MechWarrior Online

I recently read an article about the development of MechWarrior Online (MWO). There seemed to be a lot of discontent amongst the players of this free online game. I gather that the development was previously crowdfunded. Then there was a lot of Beta testing. The developers and production company are making decisions to monetize the game. And those decisions are pissing off the faithful players who were on board from the beginning.

To tell the truth, I think I had purchased an old copy of MechWarrior. It might have been something like MechWarrior 2 or perhaps even the original version. That was back in the MS-DOS days I presume. I don't remember much about the game. I suspect my PC could not handle the processing power required to run the game adequately.

This time around I signed up for a free account in the MWO version. I thought this was a game you run from your browser. Instead it seems to be a client you install that plays over the network. The minimum specs appear too much for my cheap laptop. Don't have the CPU power needed. Don't even have the graphics card support either. Oh well. I guess this is going to be a pass for now.

Pacman Version Two

I am working with a friend this summer to write a Pacman clone. We are using the Java programming language. At first we just drew a Pacman and a ghost. We got them to move around the screen nicely. Now it is time to actually draw a maze that constricts the Pacman and ghost.

So far I hacked together a maze implementation. Pacman now responds to keyboard controls. Movement is choppy as the Pacman jumps from discrete maze cell to cell. Now I need my friend to get the ghost working in the maze.

After that we might add other maze items like power pellets and such. Or perhaps we will get some smooth animation going on. I think we should save that for last though. The goal is to get something impressive done by the end of summer.

Here Be Dragons

A comment on my blog took me to the 7DRL entry Here Be Dragons. Turns out you roll to determine the members of your party. Looked pretty advanced to me. Then I started the game. Hmmm. Number pad does not work. W-A-S-D-Z keys do not work. How do I move my party?

I almost gave up. Then I figured I would give the mouse a try before quitting. That was it. You control movement with your mouse. Then I found something strange. If I dragged my character with the mouse, the dungeon screen moved on the monitor screen. Weird. Very weird.

There is a lot to like about this game. When you are in the middle of a battle and damage is done, you see the amount of damage fly up in the air. That looks way professional. Are we sure this thing is only a 7DRL?

Stuck in Hellspace

Previously I had thought I found a 7DRL entry with good graphics. Well I had not seen anything yet until I checked out Hellspace. This game has an intro sequence that is neat. I am flying around in space. Then I dock at what I guess is Hellspace.

After docking, I walked into the main portion of the first level. That's when I was freaked out. The screen rotated around as I curved around the corner. Tight. The graphics were tight. There was one problem though. I did not know what to do on the first level.

If the rest of the game are anything like this first taste, I am in for a treat with Hellspace.

Happy Hord Days

Today I had the pleasure of testing out 7DRL game Hord Days. Man. These graphics were nice. How does someone do that well in just seven days? In this game, it looks like the zombies like to bunch up together to give you the beat down.

At first I found the zombies easy to bump off. Then I think I headed down a level and things got harder. So hard, in fact, that I got killed. Something weird happened down on the second level. I think I must have stepped on a light switch or something. The whole room lit up.

I did read the instructions for this game. They were written in "markdown" format. WTF right? I did find out that I was a hoarder. And I had to use my items in a certain order. Perhaps the items will help me get better at killing zombies.