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Software Vault: The Games Collection 1
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CDR10
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YICN23.ZIP
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DOC
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HISTORY.DOC
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1993-03-06
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5KB
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102 lines
Archive Contents:
xlib04l.lib Themie Gouthas' xmode library
x*.h Themie's header files
*.prj Demo program project files
*.cpp Demo programs and YakIcons routines
*.drw Sample drawings, used mostly in Animap.exe
*.exe Compiled versions of the sample programs so you don't
have to.
yicons.doc doc file on the library
yicons2.doc ...more dox.
stuff.doc answers to some questions about the library (xmode, how
to draw nicer sprites, etc)
read.me this file.
YakIcons is an object-oriented set of routines to make icon manipulation
(drawing and animation) easy, with an emphasis on tile-map war/board/rpg
games.
A bit of history of YakIcons, purely for my edification:
When I was a kiddie in sixth grade, I conviced my Dad that we needed a com-
puter. We got one that christmas-- a shiny Apple ][+-- and I was hooked.
I played more games on that than anything after it, and one in particular
caught my eye. It was a tile-based role playing game written mostly in
applesoft basic, with cheesy graphics, no real story, simple line-drawn
perspective dungeons with monsters that were worse than cartoonish...
I was hooked.
I finished the game, got a swell T-shirt (which I still have, though it
doesn't fit), and sat for days wondering how it was done. I later found
out that the game was written by a kid in high school. We'll call him...
"Richard"? Naw. We'll call him "Jake." (don't want to use real names of
celebrities here... chuckle). Near as I can get my facts straight (and
they're probably not), Jake wrote that program and decided he wanted to be
a game programmer. The sequel came out soon after, and I played it religiously,
and in my junior-high mind, I wanted to be Jake. And I knew that, were I
just a few years older, I could have. I never got the chance to meet him.
Well, Jake and I grew older, and I didn't follow up on my games programming.
I never took a comp sci class in school (still haven't), and games programming
went by the wayside, since I'd have time for it later. And in my senior year
of college, with Jake's eighth game (7th in the series plus one before all
of them-- which I also played in 6th grade) just about ready for release, I
read an interview with him. In it, the interviewer asked my ol' hero Jake a
very important question: "What advice would you give to amateur game pro-
grammers who want to produce a game nowadays?" I was breathless!
An good ol' Jake gave an answer which floored me for days. It went something
like this:
"Forget it. Without a smoothly-operating team of several programmers, artists,
musicians, and coordinators, not to mention an enormous budget, it's just not
possible to produce a high-quality game these days."
That's what he said.
Jake's eighth game was released a few weeks later, selling thousands of copies
day one. I bought it and played it, and it had bugs, and I was torqued at
how much I had to spend on a game that didn't work-- and that the updated
program wouldn't use my saved games.
I'm 22 now, and Jake's I-don't-know-how-much older than me, and computer game
prices continue to soar. Before a few more years or so are up, the average
game will cost over $100 and require a p5 just to run. Stores won't carry
cheaper games (they don't make enough off them), and if there's any way quality
games will ever be affordable for the casual user, it HAS to be through
shareware. It has to be through you, the amateur game designers. Because I,
for one, am ready to call foul on Jake's philosophy. One person can design,
draw, and program a professional-quality game. Two people can make it fan-
tastic. Spare time is a wonderful thing, and if we're ready to use it, we
can work some pretty good miracles.
I told you that story so I could tell you this one.
I programmed YakIcons in about three or four weeks (version 1.3). Version
2.0, with attendant gadgets, mouse support, windows, etc, took about another
month or so. Version 2.3, with layerable windows, took many more months
as 12-hour workdays sucked my time away.
I think yakIcons will prove very useful for you. It's a flexible,
object-oriented set of C++ structures that give powerful bitmap-manipulating
capabilities to the most casual user of C++. With it, designing tile-based
games gets much much easier (I programmed a simple wargame, Flight of the
Boodles, in about a week of spare time). In two months, without music, I
could program Ultima 6; in six months, Ultima 7. I strongly believe this.
So hey-- take these routines, see if you think they're useful, and let's
make some games together. 'Cause we amateur programmers-- we can lick Jake.
There's no reason you, the casual reader of this ridiculous history.doc file,
can't make a bestseller if you're willing to put in the effort. I'll help
as much as I can. And Jake, making games isn't a competition. It's not
even about money. It's about fun.
And I think we're all ready to have some.