Back online!

Hi everyone,

I'm glad to be back online. My cable-modem burned out a few weeks ago and i had to have it replaced by the ISP, but unfortuanately they f*&ked up, so as a result i was netless for a few weeks, so it was complete chaos juggling my mail at strangers, etc.

However, i didn't let it interfere with the creational process, so here are the latest updates:

- Wonderworld completely finished now.
- DML 1.1 nearing completion: Various fixes/speedups/additions/etc.
- DML ports: Dreamcast 100% finished, WinCE version completed.
- DML website done. Announcement soon.
- New DML game ready: Z-quence
- Started work on 2 DML games: G-loop and Hokey Pokey.

Thats about it for now, more announcements soon!

Wonderworld preview

Here's a preview of the wonderworld editor. Wonderworld is a 2D game editor that plugs into DML. It will allow both programmers and users without programming experience to create 2D tile-based games. More information about Wonderworld and the DML system will be published on the DML website soon.

DML - Running on Atari Jaguar

Today i've been able to succesfully complete the Atari Jaguar port of DML. It took a lot of effort to get it running, as there were no basic systems or libraries available for the Jaguar. After some pingponging back and forth with Charles Doty and the development of a memory manager and I/O routines, the port finally running.

While i didn't expect the port to run all that fluently on a 13mhz jaguar, it turns out the situation is much worse than i anticipated. The current framerate for the test program is about 2-3 FPS !!! :-( Very unusable indeed. I'll let the port be as it is for the moment, and will look into High Level Emulation (HLE) for some of the DML functions in the future.

Tons of updates

Sorry for the blog-gap :D Just been too busy with a lot of stuff, so here we go:

- Did a LOT of work on DML ports.. built a working Xbox, Jaguar and PS1 skeleton, fixed the soundsystem and did work on a XM/S3M/MOD replayer.
- Wonderworld bitmap editor is nearing completition, release soon. More info soon.
- Fixed sound in Radium. Radium is now ported to PC,Dreamcast and GP2X.
- Designed website for the DML system, which will be launched soon.

I'm hoping to make some progress on the Atari Jaguar soon. a memory management system is already in place and i'm hoping to have a working (and no doubt slow at 13mhz) DML port soon :p

Building a house

I'll be spending most time this weekend on fixing my house. I bought my house about a year ago in shall we say 'less than mint' condition (a.k.a. major pile of crap), so it needed a lot of work. Luckily i've been able to most the big stuff last summer, but still a lot of small stuff like paintjobs, installing small windows and installing a proper mailbox needed to be done. Its been nagging me for a while, so i decided it was time to do a bunch of those small things.
More news next week.

DML - Undercover

Now that the Radium engine (this is the engine used to create Radium) has been succesfully ported over to DML, i thought it was time to dig up another project i started on about 3 years ago. It was done as a small preview/demo for a game based on the Miami Vice license. However, the project fell through because the publisher was unable to get the license for Gameboy Advance. It was done using a very early version of the Radium engine, so i had to write a bunch of tools to get some of the data-files available in the demo converted to proper formats. So far i've been able to get the demo levels running. Unlike radium, the game will have a first-person perspective. I'll post some screenshots soon, as soon as i've implemented first person view, overlay/gun graphics,etc.

Videopac - First efforts

Today i started my first efforts into Videopac/Odyssey2 development. Yet another impossible platform ;-) This machine is a quirky little machine based on the intel 8048 processor. It is able to display 14 single color 8x8 character and up to 4 sprites (again 8x8 single color). On top of that you have 32 bytes of processor RAM available and a few bytes more in external memory.
I haven't been able to do much interesting yet (other than displaying a few characters and outputting some bleeps to the speaker), but i'm focussing on getting a proper development environment set up for this machine first. So hopefully i'll have some more videopac news soon!

Dreamcast - Radium

Radium, a 3D action-adventure game from my company Karma Studios, has now been ported to Dreamcast. If all goes well, it should have an official release around Christmas.

Radium is a futuristic-styled 3D action/adventure game, using a third person perspective. The game features a total 16 levels with very realistic 3D environments in 4 different sceneries. The game will also feature state of the art technology, high quality graphics, a multitude of weapons, bonuses and upgrades and a nicely balanced gameplay.

DML - Junior! (a.k.a. coming full circle)

Back in 1995/1996, i was doing my first commercial game project together with a friend of mine. The project was called "Junior" and it was a cute platformer game aimed at a young audience. We had a blast creating it and it was a valuable experience for me going through the whole process beginning to end.

Now, 10 years later i've decided to remake the game using the DML platform. Since the original game was done for MS-DOS and no source-material whatsoever is available anymore, i had to boot up some old EXE files to screencapture the graphics and get a sense of the level-design.

Anyways, i set for myself the task to create the game in a weeks time, this includes new graphics/leveldesign and music. So far i've been able to capture some of the original graphics and do a little work on the title screen and title music. Here's today's result:

DML - New ports: Dreamcast & Nintendo DS

2 New ports for DML have been completed. The port for the Sega Dreamcast and for the Nintendo DS. I will post images of the various DML ports in action soon, but for now you'll have to do with this image of the dreamcast in action.