MacLO v1.0 released!

[JonThysell]

Hi everyone,

I've finally decided to release MacLO v1.0, my clone of the game Lights Out. Complete source and binary downloads are provided on the website (and attached directly to this post).

Website: https://github.com/jonthysell/MacLO/

MacLO is B&W and has been tested on System 6.0.8 and System 7.5.5. There are two download options, a binhexed SIT file which should be openable on your vintage machine with Stuffit Extractor 4.0 and a zipped DSK image for easy loading into Mini vMac.

I just want to say what a blast it's been working on this, and that classic mac development isn't dead in 2021.

Please enjoy,

/jon

P.S. Can you l33t hackers find the easter egg?

 

[Byte Knight]

Nice job! I'm slowly learning some strategies. After completing 10 levels late last night and quitting the app, I was bummed out to see that my progress wasn't saved. It sure would be nice to have a save game feature...

 

[JonThysell]

Nice job! I'm slowly learning some strategies. After completing 10 levels late last night and quitting the app, I was bummed out to see that my progress wasn't saved. It sure would be nice to have a save game feature...

Yeah, I was in a bit of a rush to get a baseline 1.0 out before the holidays before life got too busy. I aimed for a somewhat minimum viable version of the game, as my personal goal was to get familiar enough with THINK C development that I would be comfortable making something bigger in the future.

The core (and graphics) were based on my earlier version of the game, ArduLO for the Arduboy. That version also doesn't have any progress saving or high-scores. It's also a very "text-free" experience, which I hope means it's just as playable regardless of your language. That might change if I need to start saving, with new/resume/reset game prompts, etc.

In the end I put off "new" features like saving progress and high-scores. I imagine I'll come back to MacLO at some point, so if there's ever a v1.1, figuring out saving will definitely be at the top of the list. I'm also thinking maybe adding a timer, something to help differentiate high-scores a bit.

 

[Byte Knight]

In the end I put off "new" features like saving progress and high-scores. I imagine I'll come back to MacLO at some point, so if there's ever a v1.1, figuring out saving will definitely be at the top of the list. I'm also thinking maybe adding a timer, something to help differentiate high-scores a bit.

Thanks for the reply. It took me an hour to get through the first 10 levels so I'm all for v1.1! Even the ability to select a starting level would really be helpful.

 

[JonThysell]

Thanks for the reply. It took me an hour to get through the first 10 levels so I'm all for v1.1! Even the ability to select a starting level would really be helpful.

Yeah, I would probably try to add something like a level select screen that showed your progress for each level. Then you could pick which puzzles you wanted to retry.

We'll see what December holds. The biggest downside to developing on the SE/30 is that it's stuck in one place. All of my other development projects are much more mobile as I can move around the house with a laptop or tablet and remote into various machines.

 

[JonThysell]

@Byte Knight : I've started work on v1.1, details in the development thread: https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/new-puzzle-game-for-68k-macs.39234/#post-428810