game

Memorable Melodies v1.2 available

Markus

Memorable Melodies v1.2 is no longer at beta testing phase, now available on Google Play. There seemed to have been problem sometimes playing the music. I’ve tried to fix the problem as well as I can.

When programming in Cerberus X with Android target, there are two states for MusicPlaying(): -1, 0, 1.

  • 0: Music is not playing
  • 1: Music is playing
  • -1: Cannot determine if music is playing

Version 1.2 checks if the state is -1 and if it is, the game tries to play the music until MusicState() = 1.

Because the game is also meant to children, I’ve included a cheat in the game: Pressing at the upper right corner of the screen during game play clears all the mistakes. Now one can compete against onself as one wishes.

Below is a video of me playing the game on tablet:

 

The game is free and without ads.

You can be Memorable Melodies v1.2 beta tester!

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Memorable Melodies v1.2 is at beta testing phase. You (anyone) can be a beta tester via Google+ community Android Developers. Find my post there and use the link I’ve provided to become a beta tester.

I’m not sure if there is anything more I can do with current version of Cerberus X to make it more compatible to different Android devices.  On my good old tablet that runs with Android version 4.4.2 the game has worked fine from the very beginning of version 1.0. The game is compiled to Android with SDK for Android 8.0.

Version 1.2 beta has “secret” cheat to clear all the mistakes made. I’ve decided to leave the cheat to the game so that one can compete against oneself as one wishes. The “secret” cheat is to tap at the upper right corner of the screen during game play to clear all the mistakes. Useful also to beta testers.

 

My First Android Game Published on Google Play

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This game project started in the year 2015. A long time passed I’m doing nothing for the game, but finally its ready and published!

The project started with Monkey X, but I finished it with Cerberus X and compiled it to Android. I have not — at least not yet — plans for a free PC version.

Before publishing I ran the tests that Google offers for the app. My app passed with zero crashes. 🙂

You might want to take a look at the game played with PC in the video above.

Like I wrote in “Shorty about computer playing history” post, if I’m ever to create a game, it would always have an ending and so does this game have.

The game is free (no ads) you might want to try it with your Android device, search for “Memorable Melodies” on Google Play. Or get here:

I hope you like it!

Version 1.05 of Order the Chaos games published

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Now both Order the Chaos and Order the Chaos II work like charm with touch screen. There seem to have been problem with PCs with slow hard drives to run the games. This should be fixed now. I have tested the games on three different PCs and the games work fine on all of them. The oldest of the test PCs is an old laptop running Windows XP.

The video below gives an impression on the playing experience with touch screen in Ordetr the Chaos II:

The playability is much better than in version 1.03.

The games come with a zip-archive without an installer.

I hope you like the games! 🙂

Order the Chaos Games versions 1.03 as zip-archive

Markus

(updated with v1.03 patch)

In my previous post I told about problems I had during developing versions 1.02 of Order the Chaos games. Since from the reason I explained in the previous post, I had to leave the icon of the main executable intact. Unfortunately I published version 1.02 too quickly. Sometimes it is the case when one fixes one small bug, two unexpected bug may arise and it is too easy to rely on that something that worked before, works still after a small fix elsewhere…

Because I had to leave the icon of the main executable intact, I decided to release versions 1.03 in a zip-archive, because the Start Menu of the Windows would look ugly with the “standard exe icons” and in the other hand OTC games are just small little games that can be installed somewhere else than in “Program Files” folder.

Let’s take a look how the Order the Chaos directory looks like after extracting the files from the zip-archive (notice that I have Finnish system):

Before extracting the files from the archive choose a folder where to install, the directory “Order the Chaos” will be created when extracting.

The file that starts the game is “LAUNCH Order the Chaos.exe”. If you want, you can make a shortcut of it to the desktop and rename it if you want. The launch program will make the usual subfolder to hidden folder AppData where the scores and config file are saved. When started, the launch program shows up following little window:

After pressing Launch button and before registration of the game, following familiar looking dialog appears:

The registering works like before and regard possible earlier registration; if registered this dialog doesn’t show up anymore.

(Pay attention to additional instructions in the e-mail after purchasing the license to add correct text into Name field.) While trying the 7 minutes demo pressing TRY button starts the actual game as before. The Launch program stays on the background until the game is closed and launch program itself is closed, but the the launch program can be minimized so that it doesn’t bother too much on the background. 🙂

As to uninstalling the game, please run first the “De-initialize” program, that deletes the data of the game in its own subfolder in the AppData folder and the subfolder too. Then just delete the files, if you want to.

Everything works in similar way with Order the Chaos II, below is the “Order the Chaos II” directory, which will be created to the directory of your choice:

The game can be played with PC’s with the touch screen too, below you’ll get an impression of Order the Chaos II played with the mouse:

If you find any bugs or have difficulties running either of the game, feel free to send me an e-mail.

 

 

Why The Exe Icon of Order the Chaos Versions 1.02 Is Left Intact

Markus

First I thought that my computer was under constant virus attack, but after working offline and after several full cleanings/checkings with F-Secure Safe, I finally found the answer why my AV considered my final main executable of Order the Chaos games as a virus.

The exe made with BlitzMax was always clean. Next I changed the exe icon with Resource Hacker, then protected the file with Enigma Protector. As the protecting was ready, my AV deleted the resulting file immediately considering it a virus.

The ”diagnosis” was ”SYMMI”/generic malware. Before publishing I wanted to be sure that my AV doesn’t find anything harmful from the installation package.

