Vectrex Programming at German University 2018

[VECTREXER]

Another project idea if they need one.

Flamin' Finger. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamin%27_Finger)

youtu.be/S24NmhehBTY

Originally a touch screen game. But also should be able to be accomplished via joystick. Preferably in analog mode. Or possibly using the light pen.

A seemingly simple game. But still suitably challenging, and frustrating, at the same time.

[VectorX]

That link comes right back to this page, so it needs to be redone. (Don't know if you were linked to its Wikipedia entry or what.)

[VECTREXER]

Mar 29, 2018 15:00:26 GMT -5 VectorX said:

That link comes right back to this page, so it needs to be redone. (Don't know if you were linked to its Wikipedia entry or what.)

Corrected and added a link.

[Peer]

Hi everyone,

the students were impressed and very positively surprised to find some feedback for the first three project ideas here on the forum. Thanks again to you, Helmut, for providing this!

There have been several updates of the project pages meanwhile. Almost all of them feature some early concept art now.

You might want to check out the latest update of "Treasure Diver". Three cheers for creativity!

Peer

[VECTREXER]

Have done a quick run through of the games. One that intrigues me to follow its development more is "Floor is Lava"

[VECTREXER]

Of course it's way too late to suggest a new programming ideas for this season. But for the next course, or it just in case it is easy enough to get another one in, here is an idea.

The vectrex doesn't really have that many Adventure titles. Would like to see a Vectrex adveture title that has a lot of snarkiness in it. Maybe even bitchiness. Something like Recreation of the TV series "Don't Trust the B**** in apartment 23" done as a Vectrex game. Would be the equivalent of a super snarky and b***** Zork with better graphics and a better script. Of course any graphics at all is always better graphics than Zork ever had. Or hunt the wumpus. Or any other early game. but since it's an adventure game. Maybe even more of a text Adventure than a graphics Adventure, it should be somewhat easier for the students to accomplish. One could say that a text Adventure on the vectrex is almost as cheap as far as the course goes since fast action graphics may not be required as part of the programming challenge.

[Malban]

YARG Video looks nice!

Still using ParaJVE I see - tststs :-)

Malban!

[Peer]

VECTREXER : Thanks a lot for your suggestions. It is indeed a little late, as meanwhile all the students have settled on an idea. I like what you wrote about an adventure style game. I was a huge fan of the first text adventures in the early eighties myself, and then later of the Lucasarts adventures like Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island and Indiana Jones. Next year, we should do a poll on project ideas a couple of weeks before the semester starts. I could then present the results as suggestions to the class. That would be fun

Malban: Yes, YARG looks great. The project has already progressed pretty far. Actually, in today’s class meeting, we have tested the latest version (containing several improvements compared to the video) on a real Vectrex. Plays quite nicely. The developer is determined to keep his binary within the 4K boundary (I told the students the story of the first Vectrex cartridges being 4K games, and that the original programmers had to get explicit permission from their managers for the 8K games because ROMs were quite expensive in those days). Using C only, staying within 4K is quite a challenge. Currently, the binary is at 3204 bytes, and there are still some features to be added. But we have also already identified certain potential improvements. Besides that, quite a lot of the students are in fact using VIDE, for testing as well as for development. So please be prepared for a couple of feature requests  Personally, I had some trouble trying to video capture the Vecxi windows inside VIDE, and I found it easier to create a video of the ParaJVE screen window instead. Any tool suggestions here? Or, while we’re at it, what about adding such functionality to VIDE?

[VECTREXER]

VIDE video capture would be a cool feature to add.

[Malban]

What kind of difficulties?

Using a "camera" of sorts or a screen grabbing tool?
You could experiment with "fullscreen" (SHIFT F while vecxi has focus) support or "fullwindow" (SHIFT P).

Building an own screen capture... - have to think ... didn't I do something like that some time ago...?

Malban

[Nic Lobo (pucpuc)]

Hi Malban,
had the same problem. SHIFT P makes only shows a black screen on my system. Pressing SHIFT P makes VIDE crash.
I also use ParaJVE to make videos because capturing with FRAPS is working fine.
For FRAPS the application has to be Fullscreen.
I'd prefer using VIDE

Edit: its SHIFT F I mean, not SHIFT P

[Malban]

There should nearly always be a log file (in the log directory) - what does it say after a crash?

Have you tried a different fullscreen resolution? (configuration)

[Nic Lobo (pucpuc)]

ok, tried different resolutions (configuration and desktop).
when leaving the black screen with SHIFT F, there is no VIDE Window anymore, but sound is still playing. No way to get the window back. Have to kill the process then.
No log entry. System: Win 8.1, Nvidia GTX660.

[VECTREXER]

As an alternative, I think Jing by TechSmith works pretty well.
www.techsmith.com/download/jing/

[Nic Lobo (pucpuc)]

thanks VECTREXER, Its much more complicated than Fraps which generates mp4 files automatically but its working for me.