Topics

136

Community Competitions / March Community Competition (2007)

« on: March 12, 2007, 12:31:01 PM »

Ah Spring Break, when those people with friends take off to go and do fabulous things with them. While those of us with no friends sit at home waiting for everyone to get back. This months competition is a little bit different than the others, this time I want someone to play with.

Welcome to the artificial intelligence scripting challenge. This month your requirements are for a two player game. And the second player needs to be the computer. I'm looking for tic tac toe, connect four, chess, or any kind of two player game, or board game. The user takes a turn, the computer takes a turn ... until the game has a winner.

The deadline is the end of the month, March 31st. This ones a little different, but should prove a good learning experience so put on your thinking caps and see if you can get sci to play back.

137

SCI Development Tools / FreeSCI, An interpreter Alternative

« on: March 11, 2007, 01:54:27 AM »

To those people who aren't really sure what the FreeSCI project is or how it pertains to our community, you should check out this old article I dug up from a linux dev site, featuring bits from our own member Lars.

The articles a few years old now, but it tells you enough that you'll probably want to try out FreeSCI after your done reading it. Have a look.

http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2003/02/03/freesci.html

138

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Replaying some of the Sierra Adventure Games ~ Ecoquest I

« on: March 09, 2007, 04:51:22 AM »

So for some reason, I can't remember now, but my disc of all of my zipped up Sierra games was in my disc drive so I decided to go ahead and look through some of the games that are on it.

I just finished playing Ecoquest I with 685 of 725 points. For some reason I never actually played too much of this game before. I remember I would always got lost in the kelp forest on the way to the underwater city. This time however I managed to make it straight there. After that the game pretty much played itself, none of the puzzles were overly challenging. There was one item that took me a while to find, and is the only reason I didn't beat this game in one sitting.

It's definately not one of the first games I would suggest, but if you haven't played it in a while it's not a total waste and it should go relatively quickly.

139

SCI Community How To's & Tutorials / Adding Troflip's Easy alt Debugging

« on: March 08, 2007, 10:48:05 AM »

Alright, this was originally posted by Troflip at Mega-Tokyo. I kept waiting for him to post this here himself, but with all these new games I keep starting up, I got tired of waiting and up until now I was to lazy to actually go and find it. Until it struck me I've already got it in an older game project. So this is that code, allowing you to press the [alt] plus another key to view some pretty important debugging information.

* Note, if you are using scicompanion, which Troflip made, he has already included this in the companions template game, you will only need this if you are working on a game created with scistudio.

In the Main scripts Handle event method, add between the

Code: [Select]

(method (handleEvent pEvent)and the

Code: [Select]

(super:handleEvent(pEvent))all of this

Code: [Select]

  // troflip debugging addition, For use in combination with the ALT key
    (if (== evKEYBOARD (send pEvent:type))
      (switch (send pEvent:message)
        (case $2f00 Show(1)) // alt-v -> Show visual screen
        (case $2e00 Show(4)) // alt-c -> Show control screen
        (case $1900 Show(2)) // alt-p -> Show priority screen
        (case $1400 (send gRoom:newRoom(GetNumber("Room Number?")))) // alt-t -> teleport to room
        (case $1700 (send gEgo:get(GetNumber("Which Item?")))) // alt-i -> get inventory
        (case $1f00 (send gCast:eachElementDo(#showSelf))) // alt-s -> Show cast
        (case $3200 ShowFree() // alt-m -> Show memory usage
            FormatPrint(
              "Free Heap: %u Bytes\nLargest ptr: %u Bytes\nFreeHunk: %u KBytes\nLargest hunk: %u Bytes"
              MemoryInfo(miFREEHEAP)
              MemoryInfo(miLARGESTPTR)
              (>> MemoryInfo(miFREEHUNK) 6)
              MemoryInfo(miLARGESTHUNK)
            ) // end formatprint
        ) // end case $3200
      ) // end switch
    ) // end if keyboard event
  // and now back to the normal script, You may want to delete all this bit upon release!
And there it is, pressing:
alt-t  opens a dialog box to transport to any room
alt-c  draws the rooms control colors to the screen.
alt-p  draws the rooms priority colors to the screen.
alt-v  draws the normal visual room
alt-i  opens a dialog box allowing you to get any item
alt-s  show self, displays cast list ??
alt-m  displays heap and hunk memory usage - *the only one I really use 


   

140

SCI Community How To's & Tutorials / Template Game Bug Fixes

« on: March 06, 2007, 10:33:09 AM »

With a little board reorganization taking place, it makes much more sense to keep all of the template games fixes in a single thread. Especially now, with the release of an updated sci companion and a partially updated template. This first post, solely represents the necesary edits to get Brian's original template game to the same point as Troflip's version.

