[Wolves] Bloke vs. Bloke: graphics engines: some initial thoughts

[s parkes]

>From: Aquarius <aquarius-lists@kryogenix.org>
>Reply-To: wolves@mailman.lug.org.uk
>To: wolves@mailman.lug.org.uk
>Subject: [Wolves] Bloke vs. Bloke: graphics engines: some initial thoughts
>Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 12:34:45 +0000
>
>Last night at the LUG meeting, we talked about a game, Bloke vs. Bloke,
>which would be the old Spy vs. Spy (you all remember it, I'm sure).
>Peter went away to look at the old game itself, and I had a lok around
>at which tools we could use to build it.
Excellent game ;-)

It's considered that the NES version of the game is the best.  It plays well 
in MESS and other emulators on linux if anyone wants to take a looksy.

I can *cough* bring along the files if anyone wants to take a look as well.

>Now, there are really only
>four possibilities for the coding language (form a graphics engine
>point of view): C, Perl, Python, and custom languages (i.e., specific
>to the engine).
I don't know python but if ppl who don't know C want to get involved it's 
gotta be the best choice.  Put me down as a Python man if it comes down to a 
vote.


>We liked the idea of using an existing engine because
>it means that we don't have to repeatedly reinvent the wheel. However,
>there aren't *actually* all that many that are really usable, and
>especially not with scripting-language bindings. The major open-source
>engine is obviously CrystalSpace. CS appears to have Python bindings,
>and I have also seen Perl bindings mentioned, but these things are
>rampantly undocumented. The Nebula Engine uses Tcl/Tk (oof) as its
>scripting language. Ogre seems to have Python bindings. Everything else
>requires you to write in C.
>
Those are pretty heavy duty engines for a s-v-s clone ;-) Lets try and use 
an SDL engine to make the windows port easier, lol


>Obviously there's a war between Pete's partisan Perlship and my Python
>advocacy, but we both agreed that we don't want to do it in C, since
>(a) this project is supposed to be fun, and (b) Spy vs. Spy really,
>really does not need really fast things, which is the *only* reason to
>use C these days.
>
Although I understand Perl from the little python I have looked at it should 
be the better option.


>I will be investigating Ogre and CS further over the next few days, and
>I'll try and report back on their scripting language support, in
>particular which ones are usable, and whether you could write a whole
>game just in the scripting language. Failing that, we may have to go to
>a lower level and use Perl or Pytohn bindings to SDL or similar, which
>will give us graphics, sound, etc support but require that we write all
>the *game* logic.
>
game logic is an oxymoron, it should be easy



>All thoughts on this welcome!
>
>Aq.
>
>--
>Two things I learned for sure during a particularly intense acid trip
>in my own lost youth: (1) everything is a trivial special case of
>something else; and, (2) death is a bunch of blue spheres.
>         -- Tim Peters
Add to the above quote the colour orange does not taste like the fruit ;-)

sparkes

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