Request- Descent 1 for WinCE

[Warren]

After much contemplating, I have narrowed the list of games I want for PPC to 2. Wolfenstein 3D (refer to Wolfenstein thread) and Descent 1. Can you imagine how awesome Descent would be! All the flight simulators for PPC run very slow, because of the draw distance. Descent is a flight sim, shooter, and maze with many turns, so draw distance wouldn't matter. This new Chopper Alley looks pretty neat, BUT you have to pay for it. I'll never pay for a WinCE game, that's like paying for Counter-Strike when you download it for free. I've had Counter-Strike since beta 1 in June of '99, in total, I have 47 mods for Half-Life, all free, because Half-Life is a community of friends who share a common interest, and would neve charge eachother. This is the same for Pocket PC gamers. We are a community. Why should our friends in our community charge us for what the community is all about? Pocket PC gaming! Is there anyone here who would like to take on the job of porting Descent? I would if I could, but I don't have the time, nor the knowledge. I'm a mapper, and that's all I know. Thanks.

[Moose or Chuck]

How kind of you. I'm sure Dan really appreciates being neglected seconds after he releases a kick ass port because you want something new and better and more.<br>This is a post I made in the other thread:<br>-------------------<br>You do realise that it's not a matter of say "I'll port this or that game." Number one, you need the Source. Number two, you need to understand the source. Number three, you need to change display routines, user input, and mucho other things. Number four, you have to optimize a great deal. Number five, when it doesn't work you need to debug. Number six, when it works but it's slow you need to debug more. <br>Go pick up a C++ book at your library, then download the source and have MS Ship you their eMbedded tools for free. You try. I'm sure real programmers get really peeved when people just keep whining, we want this and that for me me me.

[Moose or Chuck]

Here is something to get you started, the source to Descent 1 AND 2. Happy hacking.<br>http://descent2.com/ddn/

[Robotbeat]

I just started to learn C. In fact, I just went over to Barnes & Noble and picked up two books: a C programming book and a C++ one (both for beginners ). In a week I'll probably send for MS's eMbedded Tools or something.<br><br>BTW, I have one main reason for learning how to program: writing great programs for PocketPC (including porting something, making a 3d engine, and begging Jimmysoft to give me the source code of his Palm emulator so I can help kill Palm ).

[Moose or Chuck]

What a coincidence. I just bought two C books too. One is an Idiot's Guide, highly rated. Another, a LONG Game Programmers guide (Windows) that comes with MS Visual C++ 6.0 Introductory. I didn't want to pay 100 for C++ when I don't even know it yet, and thought having an Intro copy would be worth while.

[Warren]

Ok, I'm really sorry to Sparky009 and Moose Master for whining, begging, pleeing, bugging, and everything else for them to port games. I have made a vow. This summer (I don't have ANY time now, way too much school), I am going to learn C++! I know mapping, but I don't know coding. I am going to go to Barnes and Nobles and buy C++ For Dummies! Is there a specific book that someone recommends? I do know how it feels to have people beg you for stuff, like how I did to you. I'm on a bunch of Half-Life editing forums as a mapper, and people say "can you make this map for me?" and, well, I kinda say "screw you, you make it." I don't know why I didn't realize I was doing what they do to me, here. Sorry 'bout that. But don't worry, this summer, I'll be joining you as a programmer. But, isn't programming all typing in notepad? It seeming like it can get boring, but I don't know. Being a mapper for about 2 years, I realized theres a hell of a lot more to mapping than you think. It's fun being a mapper, so you can judge maps of different games, especially Quake 3's maps, there AMAZING! That's because I know how they work. To the average person, they just look at the map and say "it looks cool", but they don't know it takes at least 3 objects and 1 entity just to open a door, and 6 objects and 3 entities to make a door with glass. To make an elevator, it's insane. So again, sorry about all the whining and begging I did.

