| Re: Tools or No Tools ? [message #48 is a reply to message #44] |
Wed, 08 October 2014 06:48   |
Oz
Messages: 21
Registered: October 2014
Location: France
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Mark,
Quote:So, how useful is The Programmer's Introduction to the Apple IIgs for arcade video games?
Not very useful. If your game is running under GS/OS, you have very few to know about the OS. Simply allocating memory, loading files, starting few tools (Misc, Memory, Sound...).
Everything will be explained here in the next coming topics. You can read the book, but 95% is related to GS/OS application using the Apple Graphic User Interface. Not what most of the games are using.
Quote:Is there a better starting book (that I don't have to buy) besides the French one already posted?
The first thing to learn is about the Graphic Page organization. On the Apple IIgs this is very simple (one Graphic Page located in $E1/2000, 320*200, 16 colors / Pixel, 4096 color in the palette). Dagen will probably present the details in one of its videos. If it is not the case, we will do a summary here. These explanations can be found in many Apple IIgs books (look inside the Hardware Reference and the Firmware Reference books).
You can also read some of the Tech Notes related to Graphic & Animation. Stay away from any Tools or QuickDraw II explanations, it is for Windowed applications. Not useful for games.
Quote:Maybe even Tic-Tac-Toe. Very Happy I hope you won't find this a waste of your time; who knows what it will evolve into and I have to start somewhere.
The first step is to be able to understand + assemble + test the samples we provide here. Once the Inputs (Read Mouse / Read Keyboard / Read Joystick / Load Files from disk) and the Outputs (Draw on the Screen, Play Sounds, Write a file on disk) are working, you can start to program your game. A Tic-Tac-Toe is fine because you have all previous elements to set up together.
Quote:Are there some examples of suitable "proprietary OS" with released source? Or are these like asking magicians to tell you their tricks?
I have opened a Topic dedicated to Apple IIgs Games Source Code. I have classified them by OS : Prodos 8, GS/OS, Custom...
Quote:I need to get busy setting up an environment to try the sample code you posted.
I think Dagen will cover soon the development environment, including Merlin 16+. This is typically the kind of thing that is better looking a video than reading explanations here.
Olivier
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