PocketMatrix

Bonsoir/bonjour, my name's Martin, and while this is my first post, I have been an anonymous reader for a long time!

Here is a small game I would like people to try and give me some feedback on:

http://www.techlogic.ca/ml/imagechallenge.exe
(2.6 mb, tested)

It's one of those find-the-differences and answer-the-question type of game. And here are some shots:




Here is some clues on this small project. This is my first game, but it's more of a "technology playground" I've done to test many of Eric Fortier's classes and tools for the PocketPC. For those that are interested, here are a few things that is found in there:

- A sound mixer with both modules, C-64 tune support, and OGG Vorbis
- Interface system generated with a Windows application called FormBuilder
- A packed file system (compression similar to Rar) called Monolith
- A plug-in system for adding new content, including interface, music, sound and challenge packs
- In-game contrast and brightness

I was about to add some 3D stuff since Eric has made a rather complex 3D engine, but frankly, I have no idea how to do things in 3D!

If you want to try new packs, try these music and content packs:

http://www.techlogic.ca/ml/music.zip
http://www.techlogic.ca/ml/space1999.zip
(warning, the Space 1999 music takes LOTS of memory, be warned!)

Simply unzip these and put all the *.mono files in the game's DATA directory.

Eric has asked me not to include the credits screen, which contained some Robotron and Pacman characters chasing one another under the credits, this is why the button is disabled.

So that's about it. Go easy on moi please, this is my first try at a PocketPC game, and this is my first installer ever.

Martin L.

PS: There are still plenty of typos, and the buttons don't all have the same font size

Hi Nathan, thanks a lot for trying the game.

yes, the C-64 music tend to be very loud. Some modules have very high volumes, some very low. That is indeed annoying. I'll see if I can do something about it.

i'm using Eric Fortier's sound mixer which includes all of this into a single library. It has so many options that I really had to bug him quite a bit to know how everything worked!

i have no idea what compression scheme is in Eric's compressor, but I know it's NOT rar. I only meant that the compression ratio were on par with Rar, and sometimes better, depending on the type of files. Eric made a file optimizer that looks at each file and tries various way to compress and also optimize image files. It's pretty complex but I only need to push a button to make it work!

as for the "freeze" when changing a module, I really should put a "Loading" message. Some module are pretty big.

egarayblas: yes loading from SD cards is slow. I think it's because I read several small files one after the other instead of all at once. I'll try it and see what I can do about it.

thanks for all the input guys!

Martin L.

Hi,

Erick G.: Have you tried changing the FPS to see if you could run the game faster than 15 fps?

Martin: The mixer isn't that complex . And don't go around telling all my secrets about the compression stuff .

--Eric