What was the solution? First I tried to protect all the resources (also icon and version) from Enigma Protector’s (the licensing system) options. My other computer’s AV found the installation package 100% clean after that, but on my desktop computer there is different version of F-Secure’s AV and it considered the main executable still a potential risk, because its behavior was similar to a virus.

The key was the changing of the main executable’s icon. I left it as Windows ”standard exe icon” and as a result of not changing the exe icon my both versions of F-Secure’s AV considered the whole installation packages 100% clean.

The exe icons differ from the other icons and require some ”hacking”. We’ll see at the future, if Order the Chaos games can have changed exe icon with protection of Enigma Protector. EP uses some kind of virtual system and with changed exe icons my executables were considered as potential viruses (generic detection / false positive)…

But as said above, the solution was keep the exe icon intact.

Though, I haven’t paid for the certificate, that is why smart screen at first blocks the games.

I Haven’t Followed the Time

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I’m living in the past too much, such speaking. This reminds me what Yoda said to Luke Skywalker in episode V: ”Always he has looked into the horizon, never where he was, what he was doing!”. Or something like that.

I started 2015 an Android game project, I haven’t touched for a long time. Much have changed since I started that project. The pro version of Monkey X saw many updated versions with mojo2-module while I was using old mojo-module in my project.

Later I updated the code for mojo2, but how fast the time flies: Monkey X has gone completely open source and I don’t even know when that happened… Today I installed latest open source version of Monkey X from Blitz Research.

But since I seem to live in the past, I’m going to find time to finish my Android game with old Monkey X (with mojo2).

What’s well.. ”special” in this game is, that all the musics will be composed by me. Though, I haven’t been making so called tracker music ”seriously” (if ever) for a long time… Though, for testing this game project I will be working again, I already have made four short tracker music compositions last year – and one short piece of music made with PC’s ProTrekkr.

Though, to pity for the potential players of this game, I probably must compose new tunes… 🙂

When finished, the game will be free.

A Bit On Strategy On Playing The Memorable Ladies

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At first Memorable Ladies may seem difficult to play, but with some strategy, playing the game becomes easier.

On each level all the numbers can be shown once for a short time. It is wise to use this option later on each level (if needed at all), because at first it is difficult to memorize all the numbers. Even if one tries to memorize some of the numbers, it may take too long to find the pair, when all the numbers are shown and even more difficult to remember where the numbers were, when they are not shown anymore. (When “Show Numbers” option is used, one can’t click the numbers to get pairs.)

The key is patience. One strategy is to click on (1..4) * 2 squares. At the beginning of a level you probably don’t find a pair for the first squares and particularly if you don’t find a pair, try only to remember the numbers of first 1..4 squares, not the numbers that weren’t pairs for them.

If one marks those numbers (the amount of marks is limited), one can see those numbers until the pair for the numbers is found. When the numbers of 1..4 squares are memorized, wait for some bonus and click that. The bonus reveals at least one number. If the first bonus doesn’t reveal pair for any of the memorized numbers, wait for a bonus again. With good luck you’ll get a bonus that reveals seven numbers. Also the numbers revealed by the bonuses can be marked.

With this kind of strategy you’ll get started without making too many mistakes at the very beginning of the game.

Below is a video of completing level 1 of Memorable Ladies (played at night with bad memory 🙂 ):

Memorable Ladies comes as bundle with Memorable Ladies Lite.

Of course depending on how well you can memorize the numbers, you can develop your own strategy.

Memorable Ladies Lite has different concept of a memory game, it’s not about numbers. The concept  in the game is actually used for improving memory of people having difficulties with it.

Missile Attack in Monkey X

Markus

Again, some nostalgia. In older blog post I presented a shortened version of my old implementation of Amiga’s “Missile Attack”. This night I made the game in Monkey X and the source can be directly compiled to Android target.

The game is quite simple one: Just shoot the missiles before they get to the bottom of the screen.

If a missile goes to the left or right side of the screen, you see the colors of the background changing — and also when you fire a shot. This gives the game more life. 🙂

Below is the source code:

Source code license: GNU General Public License 3.0.

Below is the video of the game on Android tablet and on computer screen:

I may make a better version of the game later on this summer…

How to Make a Worm Game Part 2

Markus

(Updated 03/05/2017 with improved source code and new video)

A little update to older post. As the title of the post says we’re making a worm game (in Monkey X). In this version the worm is controlled by touching the screen keeping in mind that the game is really aimed to Android.

I’ll explain here how the worm is controlled.

If you move your finger ”up” from the worm’s head, the worm goes to that direction and respectively to other directions.

See the video below:

The direction is determined by comparing two subsequent update rounds’ TouchX() and TouchY() coordinates.

The test can’t be straightforward TouchX() or TouchY() test, because the player probably won’t move his/her finger absolutely to one of the four directions the worm is to be controlled.

This is why there is another test in controlling the worm: The absolute values of difference of the two subsequent update round’s TouchX() and TouchY() coordinates. If the player wants to control the worm ”up”, the player probably has moved his/her finger more vertically than horizontally.

See the source code:

Source code license: Public domain.

Notice, that in this code one part of the worm’s “body” is 17 x 17 pixels, but the worm moves with step of one pixel and can be controlled with accuracy of one pixel. The example code above is simple implementation of this kind of worm game. The down side of the code is, that the sizes of the arrays for x– and y-coordinates depend of the length of the worm in pixels.

I may come back later with some implementation with different concept of moving the worm of which “body” is built with “blocks” of different size than one pixel, but the worm is controlled  with accuracy of one pixel, without using arrays of which lengths depend on the size of the worm in pixels.