Pascal Gamer Magazine Issue 4 Needs Content: Want to write an article?

[Ingemar]

That sounds very useful, not that I have a iOS to play with LOL

That is of course the limitation, not everybody have access to the stuff I would talk about. But then not everybody have tried it either.

I would really love to read about this topic

Thanks for the encouragement! I have a draft written but sometimes some potential readers is what I need to finish. I have considered taking that to a gaming conference, but even if they accept it, who knows if I get an audience? (And if I do it for either PGM or the conference, it gets easy to do the other.)

[code_glitch]

Hey you guys, just dropping a line out of my first tastes of the internets in a LOONG time that my article should be here in the next 48 hours or so, as soon as I get a universal way of getting the cross-compiler working on more than just my box as for some reason it seems to hang on every other machine I try it on while compiling the LCL for lazarus

Of course, if any pioneers out there have any pointers where they had to defy the wikis and general guidance out there it'd be welcome because at this point it sure does feel like bashing my head against the wall (linux pun not intended ) and whenever it does go anywhere near right I always end up executing the arm binaries on my x86 OS.... Well, you get the picture......

[SilverWarior]

Hi!
After some unexpected delays I'm back on work with my article. Unfortunatly it will take more time for me to complete it since I expanded the topic a bit.
My article would now describe how to make a combat system for your game. While I do orient more on RPG styled game it is posible to modify my combat system to fit for other game geners like Strategy games, Space shothers, Squad managment based games etc. I will also write a few lines on how to adopt my combat system for theese geners.
Also due the way my combat system works I have included guidelines for making basic inventory managment. The combat system calculates damage based on attacher character weapon atributes and attacked character armor atributes (different armor items like Boddy armor, Leg armor, Arms armor, Head armor). Direction off attack also affects defense (for instance lower defense when attacked from behind).
And since I'm using class inheritance a lot I was also thinking to write a few lines on this matter. This would make my article much more understandable for those who have less experience in programing.

I do hope to finish it in the next few days.

[code_glitch]

Status update:

I categorically refuse to be beaten by FPC and this darn cross compiler... Despite all my efforts I simply cannot get the latest SVN releases to work properyl. I've changed my article about 4 times as I thought I had a method that works bit hey No choice: got to post on forums.... walk of shame......

[paul_nicholls]

Status update:

I categorically refuse to be beaten by FPC and this darn cross compiler... Despite all my efforts I simply cannot get the latest SVN releases to work properyl. I've changed my article about 4 times as I thought I had a method that works bit hey No choice: got to post on forums.... walk of shame......

Hi code_glitch, I don't know if this may help you? There is a general FAQ in pdf format about how to build and configure FPC: http://www.stack.nl/~marcov/buildfaq.pdf

cheers,
Paul

[code_glitch]

paul: now that is an interesting document. Although the main problem seems to be random hangs while everything is being compiled. It would seem that as a baseline the compiler functions but none of the FCL is built, or at least, found by the compiler which is a pain and I do not want to have to tack on how to do this manually... No problem though as I may have spotted a big doodoo earlier on in my procedure which could be causing the trouble.

Just got back to another term so its loaded with work and exams are headed my way so I'll tend to that tomorrow once most of all this is out of the way

[chronozphere]

Sorry. I didn't have the time, nor some "real" idea's on what to write.

Matrix multiplication is allready covered extensively a previous issue and more examples are abundantly available online. I also think that the harder concepts in linear algebra are harder to understand and less usefull to a gamedevelopment community. Quaternions could be interesting, but I would need to study them myself first.

Another problem is, that I haven't touched pascal for some time now. I'm actually messing with AVR's, C and my soldering iron.
Therefore, I don't really know what to write about.

[code_glitch]

chronozosphere: Arduino or ATMega based AVRs? Or are you in the picaxe scene? Thoe arduino and ATMega combination is brilliant and their wired base c style compiler is probably the only c relative I can stand... I believe there is a pascal compiler somewhere on the net for AVRs but since wired and C make a decent combo I never bothered.

Just a note: just got my OS ready for a new try and my internet working again after the 4th livebox in 2 months died... Fingers crossed it works

[chronozphere]

chronozosphere: Arduino or ATMega based AVRs? Or are you in the picaxe scene? Thoe arduino and ATMega combination is brilliant and their wired base c style compiler is probably the only c relative I can stand... I believe there is a pascal compiler somewhere on the net for AVRs but since wired and C make a decent combo I never bothered.

Right now I'm programming an ATTiny chip, but I've got 2 ATmega's here too. Just figuring out the basics (blinking leds, PWM, using RS232 serial ports). My end goal is to drive a touchscreen using a microcontroller. Best thing is that I borrowed all the equipment from a friend, so I didn't have to invest anything.
I also think C is good enough for this. The programs are very small, so they are easy to understand, even in C, so it's simply not worth the effort to do it in pascal. There is a lot of material on C AVR programming so it's the easiest way to go.

[WILL]

Last day before I go on my trip. How are those articles coming along? Please email me anything you've completed or once you do get your final draft done please email it to contact@pascalgamer.com.

I'll be putting it into the magazine while I'm away as this is the best time to do it without distractions of some kind or another.