• Updated 2023-07-12: Hello, Guest! Welcome back, and be sure to check out this follow-up post about our outage a week or so ago.

New puzzle game for 68k macs

JonThysell

Member
I restored a SE/30 last year with the intent of writing some software on/for it, and I've finally gotten started.

I wrote a clone of the puzzle game Lights Out for the Arduboy (Arduino-based mini handheld) here: https://github.com/jonthysell/ArduLO

Now I'm trying to port it to the mac: https://github.com/jonthysell/MacLO

I think it's simple enough that it shouldn't have any trouble running on even the oldest of machines, but we'll see. It has taken a couple of days to get a working skeleton of an app, but I'm getting more and more comfortable with the environment.

Thread here on reddit where I posted pics of my dev setup:
https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageApple/comments/q8sj6o
 

ymk

Well-known member
Very nice! I've been using THINK C 5 on a Centris 610. The 1152x870 display is easy to work with and compile times are reasonable. I test on monochrome Macs via LocalTalk, but I wouldn't want to develop on them. Here's something from 1995:

1634354197796.png
 

JonThysell

Member
I might use a newer machine for the next project, but I wanted to do at least one completely on the SE/30.

Haven't seen a real Lights Out in a while. The first time I coded the game (as a Java applet of all things) I remember matching that purple/pink color scheme.
 

BacioiuC

Well-known member
I might use a newer machine for the next project, but I wanted to do at least one completely on the SE/30.
Working on an SE/30 is really fun to be honest. You can certainly appreciate the how streamlined modern development has become, especially when dealing with crashes and having to do a lot of reboots until you fix them. It's a neat challenge and, at least in my case, I garner a lot of respect for devs who used to work like this.

Getting a second monitor for the se/30 helps a ton in here. The only issue I have with using the se/30 is not enough screen real-estate for my windows and project view side by side but it's a really capable machine!

I'm happy to see you posted the project here. Keep us up to date on it.

Thread here on reddit where I posted pics of my dev setup:
That's one nice and clean setup!
 

JonThysell

Member
Neat game. What did you write it in?
Writing the mac port in C. The Arduboy version was technically C++ but I didn't really do anything too fancy.

I've written this game several times in several languages, it's my go-to for learning new development environments.
 

Byte Knight

Well-known member
Looks like it will be a fun game!

A user on my BBS said he compiled it and could only get a window with "Hello MacLO". How far along is the game?
 

JonThysell

Member
Looks like it will be a fun game!

A user on my BBS said he compiled it and could only get a window with "Hello MacLO". How far along is the game?

Sounds like he built an earlier version of the source. I've gotten the main game "running": you can start a new game, complete levels, and score points, but it's all placeholder graphics and has no proper end-game screen.


I've started uploading clips of the progress to the a playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoPy3RCyjksylPBL66ExQzzkMZbf-BZfi

At the pace I'm going I expect to get to 1.0 pretty soon, definitely before the end of the year.
 

JonThysell

Member
Added a new logo today (and therefore a reasonable workflow for creating PICTs):


Also refactored out the "scenes" from GameWindow into their own files.
 

JonThysell

Member
Latest update:


The game is coming along nicely and I'll be needing beta-testers soon. I think the only thing remaining for a 1.0 is to add sounds and to replace the "lights" with picts instead of raw drawing commands. While there's a ton more that could be done (especially proper animations and saving high scores) I think I've learned enough and I'm eager to move on to the next project.

Edit: I've attached an hqx with the latest build if anyone is curious.
 

Attachments

  • MacLO.sit.hqx
    44.7 KB · Views: 3
Last edited:

BacioiuC

Well-known member
Hello!

Game is looking lovely and quite polished! Took it for a spin on my CCII with OS 8.1 and I'm happy to report that it works!


Cheers and congrats! Looking forward to the next updated!
 

JonThysell

Member
Hello!

Game is looking lovely and quite polished! Took it for a spin on my CCII with OS 8.1 and I'm happy to report that it works!


Cheers and congrats! Looking forward to the next updated!

Glad to see it on someone else's hardware! Also I can see a bug I fixed where the level end screen isn't showing all three stars. I've got sounds working, but in my testing the sounds don't play on System 6. So currently trying to debug that.
 

JonThysell

Member
I've got sound fixed, though I resort to playing them synchronously on System 6. I know how to fix it, but I don't think the return is worth it for a 1.0 release. Here's a video of the latest build:


I've also attached it, if you're interested in trying it out. As soon as I can get some confirmation that it works on System 6.0.8 on an actual MacPlus then I'll snap and release a proper 1.0
 

Attachments

  • MacLO.sit.hqx
    94.7 KB · Views: 4

JonThysell

Member
MacLO v1.0 is already out (see https://github.com/jonthysell/MacLO/releases/tag/v1.0 for downloads), but the first major feedback was an ask for the game to save your progress. I tend to forget that not everyone has played this game to death and can blaze through every puzzle in a couple of hours.

So working towards v1.1, here's a preview of the new "level select" screens and progress saving functionality:


It took me a while to figure out how to save the game's progress within the app file itself, as I couldn't find any example code. But it works!

Just need to clean up the navigation between screens.

/jon
 

Byte Knight

Well-known member
MacLO v1.0 is already out (see https://github.com/jonthysell/MacLO/releases/tag/v1.0 for downloads), but the first major feedback was an ask for the game to save your progress. I tend to forget that not everyone has played this game to death and can blaze through every puzzle in a couple of hours.

So working towards v1.1, here's a preview of the new "level select" screens and progress saving functionality:

It took me a while to figure out how to save the game's progress within the app file itself, as I couldn't find any example code. But it works!

Just need to clean up the navigation between screens.

/jon
That's great news - looking forward to the new release!
 

Mu0n

Well-known member
I tried it out for the first time this week, here's what I learned:

-you can attempt to find very efficient solutions with matrix algrebraic resolution, takes a while but there are online matrix calculators that can set this up
-my girlfriend seems to be a LO savant and she can't explain her method
-my kids enjoyed it but my son gets flustered at the sight of the star countdown
-can't wait for a saved state, it's a well made piece of software!
 
Top