Changelog

[saubue]

Please feel free to post your comments or suggestions inside this changelog, too.

(12.02.2006)

- Restructured the updating of a lemming: A lemming doesn't have a type anymore, but its own update-function that indicates the type. This makes updating much easier, since the only one simple call of lemming->update(lemming); is needed.

NOTE: Changelog started at February 14th. For changes made before that are not listed here, see the history.txt-file included in the current alpha/beta release.

[saubue]

OK, I decided it would make more sense if I would split this changelog in posts, so that you will be noticed if there are some updates. So let's go:

(22.02.2006)
After being busy with the Ultima V Music API for Ranman and some work on Advanced Dialogs Pro, I started working on Lemmings again.

- Nearly all graphic routines are done to realize scrolling in levels.

- I deleted one grayscale buffer (of three) that was in fact just wasting space. Now there are only the map buffer (variable-sized) and a temporary buffer where all the additional stuff (lemmings, information,...) is being drawn to.

However, there's still a lot of work towards the first beta.

[saubue]

(23.02.2006)

- The scrolling is working now, although horizontally only in steps of 8 pixels. Thus, the third map can be played. I also had trouble centering the screen on a TI92+/V200 and drawing a border around it, but this has been solved by utilising a swapplane

- Added blocking lemmings. This type will maybe require a new collision detection system...

[saubue]

(27.02.2006)

- I'm using SpriteX8Get_R from ExtGraph for the scrolling now - it's slower, but it enables the scrolling of single lines in all directions now

- Lemmings now behave correctly when meeting a Blocker

- Added border for the string-draw functions (the text in the menu and start screen is more readable now)

- Removed unneccessary draw-attribute of the update-functions

I think I will upload the first beta of Lemmings soon - right now, I have a lot of private things to do and I also need to implement a "explode all"-function so that you are able to play the third level

[saubue]

(18.04.2006)

- Fixed bug that made the game quit when you killed all active lemmings and if there are still lemmings coming out of the entrance

- Added a short delay if a lemming is not alive to keep the speed more constant

- Fixed bug that allowed the cursor to move vertically if the selection menu is open

- Changed color of the cursor in the selection menu to black (more readable)

The selected menu entry in the start menu is now marked in light gray

After this long delay, the planned beta is nearly finished - the only thing that needs to be fixed is an error when quitting the game...

Update:

- Changed game controls

- Added options and a menu to set them:
> Pause game in lemming selection menu
> Show intro screen

I still want to add the fourth level and mining lemmings before I release version 0.2

[saubue]

The project had become very huge, so I decided to restructure the code. This will take some time, because I need to change many things:

- The global array of lemmings that needed to be allocated very ugly is gone. Instead, the map, which is now the base structure of the game, owns a pointer to an array that can be initialized via one simple malloc(). I will need some access routines, too, of course. However, that's what a map looks like now:

c:

typedef struct mstruct {         char name[50];        // The name of the map         char width;                         // Width of the map (in tiles, each tile is 8x8)         char height;                // Height of the map (in tiles)         short x;                                        // X-Position (px) to start         short y;                                        // Y-Position (px) to start         short cx;                                   // X-Position of the cursor         short cy;                                   // Y-Position of the cursor         unsigned char *mapPtr;    // Pointer to map data         unsigned char *tilePtr;  // Pointer to tile array         TILESET tileSet;                        // Tileset used in map         short startPos[2];                  // X- and Y-Position of the entrance         short goalPos[2];                     // X- and Y-Position of the outrance         char nLems;                         // Number of lemmings         char needSave;        // How many Lemmings need to be saved?         char rRate;                         // Release rate         short maxTime;        // Time for the level (in seconds)         char nTypes[9];    // Stores the available types         LEMMING *lemmings;                  // Array of lemmings that are on the map } MAP;

Please not that you need just one map while playing. It is re-allocated everytime you leave one and enter another level.

- Implement support for mappacks. mappacks are external data files that store map information (one, lemmaps.lmpk will be included in the.zip-file, others can be created using the map editor). mappacks are organised like this:

txt:

0. Entry:              Map pack information:                                         number of maps (short)                                         author         (char[20])                                         1. Entry:              First map:                                         map info       (MAP)                                         map data       (char *) ... n. Entry:              nth map:                                         map info       (MAP)                                         map data       (char *)

It seems quite simple to do, but somehow the program stops when I try to allocate space for the map data pointer that was loaded with NULL from the variable... strange

- All GFX are stored in an external data file. This has already been done (althoug I don't have converted all of the lemming sprites and map tilesets yet) and works quite well.

- Make the code a little more reliable...

At least, these are the plans. Other things that have been implemented in the old code:

- Changed game controls

- Added options (menu and load/save-functions) for the intro screen and the game pausing while the lemming selection menu is opened

- The clock is now based on AUTO_INT_5

Again, thanks to jessef and Ranman for their suggestions!

Update (16.06.06, 10am):

- The map loading function is working now. It's another VTI bug, but I made some mistakes, too

[saubue]

Everything no seems to work quite well and the exectuable is < 24kB now, which means that Lemmings 68k 0.2 is likely to be released uncompressed
The drawback is of course that you will have to copy 3 files to the calculator:

- lemmings.ASM, about 23kB: the executable
- lemdata.ldat, about 13.5kB: data variable containing pitures, sprites and tiles
- lemmaps.lmpk, about 1.5kB: standard map pack (now including 4 maps)

I still need to fix some things towards 0.2, but if I keep programming like today (and that's unlikely to be), it should be finished this week.

[saubue]

OK, it seems like the game will be a little larger than 24kB in version 0.2
However, I've done a few things:

- Added fourth level

- Added mining lemmings

- Fixed collision detection routines

- Added more sprites for walking lemmings, so it looks better now (and more equal to the NES version)

Next, I'm going to implement climbing lemmings, because they're needed in the 4th level. Once this is done and there aren't any serious errors left, version 0.2 is ready