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 Post subject: EdoLD "Laser Game Construction Set"
PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 4:54 pm 
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(I've posted this at Daphne-Emu, as it seems to be the premier site for laser games. If you have any other big laser game sites, please mention them in this thread, so I can get the word out there. If this post is against board policy, I'm sorry. I have tried to first read the rules for posting.)

I've always liked laser games, even though they are panned by a majority of gamers and critics alike. I always wanted to make my own.

I've read some posts on message boards. You've also read them before. But, this time it's going to be real, really soon.

For the last week (or is it two?), I've been programming a laser game construction set. The beta is about 95% complete, and I'm working out a few little bugs.

"EdoLD" (as the program is called) uses a scripting language to create laser-like games. It uses MPEG movies files for scenes, and plays them according to the scene "script" that is created. Some things it includes are:

- It can only create "basic" laser-like games. Light-gun and
similar games can't be done.
- Options for attract modes and endings.
- Keyboard and joystick entry.
- Some other stuff.

Since it's nearing completion, I need to know:

a. How many "action" buttons do you really need/want? Do you
really need diagonal movements? Diagonal movements haven't
been programmed yet, but can be done.

b. Some unique options from LD games that you can think of?

You can post here, or send them to my e-mail if you wish.

Any help would be appreciated.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 5:05 pm 
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Well...there is also SINGE (also a laserdisc game scripter) which is being worked on in conjunction with the Daphne emulator.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 10:13 pm 
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I would love to see either!

Edo, keep it simple at first. Two action buttons and 2 or 4 directions is fine by me.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 11:41 pm 
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The maximum number of buttons a laser disc game has used (save thayer's of course) is 3. I'd say three would be more than enough.

Also the taito laserdisc games used diagonals so you need em.

I've started a few of these programs and there is a reason I never bothered to finish. Unfortunately it is just too hard to make a laserdisc game. Not the programming part, that is easy. I am talking about the filming of the footage and/or animation. Live action is farily easy, but I don't think a live-action dl style game would be very fun. You'd have to make costumes and sets and stuff to make it interesting.

Now if somebody has some footage ready to go then let me be the first to volunteer my services.


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 Post subject: ...
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:50 am 
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>Layer:

I've never heard of SINGE. Even a search here through the message boards turned up nothing, other than problems with confronting Singe in Dragon's Lair...

>Huggy/Howard:

Then I guess I'll go with three buttons (right now) and diagonals.

This program was created so that people could take footage from their favorite movie files, and turn them into a game if they wanted. While I'm not a fan of Dragon Ball, I did rip a movie from a free DVD I got to test some of the engine thus far.

However, there are certain caveats:

(a) This program is not meant for people to distribute copyrighted material. That is a no-no, and we all know that.
(b) This program is not meant to "re-do" currently-available laser games, such as what is already commerically available ("Dragon's Lair", etc.), or those done by Daphe.
(c) Creating footage is hard, but with this program, it's one-step closer for making your own game. Getting friends together with a standard digital video camera and making some "dorky" martial arts game has a certain allure to it.

I mean, hey, Sega did it with "Time Traveler" and American Laser Games did it with all their games. You could always make a "gun ballet" game.

Matrix rip-off, anyone?


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 3:13 am 
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Well you've got toe remember though, in both cases the games had fully authentic sets (ok maybe that's a stretch for time traveler, but it didn't need a set) and people in full costume.

Filming is also extremely hard to do if you want it to look right. It's easier than doing animation, but not much. Just as an example it would be fairly impossibly to do a martial arts game like you are saying unless you want to do a fairly uninteresting one as you have to film the base animation, a successful move and a failed move. So you can't just have a slew of moves you can do whever like you would in a street fighter game, rather move one then move 2 then move 3 ect... Unless good camera work is done, that would get real old real fast.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 3:46 am 
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Thats true...there's no mention of it :D


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 Post subject: Re: ...
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 6:58 am 
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Edo wrote:
Getting friends together with a standard digital video camera and making some "dorky" martial arts game has a certain allure to it.


hehe... Matt_O has a head start on you. :)


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 9:47 pm 
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lol Yeah and remember, he gave up about half-way through, either due to lack of interest or sheer embarassment. :wink:

I'm not trying to be negative, I'm ust saying, the filming is the hard part, somebody needs to go out and shoot the footage and build an application around it.


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 Post subject: ...
PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:37 am 
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Well, I uploaded a version of the program.

http://edos.siteburg.com/edos_game/eld.html

It probably has a billion bugs and such, but see what you can do with it.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:42 pm 
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HowardC wrote:
Filming is also extremely hard to do if you want it to look right. It's easier than doing animation, but not much. Just as an example it would be fairly impossibly to do a martial arts game like you are saying unless you want to do a fairly uninteresting one as you have to film the base animation,


Another possibility, depending on the look desired, is to do it in CGI. There are several relatively low-cost CGI tools out there optimized for various things - Bryce, Vue, Carrera, Poser, etc. Poser is particularly useful for this purpose as it is a figure-modelling program, and includes the ability to do animations. IIRC, the animations are output as .AVI files, but it shouldn't be too hard to convert them to M2V.

In fact, given that sound would also be desired, I would suggest a movie-editing program. Import the various .AVIs, import the sound, output the results as M2V and .OGG files.

The biggest hang-up with Poser is that it is a memory hawg. Be prepared to lose your computer for 24 to 48 hours for render times, particularly if you go for hi-res textures, bump maps, lots of props and scenery, etc. You'd better have lots of hard drive space, too. However, for those of us who can't draw for beans and who don't have digicams and friends with a modicum of acting ability, it might be a route to go.

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