Puppytron!

[bitshit]

I can't force you to like making 1.1 games. But I don't see anything in the applet that you can't do in 1.1, so I don't think it is such a huge differance. Maybe you've got a personal grudge against 1.1, but how is it cool not to support it?

I agree, if you have a online game website and like to adres an as big as possible audience you'd have to stick to 1.1 compatibility. You can do a lot with 1.1 if you put some efford in it. But offcourse there's a point at which the efford would be too big. FX, we're looking at the possibilities available creating a webcam game in Java and it does look like we're better off not sticking to 1.1  
Still we need to make it clear for 1.1 users they need to upgrade their jvm, its such a shame 1.1 jvm's don't do this themselves...

Pop up any flash or shockwave game worth its salt and you immediately get a funky download progress bar.  

Yes, It's a shame Sun never did good marketing for Java at that point. Shockwave and flash integrate much nicer in browser than java applets do. Java applet games are often asociated with dull quickbasic like crappy games.

What im currently working on is a very small loader applet, this loader applet displays a nice graphical loading screen, then it loads and caches the game files. If /when the nescesary files are available it instanciates the game using a custom classloader. Because this loader applet is 1.1 compatible, it can detect the users jvm version and if the game requires a newer version it displays a message to the user to upgrade their jvm. Downside is that because it needs to be signed to do caching / implement it's own classloader, it will popup a security window. However, this does remove a lot of the most frustrating restrictions encountered when developing applets!

Just add progressbar ="true" to the applet tag. It should give you a nice progress bar showing the applet loading. To make it even more interesting, you can use the image="myimage.png" attribute to display an image while you're waiting for the applet to load. You can even use an animated GIF!

Thanks for the tip! I didn't know, I'll definatly include that in the applet tag for 1.4+ users.

[kevglass]

Played it again after leaving it a few days.

Much more manic!
Much more fun!
Much more polish!

Nice!

However, as I played it got more and more stuttery each time a sound played. Just before 7500 points it locked up all together repeating the sound over and over with a red screen.

Kev

[princec]

Yeah, I think I'm just going to give up on standard Java, it's too shit to be worth it.

Cas

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[weston]

Yay, puppytron with lwjgl!, now how am I supposed to get any work done on my game tommorow?

[princec]

Yes folks, the new LWJGL version of Puppytron is up (1mb). http://www.puppygames.net/applets/puppytron.jnlp

Enable connections on port 1099 to puppygames.net if you want to use the hiscore table.

'T' will swap the controls around for those that prefer them like that.

By God, AWT is rubbish.

Cas

[princec]

Big update! Much tuning, loads more robots. Have another pop at it. First to a million gets a big wet kiss.

Cas

[Per_T]

What's to say... it's brilliant

Great gameplay, sounds, gfx and it runs just sooo smooth.

[Malohkan]

I'd love to see source to your cool effects.  I love how all the trails and explosions and such work.

[princec]

......and the final release is out!

Consider donating $4.95 to us, guys & gals
You're going to wet yourselves when you see what we've got planned next.

Mal, you'll be *sick* if you see how trivial my "effects" are In truth thats the only clever thing I really do - cheapass effects for bugger all effort.

Cas

[oNyx]

> Consider donating $4.95 to us, guys & gals

Do you accept Paypal?

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[jbanes]

You know, Cas, it strikes me that since Puppytron is no longer an applet, AND it uses LWJGL, AND you've put a lot of work into it already, why not just make it fullscreen, add a better title screen, and give each level a techno background. Then you could add it to your regular product lineup, and sell it for mucho dinero. :-)

True, it's a lot like Alien Flux, but not so much so to turn people off. In addition, you'll have more games to attract users to your site, AND you can pander to the Robotron 2048 fans. :-)

[Malohkan]

Just tried it, got this error:

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/shavenpuppy/jglib/resources/Feature at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method) at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source) at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source) at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source) at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(Unknown Source) at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source) at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source) at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(Unknown Source) at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method) at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source) at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source) at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source) at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(Unknown Source) at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source) at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source) at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source) at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadCode(Unknown Source) at sun.applet.AppletPanel.createApplet(Unknown Source) at sun.plugin.AppletViewer.createApplet(Unknown Source) at sun.applet.AppletPanel.runLoader(Unknown Source) at sun.applet.AppletPanel.run(Unknown Source) at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

[oNyx]

> Consider donating $4.95 to us, guys & gals

Do you accept Paypal?

+fee
+vat
=8.82$ :-/

That's +78%

[princec]

No need for all that Paypal rubbish, just go to the Puppygames shop and pick appropriate currency. VAT is included in the "donation"

And as for adding more stuff to it and turning into the usual "extravangza" - well, it doesn't really need it. I want to write a few more of these little "desktop games" and see how they pan out in terms of sales and "profits".

<edit>Mal, keep trying, it's all working fine everywhere else. Maybe you've got a busted Webstart cache.

Cas

[oNyx]

> No need for all that Paypal rubbish

Uhm... it's the only option I have. I don't know anyone with a CC. Oh and those numbers *are* from the puppygames shop.

As a customer I feel totally cheated. I wanted to pay $4.95 and I'm asked to pay $8.82 or even $9.48 if I click on euro first and change that to dollar.

Nurium games for example uses a PayPal buy now button. Page says $19.95... I click the button and I'm asked for $19.95. That's how it should be. (Well, it also means it's manually processed by the developer)

[Malohkan]

Cas, look closer.  This line:
sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadClass
doesn't show up with webstart  I'm loading the link in the first post here to the Applet.

