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Post by VectorX on Mar 24, 2021 9:11:26 GMT -5
The students left with the homework task to play as many of the original 1982 Vectrex games as possible (yes, my students must play video-games as homework!!!) Oh darn! |
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Post by Peer on Mar 24, 2021 13:39:05 GMT -5
Have you yet chosen 2021 Course "TEACHING EXAMPLE" theme/design? No, not yet. And I am not sure if I will do so this time.
In the past two courses, it turned out that I did not manage to do and complete a small teaching-example-project of my own. Just too many other things going on. So rather than failing to do so again, this time, with 20 different student projects to manage, I will probably focus on some specific technical examples that will help the students, e.g. finding efficient ways to draw the background elements of their platformer projects. But who knows? There are always some ideas nagging at the back of my mind. Things I would love to try and explore on the Vectrex…
Cheers, Peer
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Post by Peer on Mar 24, 2021 13:47:29 GMT -5
Would be fun if one of the students chose to model a game character's appearance after the professor. Well, I am not sure if I endorse horror-genre projects in my classroom... 
Take a look at my avatar picture on the left, and you will have a pretty good impression of what a character which is modeled after me would look like… Or just picture Emperor Palpatine at his best aboard the second Death Star. Right before Luke & Anakin cheated and used that illegal father-helps-son move.
In this class we explore the Dark Side of the Source!
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Post by VECTREXER on Mar 24, 2021 22:48:01 GMT -5
Would be fun if one of the students chose to model a game character's appearance after the professor. Well, I am not sure if I endorse horror-genre projects in my classroom... Take a look at my avatar picture on the left, and you will have a pretty good impression of what a character which is modeled after me would look like… Or just picture Emperor Palpatine at his best aboard the second Death Star. Right before Luke & Anakin cheated and used that illegal father-helps-son move. In this class we explore the Dark Side of the Source! Was thinking more along the lines of "Mr. Potatohead" from the classic movie "Wargames". 😉 Or perhaps just a nod to your persona and Don Herbert's at the same time in the form of a "Mr. Wizard" character. The Vectrex appeared in at least one episode of Mr. Wizard. |
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Post by VectorX on Mar 24, 2021 23:51:06 GMT -5
^No kidding! And right at the very beginning!
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Post by Peer on Mar 25, 2021 1:57:06 GMT -5
Or perhaps just a nod to your persona and Don Herbert's at the same time in the form a a "Mr. Wizard" character. The Vectrex appeared in at least one episode of Mr. Wizard. Thanks a lot for posting that youtube link, VectorX. I did not know Mr. Wizard before. Wonder if that ever ran on TV over here. Really nice to even hear the buzz of the Vectrex in that video. The kid must have been at the same age as me when I was lucky enough to get the light pen. And Mr. Wizard must have been roughly as old as I am now. VECTREXER: Regarding your suggestion above, observe closely! Haven't you noticed? Look at the collar of Mr. Wizard's shirt in that video, and then look at the collar of my "The Count" avatar… 
Wonder how Mr. Wizard managed to hide his tusks. And how can he be up in daylight at all?
Many Cheers, Peer
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Post by hcmffm on Mar 26, 2021 15:59:30 GMT -5
I've just written up a small article about the Vectrex Academy on my Vectrex website. Please note that the article is written in German. |
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Post by Peer on Mar 28, 2021 8:50:08 GMT -5
I've just written up a small article about the Vectrex Academy on my Vectrex website. Please note that the article is written in German. Thanks a lot for the article and for your support, Helmut! I have passed on the link to the students, who I will meet again in class tomorrow.
Of the initial 22 students, 2 have decided to drop out, so we are now at 20 participants, which is absolutely great. 3 projects have already sent in early screenshots. Have a look at the change log at the bottom of the gallery page to see which.