* This info can currently be found in sci companions help file in the compiler overview section.

Gauge.sc, line 112:

Code: [Select]

= ctlX (- (- nsRight (send btnCancel:nsRight) 4) )
should change to

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= ctlX (- (- nsRight (send btnCancel:nsRight) ) 4)

SysWindow.sc, line 579:

Code: [Select]


(procedure (IsSaveDialog)
should change to

Code: [Select]

(procedure (IsSaveDialog) of SRDialog

Jump.sc, line 62:

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= xStep ((send client:xStep) neg)
should change to

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= xStep (neg (send client:xStep))

Controls.sc, line 387:

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(+ text (* x position))
should change to

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return (+ text (* x position))

Cycle.sc, line 32:

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(+ (send client:cel) cycleDir)
should be changed to

Code: [Select]

return (+ (send client:cel) cycleDir)


141

SCI Community News / New Fancier chat installed

« on: March 05, 2007, 08:20:38 AM »

Prompted by Eigen's search for a better chat client, I went ahead and installed one I've had my eye on for a while. I haven't made it blue yet, and it's seriously lacking in back buttons for now, but it is 1000 times better than the last one. At least at the first testing.

Now, you can see how many chatters are in there before you ever have to head in, and once your inside, there's really no comparison. If anybody has any trouble, let me know, but I think Eigen would agree that this IS a suitable chat environment.

Enjoy!

I know JT and Doan will 

142

SCI Community News / Fan Games page has been thrown together

« on: February 24, 2007, 07:23:54 AM »

Alright guys, Chris has rumored that he's getting close to having the agi community ready to relaunch. In an attempt to clear up any gaps in availability of games to be downloaded, I have thrown together the fan made games listing page, It's rather crude at the moment but it appears to be functional. If anyone has any trouble downloading a game let me know.

Currently only the games that I uploaded for the showcase are present, I'll upload the rest of the games I snagged from agigames when I get a chance, probably this afternoon.

Also on a related note, I also linked up the remote uploader so new games or competition entries can be uploaded to the games folder and upon virus checks or admin approval or whatever you want to call it, the game will be made available and it will appear on the fangames list.

two questions for you guys with games listed at agi
1. do you want me to keep the current agi download numbers, or do you want me to start fresh.
2. specifically for doan, you have your author credit as rayne on both of your games at agi, would you like to use that or your username

143

SCI Community News / Went ahead and added the link to the sci communities main site from the forums

« on: February 21, 2007, 11:11:37 PM »

With MSN running around here like mad, I couldn't overlook the need for a prominent link from the forums to the main site. There's already several  there that bring you into the forums area, but since I'm not sure which way these bots are coming from, I want to make sure it can find it's way back and forth between the two areas. That and I might be able to get some sort of feedback from you guys on the general direction things are headed or just plain input.

Take notice, the little globe now takes you to the main sites index page, while the new index button takes you to the forum boards index, the previous landing spot of the home button.

144

SCI Community News / New Shop Item, and it's a good one if I must say, Arcade Champ

« on: February 21, 2007, 05:08:52 AM »

  I don't know why or how I find the time to do the things I end up doing, but with a pretty full to do list I thought up this new item and worked on making. It could have went a little better, but in the end it went well enough. This is a good one, I'm pretty proud of myself for writing it and I think it will be pretty popular, not only for what it is, but what it does. There's one small bug that I plan on keeping alive inside it, but other than that it's great.

The new Arcade Champ item, ok really it's an astro chicken hat, but if you put it on (use it) than as the arcade champ you are allowed to totally wipe off the high scores of any arcade game. Essentially clearing the way for your own high score.

Someone been champion too long? Now you can take the trophy whenever you want, assuming you have the buckazoids. Poor Doan, lost his Asteroids trophy during testing, and now I've got it... 

Eigen, lookout, tetris is no longer out of reach of anyone. The bug, in case anyone wonders is that the recent champ retains the trophy until you set a new score. So while it is a bug, the idea of the item is to let you reset the score to 0 so you can get the trophy by playing yourself. If you aren't going to play, I've already taken the score away from them, I'll let em keep the trophy till you take that yourself so it's a good bug, one I'm keeping in there.

Enjoy.

