For DS Development, I use PALib and DevKitPro.
DevKitPro compiles everything nicely for the DS, whilst PALib is a set of functions that makes everything nice and usable, as opposed be being a baffling chaotic mess!
However, if you try updating it, a whole fleet of incompatibilities arise, be it because of DevKitPro changing, or PALib. And, it's not just little things either. A simple PALib upgrade will mean that pretty much all of my old games start getting little breaks in them, and it...

A nice and simple game, this week.
<img src="https://agameaweek.com/completeB/2009/Storm_of_Idigidragon_20090224A.png">
Since I'm trying to decide what style Platdude Retro Collection 2 should have, I decided to try out a style in Blitz first, and see how it looks.
You might notice it's still a little Atari 2600.

I say "Project", but of course, being me, I mean projectS..
#1
PRC:2 - 0%
I'm restarting Platdude's Retro Collection from scratch, and building it up a bit bigger than last time, with nicer per-game spritesheets and things like that. Bigger = Better, usually.. .. I'll make sure that's true, don't worry!
So far the selection's getting too big for it's boots, and at current rate it'll take about 3 years to finish the project, so.. going to have to whittle it down, and remember the "K...

You can <a href="https://agameaweek.com/?Game=165">Download JXW here</a>
This one's for me!!
If other folk enjoy it, then so be it, but I made this for myself because I was getting really ticked off by the lack of decent crossword games* on the DS.
There's 3479 crosswords in the game.

A nice, quickly made game, this week.. For obvious reasons. Bah..
Still, a game created in 2 days can be just as much fun as a great big month long project.
..
Occasionally.

*sigh*
I must apologise..
I assumed I was right.

Never assume you're right!

( border="0"><tr><td>Blimey!
What a year, eh!
I decided to round off the year with a nice big, old fashioned list, with everything in it.
Except this doesn't have everything in it, because I've forgotten to add the DS games.. I'll do that later!! (Took me about 3 hours to do this, so I'm not going to tweak it, now!!)

A more accurate title would be "Just like Windows Vista, here's a list of things I told you I'd be putting in, but haven't yet bothered to, so will be missing when I release the game.."
Except I'm one person, and have spent four weeks doing this.. Not 100 people working for 4 years...
...
*sigh* Vista sucks..

Sometimes Copy and Paste works..

Having finally put the nice simple swooshy spawning sound back into the game, and got a couple of nice test levels up and running, and inside the scoreboard, and then got the whole "Nth position on the online scoreboard" display going, I decided to move onto more pressing matters.
I already copy and pasted most of the control scheme stuff early on in the project, so to help give the game a little consistency, and so as not to have to recode the whole th...

In the old game you could create levels simply by making little 64x64 pixel .png images. The game would load them as it found them, and convert them to levels on the fly.
This was handy, but it didn't let you control all the possibilities of spawning, weapon types, and things like that..
This new one does!
But what if you really liked your old levels?
It's an extremely complicated procedure, so I've put together this step by step guide to help folk import their old level...

I didn't get time to fix this up properly last night, or this morning, either.. Blame Alien Deathmatch!
So, this week's game is exactly as it was yesterday, when posted over at Socoder.
Wednesday Workshop #180 asked us to create a Darts game, so here's a quickly made one.
A target is written on the scoreboard, and with your three darts, you have to try to get as close to that target as you can.

<a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/ad2_shot009b.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/ad2_shot009b_thumb.png"></a>
An editor!
Today, I finally got around to making the editor. Starting nice and easily, I'll be adding bits and pieces as I go, so that .. hopefully.. when you get hold of it, it's not as empty as it currently is!

Background progress is coming along nicely.
<a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/ad2_shot006.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/ad2_shot006_thumb.png"></a>
I've currently got the level renderer to come up with a nice selection of coloured floors from 3 prerendered ones.. It can do plain, and chequered, thus giving us 6 possibilities of floors. Every room that's separated gets a random floor. Nice and simple.
(They have to be prerendered colours becau...

Another quicky, today.. In fact, it's a little later than usual, but that's only because I'd only just thought of it, this morning!! Panic coding at it's best..
Wheel of No Prizes sees you spin the wheel, guess the place name, Hangman style, and carry on as much as you can until you've run out of lives.
Neat!
<a href="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/wheel.png"><img src="https://socoder.net/uploads/1/wheel_thumb.png"></a>
Nice and simple stuff, but...

I spent most of this week rebuilding a few of my older games with the new Highscore stuff, so there's a couple of nice new-ish games to play.

