When you install PDCurses is comes with some demo programs, which to me is better than a tutorial. Somehow I got a hold of some other demo programs that I thought came with PDCurses but apparently didn’t (the fact that they all #included ncurses should have been a clue) and now I don’t know where they came from. Specifically I found ballgame.c to be most instructive when writing shox (which I’ve re-written with more useful comments). Rain.c is also informative and fun to look at too. The rest were less informative, but some were kind of fun like firework.c, shuffle.c, tt.c (typing tutor), worm.c (not the game), and xmax.c. If anyone can tell me where these came from I’d be grateful.

When I write my curses book I’m going to reference Norman Matloff’s online book about Curses, but mostly because it’s so square.

So until I make a curses tutorial these examples will have to do.

On a personal note, I have a long history with this game. I first seem to recall playing it on the Commodore 64, although if I remember it was actually a written for the PET computer. I remade it on the C64 in BASIC using a sprite pointer that you controlled with the joystick and snazzy 3Dish graphics created with the C64’s tile set and color control. This was also the first version that had multiple goals, where as the original only asked you to make an “O” to win. Imagine my disappointment when years later I went back and found it painfully slow. I made a new version in assembly years later, sans the multiple goals, and snazzy graphics.

For an extra challenge, look for the line in the function puzzle() that reads:
bd = rand () % 0×01FE + 1;
…and change it to…
bd = rand () % 0×01FE + 1; goal[lv] = rand () % 0×01FE + 1;
…and every time you play you’ll have completely random goals.

Buttons was written by Joseph Larson

Ah, stats. I know I probably shouldn’t care about them, but it’s sometimes fun to check out the traffic of this burgeoning site. The first thing I notice is that There is a predictable peek in traffic every 7 days. Seems like a lot of people do their surfing on Sundays. Either that or my weekly post on RR is still driving the lion’s share of traffic. However, RR is not our only beneficiary.

We’re getting linked to! While the site is still starting out I’d like to make my appreciations known on a personal level to a few folks. StackOverflow apparently liked my homework suggestions. Star Trek is a big draw for a couple of German websites; ich spreche kein Deutsch so I have to rely on automated translation tools, but I think they said positive things. And a big shout out to the Abras (whoever that is) for a lovely post on the Ubanatu Forums. You rock. That’s what I’m talking about.

As there are new people trickling into Cymon’s Games, let me recommend you check out the games, download a few, and be sure to vote on them. Make a few comments. And if you decide to try your hand at programming, load up CodeBlocks with MinGW, maybe actually type in a few beginning programs, check out some learning resources if you need them.

(I like that so much I think I’ll add it to the about page.)

The book is ready for your digestion! It’s still in its early stages, but I am soliciting feedback. I should probably make a bigger deal about this, but at the moment I’m doing this because I’m really feeling the bite of the programming bug, but I feel obligated to give you something.

If you like what you’re seeing here let me again encourge you to encourage me by contributing to the success of Cymon’s Games.

I absolutely love concepts that stretch your imagination. For instance Unfinished Swan:

The Unfinished Swan - Tech Demo 9/2008 from Ian Dallas on Vimeo.

Now how cool is that? I wonder if we’ll be seeing invisible white-on-white or black-on-black people and animals that react to getting splattered… or that don’t. What if you’re invisible and the world around you can’t see you or your ink, but you can’t see them either until you ink them? I’m reminded of the play Harvey by Mary Chase where in the final line could be taken that while Elwood can see Harvey, the 6 foot tall white rabbit, when no one else can that maybe Harvey can see humans that the other Pooka’s (mythical creatures for which Harvey is one) can’t. Here’s another idea, what if this were an echolocation sort of thing so that you could pulse outward and have all surfaces a fixed difference from the point of the pulse light up. It sparks the imagination.

Funny that it’s often the simplest concepts that provide the most spark. Unfinished Swan is simple. No textures or complex mapping. It leaves a lot to the imagination and consequently work as as a kind of canvas for the imagination. Naturally Unfinished Swan is hardly the first to do this. If you haven’t played them, here are a few games that’s simple presentation and off-the-beaten-path game play have inspired me:

Tumiki Fighters - While it’s getting the Wiiware treatment, when I played this game I envisioned something more like a magnetic mecha game where you build a giant warship around you. Captures ships would be configured to act as as arms, legs, armor, etc. Throw in a procedurally generated map that as you kris-cross from point to point your path determines what enemies you faced and this could be the coolest game I ever dreamed up.

rRootage - Also from Aba games I love the idea of an enemy that reacts to how you destroy it. My first thought was something organic, but what if the magnetic mecha from above were now the enemy?

Stellar Assault / Shadow Squadron for the 32X - There aren’t enough games like this. X-Wing was cool, but X-Wing didn’t allow 2 players on the same screen by having one aim the cannon while the other pilots the ship. Replay mode was apparently nicked from Star Wars on the Sharp X68000, but I still love it. Unfortunately it was saddled to the ill fated 32X meaning your options to play it now are limited to either hit-or-miss used computer stores or the evils of emulation.

Robot Odyssey - I’ve said this before, but the game is impossible to win without a masters degree in electrical engineering, and is the very definition of open ended. “Sandbox” has nothing on this. If you’re brave Droid Quest faithfully recreates the game for you to play, but I think it needs a rewrite to be more marketable by adding characters to interact with and solutions you can buy if you do some mundane grinding task in the game (preferably one that would build the skills to help you make your own solutions the next time you play).

