Asteroids game

[Knute Johnson]

I've been bored because work has been so slow. So I wrote an Asteroids
game. It is far from done but it is pretty playable, at least on my
desktop.

http://www.knutejohnson.com/test

Directions:
Turn the ship with the arrow keys
Accelerate the ship with the up arrow key
Fire with the space bar

If it runs out of fuel it cannot be maneuvered but can shoot
until it runs out of bullets
To restart the game click the mouse on the screen

You can download the Asteroids.jar file and it will run as an application.

I would appreciate some feedback as to playability and any deficiencies
that you see in the game. If you have a slower machine (less than a
Ghz), try downloading the Asteroids.jar file and resizing the frame to
see if that makes it any better.

It does require version 6.

 

[Knute Johnson]

I've been bored because work has been so slow. So I wrote an Asteroids
game. It is far from done but it is pretty playable, at least on my
desktop.

http://www.knutejohnson.com/test

Directions:
Turn the ship with the arrow keys
Accelerate the ship with the up arrow key
Fire with the space bar

If it runs out of fuel it cannot be maneuvered but can shoot
until it runs out of bullets
To restart the game click the mouse on the screen

You can download the Asteroids.jar file and it will run as an application.

I would appreciate some feedback as to playability and any deficiencies
that you see in the game. If you have a slower machine (less than a
Ghz), try downloading the Asteroids.jar file and resizing the frame to
see if that makes it any better.

It does require version 6.

The downloadable jar is in http://www.knutejohnson.com/test/jar

There appear to be some issues preventing it from running on linux.

 

[Andrew Thompson]

Knute Johnson wrote:
...

I would appreciate some feedback

Sorry Knute. I actually had a detailed reply to make to
your first post, but my PC crashed, and I lost it! I was
so disheartened I could not bother retyping it at the time.

..as to playability ..

Quite useable at default size on this (aging) 1.8 Athlon.
Unfortunately this particular PC is quite damaged, and
shuts down on intensive CPU activity, so I suspect my
leaving the game running in the BG actually contributed
to the crash that took out my reply!

Such is life.. I cannot run AudioTrace, a full-screen
gradient paint with a 50ms refresh, or do any serious
video editing, without the machine crashing and dying.

One nice thing for usability would be to also add a
keyboard shortcut for 'new game'. I keep forgeting
to remove the mouse pointer from the play area -
and then trying to shoot it..

(muses) Maybe that last paragraph went 'one
sentence too long'.

...and any deficiencies ..

Umm.. pretty much only the same ones that existed in
the original game, as far as I recall it. I am much less
a fan of asteroids than you, apparently. ;-)

And yes, I understand that you are trying for 'authentic look
and feel' so the entire idea of throwing in some (more) colors
and adding a nice gradient background would probably not
be the way you want to take it. (But personally, I think it
improve the game immensely.)

..that you see in the game. If you have a slower machine (less than a
Ghz), try downloading the Asteroids.jar file and resizing the frame to
see if that makes it any better.

It does require version 6.

Why? Specific functionalities of 1.6, or is that simply
the version used to build it?

--
Andrew Thompson
http://www.athompson.info/andrew/

Message posted via JavaKB.com
http://www.javakb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/java-general/200708/1

 

[Gordon Beaton]

I would appreciate some feedback as to playability and any
deficiencies that you see in the game. If you have a slower machine
(less than a Ghz), try downloading the Asteroids.jar file and
resizing the frame to see if that makes it any better.

It does require version 6.

I would have liked to try it on my 167 MHz Ultra 1, but unfortunately
the latest Java available is 1.4.1...

/gordon


--

 

[Lew]

I would have liked to try it on my 167 MHz Ultra 1, but unfortunately
the latest Java available is 1.4.1...

Have you tried downloading a later version?

 

[Gordon Beaton]

Have you tried downloading a later version?

I'm not aware of anything later than Blackdown 1.4.1 that runs on
Linux on UltraSparc.

There is a 4 year old release candidate of 1.4.2, but IIRC it isn't
entirely stable on this platform.

And the Blackdown project seems to have died; the most recent news
item is from November 2005.

/gordon

--

 

[Daniel Dyer]

Such is life.. I cannot run AudioTrace, a full-screen
gradient paint with a 50ms refresh, or do any serious
video editing, without the machine crashing and dying.

Just a thought... I had a similar problem with my old laptop. Turns out
it was caused by dust clogging up the cooling fan and the air intakes
(which Toshiba cunningly placed on the bottom of the machine). The
machine turned itself off whenever it over-heated. Turning the machine
off and blowing all of the dust out of the intakes and the fan fixed the
problem (that was a couple of years ago and the machine still works fine
now).

