DS programming = nil, partly due to being away in London most of this week.
Progress in games = Some, have started replaying Skies of Arcadia, which came back into mind after a pub conversation. All the best ideas started as conversations in pubs.
With that in mind, have a system of classifying RPG sequels, from ... one end to the other, in the sense that the entries at each end are at least mutually exclusive if not actually diametrically opposed.
1) The Part II sequel
The sequel which is actually just the continuation of the original game and in fact is required to actually finish the story. The sort of game that everybody wishes had been included into the first one and probably will be at some point as a "Collectors Edition".
Classical example: Golden Sun 2, aka "It Was Obvious That GS1 Had No Closure".
2) The Actual sequel
A follow up game which is actually a sequel, ie. has at least some of the same characters, game mechanics, and so on, but is actually a new story. The sort of thing most RPG sequels claim to be, usually completely implausibly, since at the end of Game 1, the player(s) had defeated not only the Ancient, Threatening Evil, but also pretty much every other power group. In the entire world. However, in volume 2, a new Threatening Evil appears, probably without having even being mentioned in volume 1.
(In the worst cases, all the characters appear to lose all their abilities in the two years holiday they get between games.)
Classical example: Baldurs Gate II, which gets kudos for being a plausible sequel. Mainly because it wasn't a JRPG and hence BG1 didn't involve defeating everybody in the world, and was set only on one part of one continent, leaving actual scope for another game.
3) The Distant Cousin sequel
The game which is ostensibly set in the same world as the original, but without the same characters. Possibly hundreds and/or thousands of years earlier/later. This sidesteps the question of the Actual Sequel as to how the hell anything short of an alien invasion could provide a challenge for your character. However, it still allows for the important cheap recycling of scenery, game engine, and so on, although this is technically optional. Especially when the sequel is released generations of hardware later.
Classical example: Icewind Dale (it's Baldurs Gate! But ... with ice!)
4) The Not Really A Sequel
A game which is allegedly in the same series as the previous one, but without really sharing characters, locations, or many items/spells/game mechanics. Some might question how this is a sequel, but that is obviously being too picky.
Classical example: The entire Final Fantasy series, with the possible exception of FFX-2 (FFX sucked anyway) or FF:Tactics (I'm sure FFT and FFTA were at least set in Ivalice ... as is FF12, thinking about it.)
Discuss: Skies of Arcadia: What would be the best type of sequel, and what (assuming Sega bother to make any sequel at this point, although they were hinting at it a few years ago) would they actually be likely to make?
Progress this weekend on SylphDS was nil due to a mixture of family-related events and a hideous cold. The application of Lemsip and Cider appears to be curing this affliction, but DS programming isn't happening yet.
Cheesy anime viewing is, however, and Mai Otome is certainly as cheesy as they come. I'll reserve a review until after the stock finale episode though.
My prize debugging effort this weekend has consisted of the following:
if (((FValidmask[Position>>13] >> ((Position>>10)&7)) & 1) == 0) printf("Fuck!");
I appear to have reduced the number of fucks down to zero now, which is against normal logic a desirable outcome.
Anyway, progress on SylphDS this weekend:
-Proper network configuration screen for wifi
-Move 3D models over to read data from SylphFiles properly (and hence from network or whatever) ... also reduced their memory usage as a result.
-Fixed a hideous bug in the network code causing it to return random data when reads crossed certain boundaries. Mikmod appeared not to exhibit this bug since it reads an awful lot of data one byte at a time, which by definition never crosses any sort of boundary in the process of obtaining the data...
-Moved some of the 2D utilities like font drawing into proper classes, although not yet hooked them into the action manager
Progress this weekend consisted mainly of finishing Crystal Chronicles (note to Square: I hate your end-game boss). This is of course mostly unrelated to SylphDS, but the power of pizza+beer+anime+FF:CC can be ignored only at your peril. (Further note to Square: FF:CC was, in multiplayer mode, a work of minor genius. Although not major genius. Make more games. Preferably not just a Crystal Chronicles clone, however.)
Some progress on SylphDS was made; I have the sgIP library linking into my code and very, very basic communications to my PC taking place. Hopefully I'll next switch the code over to loading assets via the network; it will at least reduce the binary (and therefore bootup) time.
More DS progress here. I've got an ARM7 mikmod driver compiling, but alas it currently crashes. Well, at least it compiles.
Progress today on SylphDS = nil. Things might have been planned, but pub plus food plus beer interfered, and you cannot argue with pub.
However, yesterday I got paletted textures working in a proper generic load-multiple-paletted-textures-in-easily sort of way, so at least I'm not out of VRAM. Yet.
Next piece of progress...? The current short-term things on my TODO list are;
-Wifi libraries - mainly needed now just for dumping debug information back to my PC!
-Mikmod - look at hardware output and I also need sound effect playback
-Start adding more 3D utilities - camera class with support for panning/sweeping/etc.
-Write the buffered display code to run at 30FPS with more polygons (really needed for battle scenes)
Progress this weekend:
-Mikmod now not only compiles but also outputs actual sound. In fact it sounds very much like the music it's meant to be outputting.
-Basic data manager code written to generically load assets from various sources.
-IPC code working to communicate quickly between the two CPU's (using the hardware FIFO queues & interrupts) ... this is how the sound playback is triggering now. I don't like the shared memory structure in libnds ... seems a little inflexible.
Unfortunately a lot of the stuff that needs writing now like the above two items isn't very exciting, but it needs to be in place before I go any further...
Tasks accomplished today :
-Construction/installation/whatever of new 5.1 sound system for lounge. And a DVD storage unit.
-Ridiculous amounts of cables strewn across the lounge in an attempt to make the media PC, DVD player/amp, and TV all play nicely with one another. Mission was mostly successful.
-Insane amounts of food and drink purchased.
-Mikmod now compiles properly in Sylph. Although it doesn't do anything - yet. The author of Moonshell does not appear to be a great believer in the concept of reusable code.
(I'm not sure what I did expect to get when I went to pick up the parcels for the sound system, but a big kickass box like this wasn't it:
 Box! |
That is a big box of stuff. Ignore the other debris scattered across my lounge, it is solely due to the fact I've only just got back after New Year.)
Tasks accomplished recently:
-Large amounts of food and drink consumed
-Much manga read
-Cheap Sales Stuff bought
Tasks still todo:
-(DS) Get music playback working in my engine
-(DS) Look at the wifi library now it's released
-Pick up & install "home theatre" system
-Clean house
-Watch anime backlog
-Pay off mortgage
I hope nobody from Barclays/Openplan is reading this, because I'll never get access to my account then.
Let me make this clear: I have a mortgage linked to a current account. What I'd like is one set of security details (1), and one contact phone number (1) I can call to sort things out with it. Not two sets of security details, one of which never turns up, and four phone numbers, all open at different hours of the day, with the useful one not even letting you speak to anybody before entering your (missing) security details. And a website which only lets you register if you have a Connect debit card, and not if you have whatever-the-hell-kind-of-debit-card they sent me[1].
Every now and then I wonder if it would be worth closing some of my accounts and moving all my money over to one bank, but it's reasons like this I don't. One, a phrase regarding eggs and baskets comes to mind, and two, Smile appear to suck far, far less than everybody else, so I'm keeping my main current account with them.
I have to disclaim this first by noting publically that I never finished