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In all that has happend since this morning, I've learned some things. I've learned a little something about myself and I've learned a little something about the people around me. For one, I've learned that it's bad to talk about ideas. Because when you talk about too many ideas, you become a dreamer. And when you become a dreamer, you spend so much time dreaming that you never acomplish anything. When you're a dreamer, you begin 10, 20, sometimes even 30 projects and you never complete a single one. When you're a dreamer, you can't concentrate on any one idea. And out of all this, I have discovered that I'm a dreamer. The problem is that I don't want to be a dreamer. I just want to do something but I don't know what. I want to acomplish something, stand back proudly and say, "Hell yes! I did this!" But sadly, I can't ever do that because none of my programs are ever complete and are always broken. And whenever I encounter problems I get pissed off and go play a game or dream up another idea.

I'm gunna try something different for a change. I'm gunna delete all my other source codes, I'm gunna delete all my unfinished programs, and I'm gunna put all my games as hidden. The only thing I'm gunna have available when I goto my computer is internet access, the Table Assembler, and my directory where I'm gunna store all my source notes. I'm gunna create a game, I personally have experience with, and I'm not gunna complain about any difficulties. Not until I desprately need help.

To Zoop, I've sent you all my KSS files. I'm gunna try your all code, no questions, and see if I can learn something from all this.

To Helophobe, I don't know how many times I can apologie for what I said earlier today. I just looked at your Tetris source code and it's beautiful. It pretty much answers a lot of my questions I was going to ask. Creating a tetris game isn't boring but it's extremely challenging. And for a person as yourself to take a deep breath and code a tetris game takes a lot of balls and a lot of patience. From you, I'm gunna try your 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration rule and see what I can come up with.

And now, I'll leave with this. Today is the 20th. Next Sunday is the 27th. If I don't atleast have something presentable within the next week then you can ban me from this site.

Chris

No hard feelings, but you became a dreamer no later than at the second part of your message.
Still, good luck!

I'm impressed!

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> The problem is that I don't want to be a dreamer. I just want to do something but I don't know what. I want to acomplish something, stand back proudly and say, "Hell yes! I did this!" But sadly, I can't ever do that because none of my programs are ever complete and are always broken. And whenever I encounter problems I get pissed off and go play a game or dream up another idea.

I see you've met my personal demon. Say hi to him for me.

Quote

> I'm gunna try something different for a change. I'm gunna delete all my other source codes, I'm gunna delete all my unfinished programs, and I'm gunna put all my games as hidden.

Why delete your existing source code?

Quote

>The only thing I'm gunna have available when I goto my computer is internet access, the Table Assembler, and my directory where I'm gunna store all my source notes. I'm gunna create a game, I personally have experience with, and I'm not gunna complain about any difficulties. Not until I desprately need help.

As a general rule I'd say don't ask about something until you've spent four hours of actual programming and banging your head against the wall, doing your own research, approaching the problem from different directions, scrutinizing your code for dumb mistakes (debuggers were invented because programmers make dumb mistakes all day long).

Table Assembler. I assume you're going to try to write an sms game, then?
Good luck, and some advice: Do something very very simple. tic tac toe even, or pong, or not even a game, even just a demo with some sprites and text and scrolling. Don't venture into game design until you've gotten somewhere in the mechanics of programming the sms.
Smaller tips: Make copies of your source code after every milestone. If you don't have a favorite text editor, or you're using notepad or dos edit, try: PFE. It's awesome, with a little work it'll run very much like an IDE, you can assign familiar keys to compilation and executing so they match MS Visual Studio or whatever you use, it'll auto-indent. Good stuff.
And of course, do most of your testing in BRSMS, its debugger, although imperfect, is a lifesaver. (hint, to trace your program from the beginning in BRSMS, load and run the cart, enter the debugger, set a breakpoint of 0000, use f11 to turn the sms 'off and on')

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> To Helophobe, I don't know how many times I can apologie for what I said earlier today. I just looked at your Tetris source code and it's beautiful.

Well, actually I agreed with you. The game is boring, the source code is intersting.
Beautiful. hmm. Well, thank you.
It is longer than you'd think it would be, huh?

Quote

> It pretty much answers a lot of my questions I was going to ask. Creating a tetris game isn't boring but it's extremely challenging. And for a person as yourself to take a deep breath and code a tetris game takes a lot of balls and a lot of patience. From you, I'm gunna try your 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration rule and see what I can come up with.

Another hint: small increments. First I just put in the basic skeleton, tested it in BRSMS's debugger to make sure the code was going where I thought it would go. Then, I put a block in the upper right corner to see if my tiles loaded correctly (my only tile was a single white block) and if my character plotting technique was correct. After than, I drew the u-shaped playfield border (I didn't add the runlength decoder until later on). It came out wrong a few times, but I kept with it until it was right.
After that, I put a single sprite in the top middle to see if -that- would work (too a few tries). Also a block. Then I made it intoa tetris piece. I hard-coded it to be the L shape, because I wanted to practice getting a moving shape before it supported rotation, different pieces, etc. I got it to fall one space every nth of a second. Then I made it movable, and that took some time. etc.etc. I won't bore you witha whole retelling, I'm just stressing that it'll come together in very small steps, especially since you're new to SMS programming.

