For the first time, I have a long-term project (coming up on two years) and have stuck to it, rather than burning out and starting something new.  I now have a working game I can play, and going forward am just adding features and content (it's an RPG, so that means more quests, maps, classes, monsters, spells, items etc).

I mention this because I don't think chronically starting over is the way to go.  During the two years (started in August, 2010) I have had a few periods where for weeks, or once two months, I didn't do any programming at all.  That's okay.  Take a break, and come back to it later.

Caveat - if you have a project that never had you eager and interested, then do start a new one, otherwise just wait for the interest to come back.

Add in a small chance that it doesn't correct its path - otherwise the player won't have a decent oppertunity to dodge.  If this seems cheesy, keep in mind how many real military munitions don't function quite right ...

I'm not sure what you mean by the draw condition - could you please elaborate?

I hadn't thought of the two-head hit problem - I suspect player two will win all the time (P1 will check first, find impact and die).  I'll have to fix that .... thanks!

cheers,
Andrew

I've added AI controls (three types, none of them perfect) to the game, a few new levels and fixed the bug that let people change their direction repeatedly with quick key strokes (which often resulted in them turning into themselves).

Please let me know what you think - any comments are welcome!

http://www.thekillams.ca/andrew/downloads.php

cheers,
Andrew

I'll have to look into that ... is anything more than server-side plain text pages required?  My ISP only allows for HTML and PHP.

I've finished the two-player version of Nibbles, which can be downloaded here:  http://www.thekillams.ca/andrew/downloads.php

Adding good AI controls will take some time, but I'll add that eventually too.  In the meantime, I hope this version gives people some nostalgic fun.

cheers,
Andrew

Thanks - I'll have to do something about that soon.

By the way - I've nearly got two player (one keyboard) support working - should post that early next week.

What do you folks think of the option of an AI-controlled second player?  Good idea or bad idea?  Should it be efficient (and hence a good assistent), agreessive (tries to cut you off), or somewhat random (tries to get to the numbers, but misses a percentage of the time)?

cheers,
Andrew

Thanks for the helpful feedback, folks.  I think I have the full-screen problem fixed.  One shouldn't cache getGraphics () responses immediately after switching to full-screen mode, apparently.

Please give the game one more try - I hope you will like it:

http://www.thekillams.ca/andrew/downloads.php

cheers,
Andrew

I have to clean the code up to work better as a windowed game.

Currently, the game is a Frame extension which calls setUndecorated (true) and thus hides all evidence of being a window.

Funny, this was my first attempt at writing a full-screen game, and instead of saving effort it has cost me far more.   :-/

Okay, I've added the option to run Nibbles in windowed mode as well as full screen.  Its a cheesy hack I'm not happy with, but as I can't find a way to resolve the full screen issues it seems necessary.

http://www.thekillams.ca/andrew/downloads.php

cheers,
Andrew

Thanks for the code - I have a lot to learn when it comes to Graphics2D (and on many other topics, I'm sure! ).

cheers,
Andrew

You aren't the first person to have trouble; as far as I can tell the issue is with Java entering full-screen mode.

I posted the code for Nibbles on Sun's other java forums - please take a look and see if you can find what I'm doing wrong (if anything).  The main () function handles full screen entry, and is located at the end of the class.

Here's the link:  http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jsp?forum=406&thread=474758&tstart=0&trange=50

I look forward to any suggestions - I'd like to get this problem fixed!

cheers,
Andrew

Two Player is certainly on my todo list, as is an AI second player.  The trick will be handling path finding in a way that isn't always best-case (making for a difficult and not fun experience) and has good performance.

Great looking game - or at least the start of one!

I have two questions for you (if you don't mind):

1.  How do you rotate the images in place?  Mind sharing that code snippet?

2.  Is there a Galaxy Traders 5 we can play with while you work on version 6?

cheers,
Andrew

I wrote a clone of the QuickBasic Nibbles clone. If you're interested, please try it out and let me know what you think.

I'm especially interested in suggestions for more levels - please share any you might have.

Here's the link: http://www.thekillams.ca/andrew/downloads.php

cheers,
Andrew