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Zep's Dreamland update!
Ultio
Member #1,336
April 2001

Hey everyone! Good news! I've updated Zep's Dreamland to version 1.02! This update is not an "upgrade" update. It requires a complete redownload of the game. This update also sports the Mac OS X release of Zep's Dreamland. Yay! This is my first OS X release of anything, so for you people who do try the game (lillo ;D), let me know if my .dmg file works correctly! The gameplay hasn't changed at all; but I've fixed a lot of things. Here's a list of all the bugfixes/enhancements.

Quote:

The game now warns the user that a game that is currently in progress will be lost if entering the Continue menu item rather than simply losing the current game's data without saying anything.

The game now warns the user that a game that is currently in progress will be lost if entering the "Tutorial" menu item rather than simply losing the current game's data without saying anything.

Fixed a problem in which starting a new game after loading a saved one would simply restart the loaded level, and not necessarily the first level in that level set.

Fixed a problem in which escaping to the main menu while playing a level from a set other than the original would never show a "Resume Game" option.

Fixed a bug in the editor which would clear our the map's contents if the "Load Map" button was selected, and then the dialog was cancelled.

Relocated the "Last Level" button further to the right to accommodate levels saved with longer filenames.

Removed the building of a block (if possible) upon selecting the "Resume Game" option when the build key is set to Enter.

When using "r" to "erase" the map in the editor, the values of the scrolling background are now set to 0.

Stopped using all deprecated functions (textprintf, for_each_file, etc) and began to use their newer counterparts.

Fixed all slashes so now they use "/" instead of a Windows style "\\"

Added functionality to the editor to switch between fullscreen/windowed mode on the fly via hitting the "f" key. The editor also stores the previously used mode before quitting in data/ed_settings.txt. If this becomes corrupt: 1 = fullscreen, 2 = windowed.

Also, in addition to simply fixing up and enhancing the game; I've also created ten new levels which are downloadable as a separate level set. If you don't think it's worth upgrading to ZD1.02 (Seriously!?), you can still play the levels; as all levels and saved games are compatible between the previous 1.01 version and the new, current 1.02 version.

Enjoy ;D (Project Page is in my sig. If you haven't played and are interested in screenshots, check the project page :)).

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"It's nice knowing that someday, the software I write will just be pirated by millions of people." :-/
http://loomsoft.net | Zep's Dreamland | Allegro Newbie Tutorials

Kanzure
Member #3,669
July 2003
avatar

Congrats. The download is on my todo list ;D

lillo
Member #303
April 2000
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;D
The OSX version plays great on my iBook G3 800! 8-)
Really thanks for porting this over! I just finished enjoying a great session of your game :)

Oh, and btw you'd better ship the game as a .dmg.gz... Some browsers don't like .dmg directly, even though the default one, Safari, does like it.

Publish it on MacGamer's download center and on VersionTracker to get more Mac audience!

--
Angelo Mottola
lillo AT users DOT sourceforge DOT net
Enhanced Creations++

Ultio
Member #1,336
April 2001

Glad you enjoy it! Now I can start gathering some real specs, maybe ;D (By the way, what is the lowest version of OS X that Allegro works on? In my documentation I just said the latest (10.3.4)?). It'll be a pain to update the readme and reupload my game to four different locations; but that's okay.

As for the .dmg version; would dmg.zip suffice, or do you think it's more "normal" or natural to distrbute it as a .dmg.gz? Just some thoughts. I didn't even consider that the dmg wouldn't download correctly in certain browsers. I did zip it (with the BOMArchive Helper) to take a look and see if it would compress anymore, but it didn't; so I figured it would be pointless to zip it up.

Thanks for those sites to promote my game on. I also plan on putting it on the Apple's download section, too, and some other assorted forums in mac communities. In due time, however. I have to work out little things that may arise, first (like this .dmg "issue").

---
"It's nice knowing that someday, the software I write will just be pirated by millions of people." :-/
http://loomsoft.net | Zep's Dreamland | Allegro Newbie Tutorials

lillo
Member #303
April 2000
avatar

Heh, reached level 39 so far... but had to stop playing, so I'll continue tomorrow. How many levels are there btw? (in the original set that is)

OSX Allegro requires system version 10.1.x for apps to run, and 10.2.x or newer to compile. And about speed requirements, I have some tiny flickering in the background scrolling layer on my G3-800... So I think it is safe to assume a G3-500 or better is required to play the game (man I wish I had a G4 so I could code altivec optimized blitting routines for Allegro!)

dmg.gz is more usual than dmg.zip. Usually disk images are already compressed (using the gzip algorithm), so the additional compression will not make them smaller; it's just a matter of file type recognition by the browsers, since not all recognize dmg...

As for how to gzip your disk image, just open a terminal and type

gzip mydiskimage.dmg
And it'll output mydiskimage.dmg.gz in the same directory.