Dan.

 

[Knute Johnson]

Knute Johnson wrote:
..

Sorry Knute. I actually had a detailed reply to make to
your first post, but my PC crashed, and I lost it! I was
so disheartened I could not bother retyping it at the time.


Quite useable at default size on this (aging) 1.8 Athlon.
Unfortunately this particular PC is quite damaged, and
shuts down on intensive CPU activity, so I suspect my
leaving the game running in the BG actually contributed
to the crash that took out my reply!

Such is life.. I cannot run AudioTrace, a full-screen
gradient paint with a 50ms refresh, or do any serious
video editing, without the machine crashing and dying.

One nice thing for usability would be to also add a
keyboard shortcut for 'new game'. I keep forgeting
to remove the mouse pointer from the play area -
and then trying to shoot it..

That's a good idea. I'll upload a new version here shortly that will

(muses) Maybe that last paragraph went 'one
sentence too long'.


Umm.. pretty much only the same ones that existed in
the original game, as far as I recall it. I am much less
a fan of asteroids than you, apparently. ;-)

People thought I was strange then too .

And yes, I understand that you are trying for 'authentic look
and feel' so the entire idea of throwing in some (more) colors
and adding a nice gradient background would probably not
be the way you want to take it. (But personally, I think it
improve the game immensely.)

I did want it to be as much like the original as possible. I don't
remember if the original had any stars in the background or not. Also I
think the ship might have been a little smaller in relation to the
screen size.

Why? Specific functionalities of 1.6, or is that simply
the version used to build it?

I compiled it with 1.6. I have to go through it and check the docs but
I'm pretty sure there are some 1.5 Graphics2D features in it.

 

[GMM50]

I've been bored because work has been so slow. So I wrote an Asteroids

I'm running WinXP Pro latest updates. On a Athlon 2200 1GB machine
I'm a Java rookie or what ever comes before a rookie.
I think I'm running Java 6.xx the latest.
The game runs quite well. I'm not a gamer but played asteroids in it's
heyday.

When I quit the game I'm still getting audio bursts every 2-3 seconds.

Keep us posted

George
www.embedded-designer.com

 

[Knute Johnson]

I'm running WinXP Pro latest updates. On a Athlon 2200 1GB machine
I'm a Java rookie or what ever comes before a rookie.
I think I'm running Java 6.xx the latest.
The game runs quite well. I'm not a gamer but played asteroids in it's
heyday.

When I quit the game I'm still getting audio bursts every 2-3 seconds.

Keep us posted

George
www.embedded-designer.com

 

[Knute Johnson]

I'm running WinXP Pro latest updates. On a Athlon 2200 1GB machine
I'm a Java rookie or what ever comes before a rookie.
I think I'm running Java 6.xx the latest.
The game runs quite well. I'm not a gamer but played asteroids in it's
heyday.

When I quit the game I'm still getting audio bursts every 2-3 seconds.

Keep us posted

George
www.embedded-designer.com

Sorry, please disregard the blank response before this.

Thanks for trying it. If you have a chance, please try the application
instead of the applet. The app is at;

http://www.knutejohnson.com/test/jar/Asteroids.jar

You can resize the app to maybe make it perform better.

The sounds should play when the space bar is pressed and when a rock is
hit. Missed sounds that burp later is a sign of not enough processor.

Thanks,

 

[Lew]

I'm not aware of anything later than Blackdown 1.4.1 that runs on
Linux on UltraSparc.

Oh, that's what the "Ultra" means in the product name. I wasn't familiar with
it, so didn't realize you were talking SPARC.

 

[Knute Johnson]

I would have liked to try it on my 167 MHz Ultra 1, but unfortunately
the latest Java available is 1.4.1...

/gordon

That would have been interesting. I have to go through the code now and
optimize it for readability and then performance. If I can make it work
with 1.4, I will.

 

[Gordon Beaton]

That would have been interesting. I have to go through the code now and
optimize it for readability and then performance. If I can make it work
with 1.4, I will.

167 MHz is extremely slow, but it helps me appreciate my modern
machine at work (which is 20x faster). I wouldn't expect much game
performance from it. On the other hand, original Asteroids ran on a
2(?) MHz 6502...

/gordon

--

 

[Andrew Thompson]

Just a thought...
..Turning the machine
off and blowing all of the dust out of the intakes and the fan ...

Spot on, thanks. All working smoothly now.
(And you should have seen the dust!)