145

SCI Community News / Show Case Downloads are all good

« on: February 20, 2007, 07:07:14 PM »

So as those browsers of the main site progress can attest, the showcase "module" for lack of a better name, has been present from the beginning. Recently a download link appeared that led to a coming soon page. Even more recently, it has been leading to a game not found in database error as the script was functioning, but no database attatched.

Now it leads to the games file housed on a remote server (it just sounds cool to say). All of the games displayed in the random showcase are present and accounted for, and any downloading won't effect our forum response time at all. I've got a little more work that I want to do before I open uploading to regular demo, game, and competition entries but the showcase bit is complete.

I am going to add Provosts Legend of the Lost Jewel Demo to the list, and Knight's quest Demo (Doan is there a newer version?), if anyone else thinks that a game is worthy of the show case, from here on out please start a poll in the general sci board, they will be inducted upon community approval, I don't know the cutoff line, but probably a total number of yes votes minus no votes  has to equal or be greater than some number. It would also probably be nice too, that the game author not be the one who posts the poll, Sort of  nomination kind of thing. But regardless of that from here on in, visitors, guests, and those few people who happen uppon this site can download the showcased games. If you have any ideas for showcase criteria, please feel free to respond to this thread.

Enjoy.

146

Forum Support and Suggestions / New Shop Item Ideas

« on: February 17, 2007, 03:17:24 PM »

So I've addd into the shop a couple of items from space quest 3, the invisibility belt actually hides your online status when it's used. What other items from either fanmade games or Sierra's that you would like to see recreated in the shop.

This post was actually prompted by a pm from JT,

Ok, you need to add beer to the list of things to buy...that is cool to send to people.  You can even have shots and different types of game related drinks and actuallyt make a recipe for making them so people can actually do it at home if they want.  Maybe that can be a competition idea for us all to make a game realted drink based on our favorite sierra game and have people build it using the bar that is given to them to create the drink...just an idea...the store is pretty funny.

You can also sell the views like I siad for a few buckazoids...that is a cool idea and it fits right in with what we are doing.

Just an idea,
JT

Any other shop item suggestions out there, preferabbly from a game, but not necesarily.

147

SCI Community News / I've started on the Sierra game list

« on: February 16, 2007, 01:44:15 PM »

http://scicommunity.com/sierragames.php

I spent some time and tracked down some images and a list of Sierra games has magically appeared. Rather than make the same old list everyone else makes I have tried to make it a little more visually appealing, while still keeping it all on one page, sort of.

I know I've got some missing, and others probably in the wrong spot, so if some of you guys who know the rundown a little better want to point out my errors or omissions, please be my guest. Also the last section, do you guys think it should be broken up into  two or is it fine lumping them all together.

I am planning on adding some info about each game in the large image window, but for now. Functionally this is where I am leaning. Comments or suggestions are always welcome.

Enjoy.

148

SCI Community News / Mega-Tokyo is gone, but the spirit lives on

« on: February 16, 2007, 02:01:18 AM »

Ok, gang. I visited our old home today and I was not greeted with the usual blue that I have come to grow and love. What was there was Stuart's (DF) announcement that it had finally come to pass. Our community, didn't warrant it's own link  , but that doesn't sadden me as much as Mega-Tokyo's actual demise.

149

SCI Community News / Keep up to date of recent posts with your favorite news reader

« on: February 15, 2007, 08:46:26 AM »

Chris and I are using some expertly crafted top of the line rss feeds to keep our communities closely linked. You all remember the agi front from our interim home. With a little expansion and some delicate hand crafting, the SCI communities feed is now available for public use as well. Now you can be kept up to date using your favorite rss feed readers. Here is a link to the feed, for those who have to manually enter it. I've also provided soom links to auto add the feed to a couple of comon ones.

• RSS Feed
• My Yahoo
• Google

If anyone would like an atom feed, just mention it in a reply, it shouldn't be too hard to get you one if you want it. This is the same news feed which will be available from the main sites news page. While it may mean that some of you will actually visit the forums less, since you can browse the new posts without dropping in, it's definately an easy way to keep up to speed with what's going on around here.

Let me know if there are any issues. some older ones may not like the php extension, let me know if that's the case. But the benefit of the script is that it is guaranteed to be up to date every time it's pulled, as it is generated as it's needed.

Enjoy.

150

SCI Community News / Reporter Bots

« on: February 14, 2007, 04:11:19 AM »

 

The forum just grows and grows and grows. I have added a new board to the forums in the general section which you may have noticed. I've added a reporter bot to this board which is supposed to report on all of the latest rss feed news. As you can see from it's first couple of posts it's a little under the weather yet.

As I work on that, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for any other news feeds that they would like to see posted on.