[Moose or Chuck]

I applaud you for actually trying to learn. C++ coding can be done many ways. You can download free compilers off the internet, but I dislike doing that, they don't seem like they would be the best thing to use. If you do download one free off the internet then you would be using notepad to type in the programs. However, buying a program like Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 would give you many extra tools, including a workspace that holds all the files in your current project, a more "world renouned" compiler, and many debugging tools. Microsoft's compiler is like an editor in itself. It will be much easier for a new programmer to learn with Microsoft's software. That is, if you plan on programming for Windows or PocketPCs (very similar platforms, btw).<br><br>I do have a few book recommendations for you. One good book would be the:<br><br>Another good Reference material for you would be:<br><br>Don't expect that book to teach you the entire language, it's more of a book that will show you what specific things of the language do, things that you'll need to know and are slightly confusing for a beginner.<br>Now, if you're going to want to program a game or two, you'll need some game specific books. They show you many of those little tricks you'll need to know to speed up your game. I recommend anything written by Andre' Lamothe. He is a great writter and programmer. His latest book is:<br><br>Don't jump into this book. You'll need to have read the others first, he assumes you grasp basic concepts of the language in this book. And, as an added bonus, this book gives you Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 introductor version free of charge!<br>And now to start you're PocketPC Programming career, you may want to try a PPC specific game programming book. Dan East, the creator of the PocketQuake port suggested this book in a recent PocketMatrix news post:<br><br>Which just happens to be written in part by my favorite guy, Andre' Lamothe. I hope these books help you on your way. Last modification: Moose Master - 03/25/01 at 12:47:14

[Warren]

Thanks! So, should I first get the Complete Idiots Guide to C++ first, then Tricks of The Windows Game Programming Gurus, and then Pocket PC Programming? After I learn all that, I'll be a mapper and a programmer, so I can make a full first person shooter by myself! Well, I'll have to learn to be a modeler, but maybe sometime in the future. The world of gaming consists of 3 types of people. Coders (programmers), mappers, and modelers. I'm already a mapper, and soon I'll be a coder too! Yeah! How long would it take to learn all 3 of these books? Because it can take many many years to be an expert mapper. Thanks! I'm too excited!

[SonicSilicon]

The C++ and VB compilers for Windows CE 2.11 and 3.0 are available for free. You can either download the 305 MB eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0 (Pocket PC) and 51 MB Palm-size SDK from Microsoft's site or pay only US$7.50 shipping and handling for a free CD-ROM.<br><br>Downloads and CD-ROM order: <br><br>It includes a similar development enviroment as to VC++ 6 and VB 6 for the standard Windows platfroms. Emulation for devices is also provided, but it only runs under NT.

[Renegade Legion]

hey Pocket PC games are in C++? I didn't know that. Because I know C++. So maybe I could help in porting some games or debugging Quake and other games. I would just need the code. Cool thanks for tellin me they r in C++. I will get into programming my PPC more now.

[randall]

C++ is a high level language, not specific to any particular processor or OS. Libraries are included for the specific OS. The compiler does all the dirty work, converting the code to information readable by the processor. <br><br>This is why source code can be ported to other processors and OS's. Otherwise, it would require an entire rewrite.<br><br>

[Moose or Chuck]

Warren, you should get the books in the order I listed them, You can skip the Sams teach yourself C++ in 10 minutes though, it's mainly a reference book. The link I provided will tell you how many pages the books are. The Idiot's guide is about 400, Windows Game Programming is about 1100 pages, and I'm not sure about the PocketPC book. And trust me, there are a whole lot more kinds of people that just 3. Sound, art, marketing, press, programming, modellers, mappers, designers, CEOs, Producers, Developers, theme music. Each one of these includes more than 10 people, other than the CEO, which is one person.

[Dan East]

Make sure you avoid any DirectX, Direct3D or OpenGL stuff in the Windows game programming book, as it does not pertain to Windows CE.<br><br>Dan East

[Dan East]

Same with DirectSound. You're limited to the waveOut sound functions with CE, which are pretty low level and not all that easy (intuitive) to use. Sound wise, you're better off looking at existing source for a model.<br><br>Dan East

[Dan East]

Well, actually, if you just want rudimentary sound capability (IE playing a single wave file at a time from a resource or external wave file), you can just call sndPlaySound. Again, only one sound can occur at a time, and it has to be a wave file that is precreated, as opposed to synthesizing or mixing sounds real-time.<br><br>Dan East