What games inspired you? Post your comments below.

Being a couple of weeks ahead now I’m trying to get the book together. It feels like there’s a deficit between what I want to do and the unrelenting march of time, so I’m going to make available what I have so far and ask for your feedback on it. I want to, like everything else, make it as good as possible and as usual I need you for that. On an excellent reader suggestion the next release will change program listings to Monaco font which has crossed zeros, but that means I’m reformatting every page.

There are certain magnets that I feel pulling my efforts in different directions. If I could leverage this into a full time job I’d happily explore them all, but being as my time is limited I have to pick and choose the attraction forces that I entertain. For instance: at the moment Cymon’s Games is C/C++, but python’s siren wail has called to me for long enough and I am soon relenting to her sweet syntactical song.

There is another lodestone I appear to have been grasped by. After one more comment (thank you so much for that), finding some really good YouTube videos, as well as a personal focus on the edutainment aspect of Cymon’s Games, I appear to be orbiting the planet “Tutorial,” a course heading I have heretofore avoided. I’ve even tried to excuse my evasion by vague hand waving. But now I feel like I’d really like to make the sort of thing that could be used by a secondary school teacher to give them a 10 minute break, complete with homework assignments. Unfortunately it’s the sort of thing I’d like to do (1) regularly and (2) as professionally as I can. Number 2 I can do, but number 1 is going to be tricky. Maybe in the end this will have to be put on the shelf for the future, but I am defiantly orbiting the idea.

So what do you think? Post a comment, sound off, and convince me that I really need to do regular tutorials to keep your patronage or that I should relax because if I die updates stop all together.

But truth is as a scholastic wherewithal Cymon’s Games is entering an arena where others are already established. I’ve recently sought out these kindred souls and wanted to share these findings with you. First of all, you may wonder if programming games has a place among the pedagogical family of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Schoolgamemaker I think puts that question to rest with a definitive yes.

One thing I don’t agree with is the use of “dumbed down” programming environments. I am of the opinion to give students the same tools professionals use and teach them to use it. However Nat Torkington makes an excellent argument when he tried to use Lego Mindstorm, a tool who’s average user is 30 years old, to teach logic and design. His success was limited until he abandoned Mindstorms and picked up Scratch, a graphical programming environment (that reminds me of Robot Odyssey). Clearly if the tool used is over your student’s heads things could go bad.

Hackety Hack takes a great approach, and they use a development environment that I can respect slightly more than logo derivatives, but why did they have to choose ruby? Hull University’s choice of C# disappoints me too, tho I respect their academic philosophy. Python on the other hand is something I will probably teach myself one day and maybe expand Cymon’s Games with, even tho David Handy may have already beat me to the punch.

I’m unsure about teaching computer science without a computer, as CSS unplugged attempts to do. While a part of me thinks an actual (albeit limited) functional papercraft computer would be cool, I will probably classify unplugged lessons as supplemental activities for days when the power’s out.

Clearly as a tool for technological tutelage Cymon’s Games is not alone.

Star Trek simulates captaining a spaceship if that spaceship was built before gui interfaces. Part of the fun of the game is mastering its control scheme. You issue commands with three letter abbreviations and then input at the prompts. Mastering the computer (COM) commands can mean the difference between a great captain and a dead one. I may be helpful at first to keep a copy of the instructions nearby.

Game play usually goes like this: raise shields (SHE), long range scan (LRS) for Klingons, navigate (NAV) to the desired sector possibly using the computer (COM) direction/distance calculator (option 4) to help you chart the course, engage the Klingons using photon torpedoes when they’re available (TOR) for a one hit kill or phasers (PHA) in a pinch, and refilling at star bases and repairing damage (DAM) whenever you need to.

If this game seems antiquated, that’s because it is. Star Trek is an old game based on an old TV show. The original BASIC version was written in 1974. Since then it has been rewritten for almost every system and enhanced with graphics, sounds and gui interfaces. The version presented here is a conversion from the original BASIC version. It is no understatement to say that Star Trek the game holds a special place in a generation of gamer’s hearts.

Star Trek is written by Chris Nystrom, converted from the BASIC game of the same name by Mike Mayfield, Robert Leedom and David H. Ahl as found in 101 BASIC Computer Games edited by David H. Ahl, © 1984.

The Star Trek name and all associated character, locations, and objects are trademark Paramount Pictures.

This weeks program, Insult Chatbot, is actually kinda fun for about 5 minutes. In that way it’s a perfect simulation of a chat with a child. But still not as robust as Eliza, which I hope to one day feature on the site. At the moment I don’t have a conversion for it, tho and unless someone is kind enough to write me one it may be a while before I write it myself.

Cymon’s Games still needs your help. Please consider how you can contribute.

If you’re looking for code to look at and teach yourself with it can be difficult to find. Personally I find wading through code depositories like SourceForge or Google Code for something interesting distasteful at best or a huge waste of time at worst. So when GeneralValter on the TIGSource forums asked for games with source code I was pleased when someone presented the following link:

C Games with Source Code, far from comprehensive, it is a good start. Of course Hideous mentioning Super Mario War wasn’t such a bad thing either.

If you know of any others, please comment below.

The problem with resources like this is they can be dauntinly vast and leave you feeling more lost than you started. When that happens I hope you’ll remember this little corner of the web and return where the examples are simple.