First off, we've the 3rd version of Horizontal Shooter.. <a href="https://agameaweek.com/?Game=49">Get it here</a>. It's pretty much the same as ever, but with Mr Scouter from the original, thrown back in for good luck.
The new highscore method should help ward off nasty hackers from the scoreboard system.. Or at least for a...

A game a week's going to be hard to keep going, so I'd like to have a nice bag of thoughts that I can pop into every now and then when the ideas start dropping off.
If you've a crazy zany game idea, now's your time to get it, if not made, then at least considered
Do keep in mind that "a game a week" pretty much reduces the complexity I can add to these things, so I'll be trying my best to simplify (See Platdude's Retro Collection!) any suggestions that ...

I'm not the type of person who usually does a lot of things! For starters, you'll probably notice that 99% of my games are locked to the refresh rate of your screen. If your screen's higher than 60hz, my games will run all that much faster.
The reason for that is that all my systems are set at 60, and.. to be honest, I tend to forget that other people's aren't!
Whenever a game relies 100% on framerates and specific timings, I'll more than likely bother to sort that out, but usually I'm onto th...

<a href="https://socoder.net/?Workshop=Challenge&Week=164">Wednesday Workshop #164</a> suggested we should make a game using vector graphics. I took this opportunity to remake the fantastic Dos game, Boogaloopers!
Move the ship around with your mouse, and trap enemy within it's trail. Nice and simple gameplay-wise, but a complete git to get working code-wise! Not only did I have to figure out the points that the mouse crossed the trail, but then do that whole polygon-shrinking t...

This week, Socoder's <a href="https://socoder.net/?Workshop=Challenge&Week=163">Wednesday Workshop (#163)</a> challenge was to create a game with Money in it.
I initially was going to create a top-down dungeon romp, but as the plan grew and grew in scale, I scrapped it and just ended up making a nice quick platformer instead!
??
<img src="https://socoder.net/workshop/dlds/163_mr_money_grabber.gif">
Mr Money Grabber features you rushing through the level coll...

<a href="https://socoder.net/?Workshop=Challenge&Week=162">Wednesday Workshop #162</a> asked for folk to create a game with a big-ass timer.
My entry was simple.
Open a vault, Grab the loot, Run for your life, Drive to escape, have a gunfight, sorted!
All with a timer in the corner, and all played with the mouse.

For starters, let me just point out that Alien Deathmatch has still been slowly updating over the past couple of weeks. It's strange that a single game has taken up so much of my time. I guess that once you find the right type of game, you're more motivated than usual.
Still, more weeks playing with 1 game = less time to get some actual new games coded.
As such, there's not really been a whole lot to report over the past week or so.
No new games, no new ideas, nothing.
I had initia...

Imagine if all your favourite Arcade games were in fact Slot Machine games.
Arcade Slots reproduces a handful of games in this style. With games ranging from Frogger to Hogan's Alley, there's plenty to keep your playing.
<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/arcadeslots.zip">Download Arcade Slots</a>.
<table border="0" valign="top">
<tr><td valign="top"><a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/as_pac.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/d...

If Centipong was a simplistic looking game with added 3D, Blockman would be the exact opposite. With levels so colourful they'd poke your eyes out, Blockman comes hopping along to rescue all the Blocklets.
<a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/blockman_01.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/blockman_01_thumb.png"></a><a href="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/blockman_02.png"><img src="https://AGameAWeek.com/windev/blockman_02_thumb.png"></a>
It'...

The DrunkenCoders Christmas Compo finishes tonight.
I bothered to enter the new JNKPlat Xmas Special (You can download that (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/jnkplatv0_2.zip">here)) but it's nothing too special..
So, this morning, at around 8am, I decided to get my arse in gear and actually make something nice and snowy for the compo.
Around 5 hours later, give or take, and (URL "https://AGameAWeek.com/dsdev/snowman.zip">Snowman Attack) is the result.
(URL "https://AGameAWeek....

<em>Note : This is much more Game-Specific than my regular posts!</em>
Bombliss is one of my favourite alternate Tetris games. It has all the playability of the original Tetris, and it also has bombs, and chain reactions and things, too.
Last night, I opened up the Tetris sourcecode for the Retro Collection, and started hacking away for it's Xtra Mode. (renamed so it looked more obvious on the menu) For reference, to start a Xtra Mode game, either hit X to start the game instea...

If you're following development of Platdude's Retro Collection hoping for a new batch of great games, then you're in luck! TWO great games have been added, TWO rubbishy games have been added, and ONE more game is being worked on right now, as I type this..
Games 1 and 2 are listed in the official page, the Missile Command and Extract games. Nice, simple, retro, fast and fun.
Game 3 was also simple and fast. It's the usual "Things pop up, then you tap them. You get a minute, s...