Cheers, Peer
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Post by Peer on Apr 13, 2021 3:43:39 GMT -5
Greetings everyone, here is a quick update and a short summary of yesterday's classroom meeting (there had been no meeting during the Easter holiday break in the past week). The majority of the projects has progressed form concept phase to either prototyping or early implementation phase, and one project was put to hibernation. I liked the creative and funny idea of this project, but putting it on hold was certainly the right decision, as the respective student was of the 4th semester and, out of pure curiosity, had tried to take an early attempt at this elective course (usually, the elective courses are taken in the 6th semester) and had now realized that the additional workload would be too much. The project will be resumed at Vectrex Academy 2022. Quite a lot of early screenshots have been added to the project pages, and the gallery page has been given a complete update. The general topic we discussed in class yesterday was "lookup-tables vs. on-the-fly computations", and we explored some C-preprocessor magic, providing an easy method to automatically generate a complete rotation table of a single given vector-list at compile time. Many Cheers, Peer |
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Post by D-Type on Apr 13, 2021 4:59:16 GMT -5
I don't know if you've seen it before, but I'd recommend this excellent GDC video about TRS-80 games. (54 mins, English) "Inspiration from the Trash: The TRS-80's Lost Game Designs" youtu.be/mAh53El5X4cIt highlights and demonstrates the many innovative ideas that emerged for great gameplay, from an era when hardware specs were super-limited. In pulling out the essence of what makes these games great, I think it would be very relevant to new game designers targeting the Vectrex. |
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Post by VECTREXER on Apr 13, 2021 15:10:21 GMT -5
Looking forward to the following titles. - GET THE BEER
- DARTS
- DON'T BREAK MY HEART
- CUBE RUNNER
Nothing against the other titles. Will try them out too when ready with a binary. Suggestion for the individual project pages. For any project with a posted binary, enable online play via a link to launch it using Ralf Kornmann's online Vectrex emulator. |
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Post by Peer on Apr 23, 2021 3:15:48 GMT -5
I don't know if you've seen it before, but I'd recommend this excellent GDC video about TRS-80 games. (54 mins, English) "Inspiration from the Trash: The TRS-80's Lost Game Designs" youtu.be/mAh53El5X4cIt highlights and demonstrates the many innovative ideas that emerged for great gameplay, from an era when hardware specs were super-limited. In pulling out the essence of what makes these games great, I think it would be very relevant to new game designers targeting the Vectrex. Thanks a lot for the link. Had not seen this before. |
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Post by Peer on Apr 23, 2021 3:16:51 GMT -5
Suggestion for the individual project pages. For any project with a posted binary, enable online play via a link to launch it using Ralf Kornmann's online Vectrex emulator. Good suggestions, thanks a lot. Will do so once binaries are available. |
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Post by Peer on Apr 23, 2021 3:17:11 GMT -5
… sorry, I am again running late with my reports on the classroom progress.
Last Monday we addressed suitable debugging methods within our Vectrex C programming environment, mainly assertion based development and assertion based bug hunting. We also briefly discussed the pros & cons of relying on compiler optimization vs. writing "good" code right from the start (plainly speaking, if your code is garbage, then the compiler can only optimize garbage).
Most of the projects are on their way and have got into early implementation phase, and I am curious to see the first binaries run.
Cheers,
Peer
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Post by Peer on May 8, 2021 4:49:52 GMT -5
Greetings everyone, here are the latest news of the Vectrex Academy 2021: All the projects are on track. Some have already reached what I would call a very early alpha status, which is quite amazing considering the fact that, just 7 weeks ago, none of the students had even heard of a Vectrex before. Two of the students are brave enough to have their alpha candidates already put out to the public for some very early alpha testing Alpha test binaries of projects "Frog Jump" and "Racetrex" are available for download by means of the gallery page. There are also links on the project pages for playing the games in Dr. Snuggles' online emulator in your web browser.
It would be really really great if some of you guys out there find the time to take a look and try these games and voice your opinions and some early feedback here on the forum. This would be quite rewarding for the students and a great help for them while continuing their work on the projects. Many Cheers, Peer |
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