taint.org: Justin Mason’s Weblog

Patents: in a recent discussion about games and patents, it emerged that these common elements are patented:

• streamed loading
• minigames during a loading screen
• ghost cars in racing games

Looks like software patenting is coming to computer games in a big way. I’m not sure how any game on a modern platform can avoid the ’streamed loading’ patent.

Naturally, I can remember playing games on the Commodore 64 in the 1980s that included these…

Tags: computer, discussion, game, ghost, loading, looks, patents, platform, screen, software, way

Hardware: Slashdot: Nokia’s Linux Handheld. It’s to be called the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, and runs on an open source development platform called Maemo.

This looks really nifty. ARM processor, 800×480 pixel resolution, GTK+, 2.6 kernel, wifi, 3 hours of active battery life, and a clever panning system to get around the clunkiness of scrollbars on a touchscreen.

I note particularly that they seem to have planned to include an RSS reader based on Liferea.

The Maemo site looks interesting, in that it’s clearly a bunch of switched-on, open-source-comprehending developers who set it up; it’s built using Apache Forrest, they use Bugzilla for issue tracking, Mailman for lists, the terms of use for user contributions explicitly call out OSI-approved licenses as a requirement, there’s plentiful references to Debian’s apt as the preferred means of installing developer platform software, and Maemo apps are distributed as Debian packages.

There’s clearly been quite a lot of work going on behind the scenes. There’s already some third-party apps out there, such as those on INdT’s Maemo apps page, and the the SDK tutorial contains copious detail, suggesting it’s been seeing some use.

That SDK tutorial is full of tantalizing glimpses into Maemo’s operation.

It all looks very promising, and nicely hackable! I’m looking forward to a closer look at one of these. It’s especially good to see such a solid comprehension of the open source model by such a major company. (If only they could have a word with their patents department ;)

Update: They’ve ported WebCore to GTK+. Mobile Gazette has more info, too, including this worrying line:

And although Nokia hold several patents for (the Maemo development platform), they intent to open up access to their intellectual property to aid development.

(My emphasis.) That line is not encouraging, seeing as it seems to be a pretty typical cross-compilation platform as seen in embedded systems development. But hey, let’s see the patents first.

Tags: debian, development, gtk, hardware, maemo, nokia, platform, sdk, source, tutorial, use

Hacking: Amazing — the Action Replay cartridge is still around!

To be honest, I’m quite surprised that the PS2 hardware platform allows any of this stuff without some mod-chip-style soldering… but then, it’s pretty clear Datel have the technology to figure these things out. Impressive.

Aside: in my teens, I wrote demos on the Commodore 64 entirely in the Action
Replay’s built-in monitor. I tried using compilers that supported such luxuries as symbolic labels, variable names, etc., but the ability to halt the entire machine and debug extensively, with a single button press, was just too nifty ;)

Tags: action, cartridge, commodore, datel, hacking, hardware, impressive, platform, replay, stuff, technology

Games: Commodore 64 old-timers may remember Andrew Braybrook’s classic Paradroid, easily one of the best games for that platform, and a classic by any standards. Here’s a copy of the Zzap! 64 review from 1986. Many thumbs up, and the bottom line was that Paradroid ranked as ‘THE classic shoot-em-up’.

Paradroid trivia: in the days before .plan files, Zzap! 64 published a development diary by AB! Here’s the birth of one of the game’s key mechanisms, the ‘transfer game’:

Tuesday May 21: An average morning’s contemplation until …ZAP WHIZ POW ! An idea for a game within the main one, fighting for control of a new robot. Instead of just a graphical sequence showing the takeover of a new robot, why not have to play for it, you against the robot’s brain? Base it on logic circuits and use some existing routines. A whole new game segment in a small space!

Cool.

The authors’ company, Graftgold, has a website, detailing its history. Sadly, it maps the decline of the 80’s-style small games company, and ends on this note: ‘I would recommend the games industry to anyone wanting an exciting career buts its certainly not an easy ride. Most publishers we worked with either went bust, sold out or simply did not publish the game to our expections despite tight contracts. The trouble is the developer does their bit first then the publisher can choose the level to do their bit. Unless you can get real commitment by way of big advances you cannot rely on a publisher.’

Shame. Anyway. I’m not the only Paradroid fan out there — it seems a bunch of fellow enthusiasts have come up with FreeDroid, a homage to Paradroid which seems to be evolving into an RPG! It’s quite impressive – the gameplay is virtually identical to the original. Fedora Linux users can install it using apt-get install freedroid.

BTW, related: here’s two attempts at a canon for computer gamers, at costik.com and the Ludologist (of which I’ve played 121). What I find interesting about them is how clearly one is American and Apple-II-based and the other European and Commodore-64/Amiga-based. Stay tuned for the third, Spectrum-based canon. ;)

Tags: bit, commodore, company, freedroid, game, games, paradroid, platform, publisher, robot, zzap

Found on /.: Nuon have released a free-as-in-speech SDK for third-party developers to develop applications which will run on certain models of DVD players. According to ‘What Is Nuon?’, the Nuon DVD hardware is essentially both a DVD player and an open gaming platform. Incredible! Looks like I know now what kind of DVD player I’ll be buying — the one I can write my own apps for ;)

Tags: dvd, found, gaming, hardware, incredible, looks, nuon, platform, player, sdk