[princec]

Ahaha yes, no more applet. It's gone.

oNyx - you should be paying in Euros, yes? Not dollars. EU customers should wisely pay in their native currency, which includes VAT in the price.

And as for Paypal - paypal sucks. Send me a cheque Don't give any money to those scum.

Cas

[oNyx]

>oNyx - you should be paying in Euros, yes? Not dollars. EU
>customers should wisely pay in their native currency, which
>includes VAT in the price.

Dollar would be cheaper right now (if you just look at the label).

Paying in dollars=4.95$
Paying in euros=5.21$

After adding the fees it's:
Paying in dollars=8.82$
Paying in euros=8.39$

Still about 70% more :-/

>Send me a cheque

Can't.

>Don't give any money to those scum.

Well, it's swreg who asks for those fees (3$ or 3¤).

[oNyx]

After being totally annoyed for awhile, I bought it anyways. For 7.33¤

[Malohkan]

Sorry, I like Puppy Invaders much more actually  Now make that a bigger game with more weapons and levels and bosses and such and you've got me sold for certain!

[princec]

Question is... to do a nice version of Puppyinvaders like Super Dudester, or a min-version like Puppytron. I think I'd rather do it like Puppytron.

oNyx - how did you pay for it in the end that cost so much?? (pff, only buys two pints in the pub even at that price though, ya tightwad!)

Cas

[Malohkan]

Oh no!  I played for 11 minutes and got over 130,000 points... only to recieve this for my reward:

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java.rmi.UnmarshalException: error unmarshalling return; nested exception is:       java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: java.rmi.server.RemoteObjectInvocationHandler       at sun.rmi.registry.RegistryImpl_Stub.lookup(Unknown Source)       at java.rmi.Naming.lookup(Unknown Source)       at puppytron.HiscoresScreen$3.run(HiscoresScreen.java:327) Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: java.rmi.server.RemoteObjectInvocationHandler       at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)       at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)       at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)       at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)       at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)       at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(Unknown Source)       at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)       at java.lang.Class.forName(Unknown Source)       at sun.rmi.server.LoaderHandler.loadClass(Unknown Source)       at sun.rmi.server.LoaderHandler.loadClass(Unknown Source)       at java.rmi.server.RMIClassLoader$2.loadClass(Unknown Source)       at java.rmi.server.RMIClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)       at sun.rmi.server.MarshalInputStream.resolveClass(Unknown Source)       at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readNonProxyDesc(Unknown Source)       at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readClassDesc(Unknown Source)       at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readOrdinaryObject(Unknown Source)       at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(Unknown Source)       at java.io.ObjectInputStream.defaultReadFields(Unknown Source)       at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readSerialData(Unknown Source)       at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readOrdinaryObject(Unknown Source)       at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(Unknown Source)       at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject(Unknown Source)       ... 3 more

[oNyx]

>how did you pay for it in the end that cost so much??

click on 3.95¤ + 3¤ swreg manual(*) processing fee + some random paypal mambo jumbo exchange whatsoever fees (some cents).

(*=have to wait...)

[princec]

Mal, your system looks hosed. I refused to believe java.rmi.server.RemoteObjectInvocationHandler can't be loaded.

Cas

[oNyx]

>I refused to believe java.rmi.server.RemoteObjectInvocationHandler can't be loaded.

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/rmi/server/RemoteObjectInvocationHandler.html

Since:
   1.5

*spank*

[princec]

Eh? But it's an internal class called from Naming?? I certainly don't reference it anywhere...

<edit>Aha, that's what happens when you forget to include the _Stub RMI class these days. 1.5 VMs attempt to build a stub on the fly... 1.4 VMs just barf. Stub included, game fixed

Cas

[oNyx]

Heh. Good that it's fixed. But why RMI anyways?

I just send a http 1.1 request for highscore stuff. Is there a good reason to do it like you did?

[princec]

Yes - RMI is easy! Lets me write what I want to write rather than worrying about the protocol and implementation.

When I put the tunneling servlet up on tomcat it'll go over HTTP too, which will be handy.

Cas

[William Denniss]

Great game

Really quite addictive.  Definitally one of the more fun titles to play in its class.  Despite its simplicity, there are a lot of tricks to learn - having changable bonus items is great, you have to decide what you want, and if you can afford the time to change it to what you want.

criticism:

* I don't like the music (if you can call it that), it gets a bit annoying.  A corney, 4 track MIDI would be pretty cool though
* Regarding sound effects, personally I don't like the reuse of AF ones, it gets confusing (as they mean different things).
* I'm not sure if it is correct to call the registration a donation since the registration is compulsary after the third launch.  In my eyes, donations are optional things, where as in this case it certainly isn't
* Is there a pause button?  If not, can I have one pleease?
* What about a suiside button?  (yes, it is quite easy to die anyway, but still, one would be handy)
* In OS X, I can't seem to close the app without killing it

They are fairly minor things, but I thought I should point them out.  

Thanks for the fun game, you got my money

Cheers,

Will (divzero)

[princec]

Cheers Will!

The "donation" process needs tweaking.

P to pause, F1 to toggle Big Screen, T to toggle the left/right handedness of the controls. Suicide will soon be implemented with the ESC key.

Sounds might change at some point but good ones are tricky to come by and they take ages to do!! Not sure what to do with the background "music".

What exactly happens on Mac when you hit the close button?

Cas