4/11/05

Look for version 0.1.3 tomorrow as well as another release of the unstable version. I've been quite busy this weekend, so I didn't get a lot of coding done. What can I say? It's a busy time for college students. Now, on to some actual content:

About my version releasing scheme: right now the stable version is the 0.1.x tree and the unstable version is the 0.2.x tree. When I feel that the 0.2 series is stable enough to be labeled as such, I will release it as 0.2.1 and bugfixes will follow. Then the 0.3.x tree will be the unstable tree. I will not continue releases to the 0.1.x tree after 0.2.x goes stable.

The major changes that will be made in version 0.1.3 are related primarily to the "physics" engine. Currently, if you get really unlucky, the ball can get stuck at the bottom or top of the screen. I know exactly what the problem is and will be fixing it tonight. There have been some suggestions for a scoreboard; you can expect this to come out with the 0.3 series.

The only changes in the 0.2 series for the next couple of days is the addition of a menu. No promises on when the version with a menu will come out as I'm still working out some bugs in it. Chances are good, however, that the release of the program with the menu will signify that the 0.2.x tree has gone stable and that the 0.1.x tree will be "discontinued."

In other news, Ye Olde Pong is up to almost 550 hits on FreshMeat. I was actually quite shocked that anyone visited the site: 550 people was astonishing. Astonishing in a good way, though. That's all the news for now.

-220040DeltaLima

4/8/05

I started work on the unstable branch (0.2.x) today. It's going to be a whole lot shinier that the current stable branch (0.1.x). I am going to begin releasing the unstable version, but I don't recommend them to anybody except developers who are hoping to browse the code or test it out for me. I'll also be putting up some screenshots of the new version.

The major revision that I spent the morning work on was a big improvement in the graphial arena. For version 0.2 there will be a menu offering a choice between a "retro" version of pong and a "glassy" version of pong. I spent around two hours whipping up the new graphics in The GIMP and then implementing them. I had to add a new class to the program to handle the new graphics, so there will be a jump in size -- a whole 4 kilobytes!

That's all for now. Check out the new screenshots here:
version 0.1.2
version 0.2 unstable

-220040DeltaLima

4/7/05

Avast! Ahoy! And other piratey-type words! Well, this is the home page for "Ye Olde Pong". If that's not what you're looking for, then you're lost. This is really just to get the page off the ground, so I'm not going to say too much. Check out the downloads section because that's where you can grab the source to version 0.1 or 0.1.2. Go with the latter. It's nicer.

There are some bug fixes in the works so expect version 0.1.4 sometime early next week. I'm actually already planning what kind of revisions I'm going to make for version 0.2 so if you have any suggestions be sure to let me know. I'll do my best to deliver. The current plans for 0.2 are as follows:
- Improve ball and paddle graphics.
- Move to 800x600 resolution instead of the current 640x480.
- Improve the randomization of the ball's velocity properties.
- Add a scoreboard.

That's all I've come up with thus far. Again, if you have any ideas let me know. I'm sure I'll come up with a few more ideas on my own, and the new features will undoubtedly turn up some bugs of their own for me to hack away on. I'm currently trying to decide how "retro" I want the graphics to look. I really do like the feel that the square-ish ball gives the game, but I'm considering giving it a more shiny, glassy look. I might also make an option of either, though that would beef up the code size a bit. Really the bottom line is I need suggestions! Show me the power of Free software!

While there are still a fairly significat number of bugs in the program, it is playable. There are a lot of things that still need work, though. If you have the desire to help with them, you think you may have found a new bug, or you just want to make a suggestion, contact me at deltalima |at| gmail |dot| com. That's all for now.

-220040DeltaLima