Quote

> And now, I'll leave with this. Today is the 20th. Next Sunday is the 27th. If I don't atleast have something presentable within the next week then you can ban me from this site.

Nah, the door's always open.

Quote

> And of course, do most of your testing in BRSMS, its debugger, although imperfect, is a lifesaver. (hint,
> to trace your program from the beginning in BRSMS, load and run the cart, enter the debugger, set a breakpoint of 0000, use f11 to turn the sms 'off and on')

To trace your program from the beginning in BRSMS, press ESCAPE when the first text prompt appear...

I'm not really trying to impress anyone. I'm just gunna try something different. What pisses me off though is this damn Flu. I don't know how I got it but I started felling symptoms yesterday. I tried to goto school today but I got a bad fever and I went to the clinic and stuff. 101.3 may not seem like much but it does. I was kinda shivering and stuff. And my head feels funny whenever I sit upright. Only reason why I'm on the computer now is because I took some medicine and my fever broke down some. The irony here is that when I get serious about something I get a cold or a flu. Just one of those crazy things in life.

While I'm feeling better now I guess I'll do like Heilophobe said and try it in increments. I'm gunna test reading the joypad, and then try to cooperate with Vblank and see if I can setup a sprite and display one. Can you believe there's an option in the VDP that allows you to switch the screen off or on? I'm glad I saw that or that would suck if I spent hours doing it right and the graphics wouldn't display because I didn't set the video bit on.

Chris :o)

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> I'm not really trying to impress anyone.

I am impressed though... I wish I could be as determined as you seem to be right now!

Quote

> While I'm feeling better now I guess I'll do like Heilophobe said and try it in increments. I'm gunna test reading the joypad, and then try to cooperate with Vblank and see if I can setup a sprite and display one. Can you believe there's an option in the VDP that allows you to switch the screen off or on? I'm glad I saw that or that would suck if I spent hours doing it right and the graphics wouldn't display because I didn't set the video bit on.

I can believe it. It's quite a nice thing to have since you might wanna draw stuff to the screen and not let the guy playing your game see it until you're completely done with it... :)

Quote

> Chris :o)

Hope you're feeling better.

/Johannes

Author	Message
Consolemu Guest	... Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2000 2:33 am
Consolemu Guest	In all that has happend since this morning, I've learned some things. I've learned a little something about myself and I've learned a little something about the people around me. For one, I've learned that it's bad to talk about ideas. Because when you talk about too many ideas, you become a dreamer. And when you become a dreamer, you spend so much time dreaming that you never acomplish anything. When you're a dreamer, you begin 10, 20, sometimes even 30 projects and you never complete a single one. When you're a dreamer, you can't concentrate on any one idea. And out of all this, I have discovered that I'm a dreamer. The problem is that I don't want to be a dreamer. I just want to do something but I don't know what. I want to acomplish something, stand back proudly and say, "Hell yes! I did this!" But sadly, I can't ever do that because none of my programs are ever complete and are always broken. And whenever I encounter problems I get pissed off and go play a game or dream up another idea. I'm gunna try something different for a change. I'm gunna delete all my other source codes, I'm gunna delete all my unfinished programs, and I'm gunna put all my games as hidden. The only thing I'm gunna have available when I goto my computer is internet access, the Table Assembler, and my directory where I'm gunna store all my source notes. I'm gunna create a game, I personally have experience with, and I'm not gunna complain about any difficulties. Not until I desprately need help. To Zoop, I've sent you all my KSS files. I'm gunna try your all code, no questions, and see if I can learn something from all this. To Helophobe, I don't know how many times I can apologie for what I said earlier today. I just looked at your Tetris source code and it's beautiful. It pretty much answers a lot of my questions I was going to ask. Creating a tetris game isn't boring but it's extremely challenging. And for a person as yourself to take a deep breath and code a tetris game takes a lot of balls and a lot of patience. From you, I'm gunna try your 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration rule and see what I can come up with. And now, I'll leave with this. Today is the 20th. Next Sunday is the 27th. If I don't atleast have something presentable within the next week then you can ban me from this site. Chris

Zoop Joined: 24 Jun 1999 Posts: 1732 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2000 7:27 am
	No hard feelings, but you became a dreamer no later than at the second part of your message. Still, good luck!

Johannes Guest	Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2000 5:25 pm
Johannes Guest	I'm impressed!