--
Angelo Mottola
lillo AT users DOT sourceforge DOT net
Enhanced Creations++

Kanzure
Member #3,669
July 2003
avatar

Quote:

How many levels are there btw? (in the original set that is)

I believe I heard there was 40.

Ultio
Member #1,336
April 2001

There are 40 in the original set, so you're only one away from completing the game. The extra levels I did for this release are an optional download and are available on my website. If you try those, I suggest you try the other two submitted level sets; as they're quite fun. ;)

It looks like I'll have to update my documentation (or make a note about it being a "little bit" incorrect on my website. :P

---
"It's nice knowing that someday, the software I write will just be pirated by millions of people." :-/
http://loomsoft.net | Zep's Dreamland | Allegro Newbie Tutorials

miran
Member #2,407
June 2002

Just one question: why does the game come with >7 MB worth of screenshots?!?

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sig used to be here

Krzysztof Kluczek
Member #4,191
January 2004
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I've downloaded it. ;D

First impression: It has most annoying tutorial I've ever seen! I already know how to use right arrow key. I also know how left arrow key works but character keeps shouting at me that I know too much. And letters appearing one by one are really annoying too - I can read much faster. :P

I just had to let it out. :P

More comments will go when I'm past the tutorial.

EDIT: "We already learned about that key." is annoying too. :P

EDIT2: Not bad game! :)

Ultio
Member #1,336
April 2001

Miran said:

Just one question: why does the game come with >7 MB worth of screenshots?!?

Haha. That's neglegence on my part. I grab all the files from the working directory of the game; and I usually take screenshots while I'm playing. Those are just leftovers and I never deleted them when creating the archive. I'm in the process of uploading a nice non-screenshotted version of the game now. ;) Thank god I didn't do the same in the OS X version. Making a dmg file all nicenice requires a lot more work than just stuffing things into a zip. :)

Krzysztof Kluczek: You can speed up the text by holding down on the space key (or whatever key you turned to be the "build" key). Enter works too, I believe. I can understand your frustration with the tutorial; but this is obviously why I have sectioned it up. If you're too smart for tutorial one, then skip it and go to tutorial two. The first one says "basics." That's all it explains. ;) I like to explain things to a point, because there will always be that user that needs that kind of information, believe it or not. I do realize it's over kill to say "here is how we walk right", "now, here is how we turn around", but, eh. Whatever. I like it that way. If it makes you feel stupid or it insults you, skip the tut. That's why they're separated. ;)

---
"It's nice knowing that someday, the software I write will just be pirated by millions of people." :-/
http://loomsoft.net | Zep's Dreamland | Allegro Newbie Tutorials

miran
Member #2,407
June 2002

Quote:

Thank god I didn't do the same in the OS X version.

Judging by filesizes you did. At least if the info on the download page is correct. The zip is a 3MB file but the dmg is supposed to be 4MB...

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sig used to be here

Ultio
Member #1,336
April 2001

Miran: Nope. That's just a technicality with including the allegro framework (which is similar to the .dll in the windows world). The framework must reside within what the user sees as the "executable." The game comes with two of these, so I have the wasted space of a second allegro.framework. That's why it's bigger. ;)

---
"It's nice knowing that someday, the software I write will just be pirated by millions of people." :-/
http://loomsoft.net | Zep's Dreamland | Allegro Newbie Tutorials

lillo
Member #303
April 2000
avatar

Ultio: you could update to Allegro WIP 4.1.14, link with the system-wide framework (NOT the embeddable one) and provide the OSX Allegro enduser package inside your dmg, so users will have to install it before they can play your game. Installing the package is a breeze (it's a standard OSX installer), and using this method should reduce your dmg size as you'll include just one copy of the dynamic lib instead of two (one per application).

--
Angelo Mottola
lillo AT users DOT sourceforge DOT net
Enhanced Creations++

Ultio
Member #1,336
April 2001

Ooh. I did not know about this. I'll have to look into it. As for now; it doesn't make the game a lot more super huge; and it also doesn't require the user to "install" anything, which is kind of how I want the game at the moment. :)

That's neat though. I remember seeing something about that end-user package. This will make my life easier with future games instead of having to find my way into the package and dropping in the allegro framework manually. ;)

I'm still learning! ;D

---
"It's nice knowing that someday, the software I write will just be pirated by millions of people." :-/
http://loomsoft.net | Zep's Dreamland | Allegro Newbie Tutorials

lillo
Member #303
April 2000
avatar

Remember for the future, fixbundle is your friend when creating Allegro games under OSX, as it automates application bundle creation, eventual framework embedding and icon setup. ;D

--
Angelo Mottola
lillo AT users DOT sourceforge DOT net
Enhanced Creations++

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