Android Tablet Speccy ShootOut

THIS REPORT HAS NOW BEEN UPDATED.
See versions below.

Having just got myself a new Android tablet one of the first things I wanted to do was get a Spectrum emulator. Browsing the Android market I noticed five, all boasting good solid features, and no doubt all work well on Android phones. The problem is, I have a tablet, and as any tablet owner will tell you, what works on a phone may not work on a tablet.

Amongst the issues I expected were scaling problems and screen estate. Phones have small screens, typically three to four inches, but tablets on the whole double that. The manufacturers have provided functionality to scale or zoom applications, but again, this does not always have the desired effect.

I spent a few days testing each emulator and the results are available in a PDF document. I hope to add the full report here shortly, but for now, you can grab the PDF using the link below.

It is important to know that the comparison of emulators is based solely on their ability to work with tablets and how they respond to the different hardware and screen sizes than originally designed for. It is in no way aimed at the emulators use on phones, which I assume is fine based on market feedback.

Get the original full report here.
Updated report Nov 2011
Updated report Feb 2012

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AGD Tutorial Part 5

The next section in my AGD tutorial is now online, allowing you to continue developing your own game from scratch.

This section covers Messages, Score, Lives and Deadly Blocks.

Because of the ever growing size of the tutorial I have also added an index to the first page.

You can access the tutorial from the little tab at the top of the page, just in case you missed it ;-)

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Space Disposal

The amount of space junk floating around has become a major concern, especially the huge amounts that manage to get through planetary atmospheres without burning up. This debris is largely ignored by the planets responsible and so out of this mess grew a new lucrative industry.



Space Disposal Corporation was set up to clear away unwanted and potentially dangerous space waste for those planets rich enough to pay for its services.

Traveling around systems can be a huge drain on resources, but this is where SDC’s technicians came to the rescue. By collecting and harvesting the junk, enough power can be generated not only to drive the collection ships, but also to pay the fees for inter-planetary portal transport.

As a new pilot, you are given four planets to clear. Your ship can withstand collisions with the planet surface and foliage, but cannot take hits from moving hazards like meteors or rouge cleaner droids. You have quad-laser canons that can be used to destroy any moving hazards.

Some planets opted for a cheaper alternative cleaning operation prior to calling SDC. This usually involved a pack of cleaner droid manufacturing pods being dropped onto the planet. Unfortunately, contaminated waste interfered with their circuits and the droids are left to roam about without actually removing any debris. Many droids are unpredictable, changing directions randomly, so be careful.

These droids are self-repairing and any hit will destroy the current unit, however, the pods will generate a new replacement straight away. It is useful to locate these pods, as destroying droids can be useful, despite them being re-generated. The pods cannot be destroyed.

By collecting all junk from one planet, enough power will be created to allow the blue portal to be activated, allowing you to travel to the next designated planet.

Once all four planets have been clear you will be allowed to enter the final portal for transport back to SDC.

Any SDC pilot will learn that his laser canons are not weapons but mechanisms to manipulate the environment. By destroying a droid it will be regenerated in its pod, by blasting a meteor it will clear the way long enough to move, but more meteors are always on the way. Keep this in mind.

Download
Download Space Disposal

Screen Shots

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Posted in: Space Disposal - Spectrum

AGD Tutorial Moves On

The next few sections of my AGD tutorial are now up, moving the demo game along with movement, animation, falling, objects, platforms and collecting. My AGD tutorial will take you from nothing to playable game in easy steps, covering each aspect of a game. Use the tab at the top of the page to being making your own Spectrum game.

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AGD Tutorial

Anyone who has played one of my Spectrum games will know I use a utility called Arcade Games Designer (or AGD for short) to produce them.

This wonderful program is written by Jonathan Cauldwell and is free to download from his Website.



Since the release of Kyd Cadet I have had several emails about certain techniques or methods I use when creating my games, and so I have decided to put together a step by step tutorial.

The first part is now live (see links at the top of the page) and more sections will be added over the next few weeks/months. Have fun, and don't forget, anything you produce would be gratefully welcomed by the guys over at World Of Spectrum.

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Red Pants

This game was never officially released because it had some collision issues, particularly around the main character and the scenery. Despite this though, it was probably one of my better PC games.

I found this on an old CD whilst looking for another program I had written, and quickly got into it just to see the levels.

It was created using Clik And Create, a nice little game creation program that could produce some really nice results. The program was originally released by Corel but was either sold or dropped, leaving the developers to carry on. They re-released it with some tweaks under the name Multimedia Fusion.

As this was never released I thought I might as well put it out there. Although it was written for older hardware, there are no speed issues (although the gameplay is a bit slow compared to today’s speed fests!).

Enjoy!

Download
Download Red Pants Here

Video

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