Heliophobe Site Admin Joined: 25 Oct 1999 Posts: 2029 Location: Monterey, California	Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2000 7:55 pm
	Quote > The problem is that I don't want to be a dreamer. I just want to do something but I don't know what. I want to acomplish something, stand back proudly and say, "Hell yes! I did this!" But sadly, I can't ever do that because none of my programs are ever complete and are always broken. And whenever I encounter problems I get pissed off and go play a game or dream up another idea. I see you've met my personal demon. Say hi to him for me. Quote > I'm gunna try something different for a change. I'm gunna delete all my other source codes, I'm gunna delete all my unfinished programs, and I'm gunna put all my games as hidden. Why delete your existing source code? Quote >The only thing I'm gunna have available when I goto my computer is internet access, the Table Assembler, and my directory where I'm gunna store all my source notes. I'm gunna create a game, I personally have experience with, and I'm not gunna complain about any difficulties. Not until I desprately need help. As a general rule I'd say don't ask about something until you've spent four hours of actual programming and banging your head against the wall, doing your own research, approaching the problem from different directions, scrutinizing your code for dumb mistakes (debuggers were invented because programmers make dumb mistakes all day long). Table Assembler. I assume you're going to try to write an sms game, then? Good luck, and some advice: Do something very very simple. tic tac toe even, or pong, or not even a game, even just a demo with some sprites and text and scrolling. Don't venture into game design until you've gotten somewhere in the mechanics of programming the sms. Smaller tips: Make copies of your source code after every milestone. If you don't have a favorite text editor, or you're using notepad or dos edit, try: PFE. It's awesome, with a little work it'll run very much like an IDE, you can assign familiar keys to compilation and executing so they match MS Visual Studio or whatever you use, it'll auto-indent. Good stuff. And of course, do most of your testing in BRSMS, its debugger, although imperfect, is a lifesaver. (hint, to trace your program from the beginning in BRSMS, load and run the cart, enter the debugger, set a breakpoint of 0000, use f11 to turn the sms 'off and on') Quote > To Helophobe, I don't know how many times I can apologie for what I said earlier today. I just looked at your Tetris source code and it's beautiful. Well, actually I agreed with you. The game is boring, the source code is intersting. Beautiful. hmm. Well, thank you. It is longer than you'd think it would be, huh? Quote > It pretty much answers a lot of my questions I was going to ask. Creating a tetris game isn't boring but it's extremely challenging. And for a person as yourself to take a deep breath and code a tetris game takes a lot of balls and a lot of patience. From you, I'm gunna try your 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration rule and see what I can come up with. Another hint: small increments. First I just put in the basic skeleton, tested it in BRSMS's debugger to make sure the code was going where I thought it would go. Then, I put a block in the upper right corner to see if my tiles loaded correctly (my only tile was a single white block) and if my character plotting technique was correct. After than, I drew the u-shaped playfield border (I didn't add the runlength decoder until later on). It came out wrong a few times, but I kept with it until it was right. After that, I put a single sprite in the top middle to see if -that- would work (too a few tries). Also a block. Then I made it intoa tetris piece. I hard-coded it to be the L shape, because I wanted to practice getting a moving shape before it supported rotation, different pieces, etc. I got it to fall one space every nth of a second. Then I made it movable, and that took some time. etc.etc. I won't bore you witha whole retelling, I'm just stressing that it'll come together in very small steps, especially since you're new to SMS programming. Quote > And now, I'll leave with this. Today is the 20th. Next Sunday is the 27th. If I don't atleast have something presentable within the next week then you can ban me from this site. Nah, the door's always open.

Zoop Joined: 24 Jun 1999 Posts: 1732 Location: Paris, France	Tips Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2000 8:00 pm
	Quote > And of course, do most of your testing in BRSMS, its debugger, although imperfect, is a lifesaver. (hint, > to trace your program from the beginning in BRSMS, load and run the cart, enter the debugger, set a breakpoint of 0000, use f11 to turn the sms 'off and on') To trace your program from the beginning in BRSMS, press ESCAPE when the first text prompt appear...

Consolemu Guest	Well... Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2000 8:49 pm
Consolemu Guest	I'm not really trying to impress anyone. I'm just gunna try something different. What pisses me off though is this damn Flu. I don't know how I got it but I started felling symptoms yesterday. I tried to goto school today but I got a bad fever and I went to the clinic and stuff. 101.3 may not seem like much but it does. I was kinda shivering and stuff. And my head feels funny whenever I sit upright. Only reason why I'm on the computer now is because I took some medicine and my fever broke down some. The irony here is that when I get serious about something I get a cold or a flu. Just one of those crazy things in life. While I'm feeling better now I guess I'll do like Heilophobe said and try it in increments. I'm gunna test reading the joypad, and then try to cooperate with Vblank and see if I can setup a sprite and display one. Can you believe there's an option in the VDP that allows you to switch the screen off or on? I'm glad I saw that or that would suck if I spent hours doing it right and the graphics wouldn't display because I didn't set the video bit on. Chris :o)

Johannes Holmberg Guest	Re: Well... Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2000 5:48 pm
Johannes Holmberg Guest	Quote > I'm not really trying to impress anyone. I am impressed though... I wish I could be as determined as you seem to be right now! Quote > While I'm feeling better now I guess I'll do like Heilophobe said and try it in increments. I'm gunna test reading the joypad, and then try to cooperate with Vblank and see if I can setup a sprite and display one. Can you believe there's an option in the VDP that allows you to switch the screen off or on? I'm glad I saw that or that would suck if I spent hours doing it right and the graphics wouldn't display because I didn't set the video bit on. I can believe it. It's quite a nice thing to have since you might wanna draw stuff to the screen and not let the guy playing your game see it until you're completely done with it... :) Quote > Chris :o) Hope you're feeling better. /Johannes

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