 101 Volume 1. Before I move on to Volume 2, I’m going to make my own final version of the Cannon game. Probably with new graphics, sound support, and Xbox 360 gamepad support. I’d also like to fix the issue with CheckFire() being called too quickly – which is causing the projectile to be fired on BeginGame() and ResetTarget().
With iBlacklist, I just add a number to the blacklist, choose an action (auto-hang-up, straight-to-voicemail, etc), and I never have to receive an unwanted call or SMS again. The application keeps a log of what it has blocked:
That’s three unwanted calls in the last few days that I never even got a ring for! (According to 800notes.com, this particular caller purchased my information from a credit card company.)
One quick introductory XNA project before getting into Cannon III: The Simple XNA Application. It’s just a new version of a bouncing ball demo that was originally created as a regular Windows app:
It looks like the lessons could get a little tricky, as they were created with the XNA 1.0 Refresh. Version 3.0 is the current release, and I can already see that the content manager is structured differently. No problems so far though.
Cannon II is done now. It’s pretty much Cannon I, except using a (mostly) proper game loop and custom classes.
For fun I’ve changed the graphics and added sound effects using SoundPlayer from System.Media. I used a tool called sfxr to randomly create the sounds:
The graphical changes are the very worst in programmer art, but what the hell… Here it is in action:
Also, while I was looking for something else, I came across this tool for generating animated explosion sprites: Explosion Generator. Might be useful later.
For the second game project in 3D BuzzXNA Xtreme 101 we’re writing a simple target-shooting game called Cannon. From a single initial design, the game will be implemented three times. First as a basic WinForms application, then as a more complex one with custom objects, and finally as an XNA framework game.
The mechanics of the first implementation are complete, with the rest of the gameplay to come in the next lesson.
The objects in Cannon I are PictureBoxes loaded up with some simple graphics supplied by 3D Buzz. Here is the player ship firing on the moving target:
Last week I completed the Hyperion lessons, leaving me with a finished engine and basic game about rearranging some objects into the correct rooms.
I worked a little on making my own original game with the engine, but in the end I wasn’t inspired. As much as I have fond memories of early text adventure games (Scott Adams’ Adventureland, Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), it doesn’t seem like I have anything to bring to the table. Plus I’d rather get on with the XNA lessons.
I added a couple of things to the engine before I finished though:
Lots of command aliases like “get” or “take” instead of “pickup”
Directional commands are implemented differently from the way that 3D Buzz guys did it
Partial text matching for items so that you can “drop gre” instead of “drop green ball”
So, that’s it for Hyperion. On to the next block of lessons.
The combining I mentioned recently is now complete. The old URL (www.gameslifeandstuff.com) will now forward here. Unfortunately the comments were not able to be imported along with the posts that I chose to save, but from here on the data should be more portable.
I first tried Comté cheese at Matt and Dani’s place. Apparently it’s cheaper in Kensington, but this little block of heaven from St. Lawrence Market was totally worth it.
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