April/MAy 1995 GAME DEVELOPER MAGAZINE GAME PLAN GGAMEAEM Delphi is Editor Larry O’Brien [email protected] the Answer Senior Editor Nicole Freeman [email protected] Managing Editor Nicole Claro [email protected] ormally I make it a rule not to to gain by examining Delphi. Why? The Editorial Assistant Deborah Sommers recommend any programming huge, relatively untapped Windows game [email protected] tool that I haven’t used to market. With Delphi, you can use WinG Contributing Editors Alex Dunne develop a program from to get your images on screen relatively [email protected] scratch. I’m going to break that quickly, and you also can get many more Chris Hecker rule to recommend Borland’s compile-link-debug cycles in a program- [email protected] Delphi. I’ve only used it to ming session. Windows game develop- David Sieks [email protected] develop a program that trans- ment inevitably involves hit-and-miss pro- Wayne Sikes Nlated from Celsius to Fahrenheit degrees, gramming challenges (no matter how [email protected] but the only reason I’m not altogether experienced you are, the Windows API Editor-at-Large Alexander Antoniades committed to Delphi is (I’m blushing as I can surprise you), so more cycles means [email protected] type this) I’ve never learned Pascal. Well, faster development. When you’re done, Cover Photography I’m going to learn it now. For Windows your programs run at compiled speeds. Charles Ingram Photography developers, and for Windows game devel- Also, Delphi abstracts the Windows opers especially, Delphi is so far ahead of API. If this abstraction isn’t good enough Publisher Veronica Costanza the competition it’s embarassing. for you, feel free to create your own. Del- Group Director Regina Starr Ridley The world of Windows development phi’s code reuse infrastructure is excellent, has always been one of compromise. Tools with full object-orientation and the ability Advertising Sales Staff such as Visual Basic offer immediate grati- to package groups of objects together as West/Southwest fication when moving from writing code functional components. Develop an engine Yvonne Labat (415) 905-2353 to seeing your program run, but the per- for isometric projection, and you can save [email protected] formance has always suffered in compari- it as its own package and use it as a start- New England/Midwest son with compiled code. On the other ing point for future games. Kristin Morgan (212) 626-2498 hand, compiled C++ offers near-optimal Delphi is based on Object Pascal [email protected] performance, but all but the most trivial which, as I said, is a new language to me. programs have compilation times mea- However, it’s very straightforward—C++ Marketing Manager Susan McDonald sured in minutes, not seconds. Program- it ain’t. Although I’ve already discovered Advertising Production Coordinator Denise Temple mer productivity vs. compiled perfor- some things that I don’t like (the keyword Director of Production Andrew A. Mickus mance. Pleasure for the programmer vs. private doesn’t act the way I think it Vice President/Circulation Jerry M. Okabe pleasure for the user. The iron compro- should, and I can never figure out where Group Circulation Director Gina Oh mise of Windows. semicolons are expected), I’ve also already Circulation Manager Kathy Henry Delphi makes no compromises. For- come up to speed on the basic structure of Circulation Assistant Phil Payton get the claims of how many hundreds of the language. You should have no trouble Newsstand Manager Pam Santoro thousands of lines of code are compiled picking it up and, just as importantly, you Reprints Stella Valdez (415) 655-4269 per minute, the point is that Delphi’s shouldn’t have any trouble finding new speed of compilation is such that the programmers fluent in it. MillerFreeman A MEMBER OF THE UNITED NEWSPAPERS GROUP move from editing to debugging is seam- You’ll be reading a lot about Delphi Chairman of the Board Graham J.S. Wilson less; when your screen flickers you think a in the corporate programming magazines, President/CEO Marshall W. Freeman background compilation process is being where it will be primarily lauded for its Executive Vice President/COO Thomas L. Kemp spawned but, in fact, you’re seeing the ability to create database applications. But Senior Vice Presidents H. Vern Packer, Donald A. results of the final link. I’ll make a bold prediction—the most suc- Pazour, Wini D. Ragus Delphi is being marketed toward the cessful Windows game of 1996 will be Vice President/CFO Warren (Andy) Ambrose current marketing darling, corporate written entirely in Delphi. Until that ships, Vice President/Administration Charles H. Benz developers, and there’s no question that it I’ll be busy learning where the stupid semi- Vice President/Production Andrew A. Mickus ■ will cut a swath through the ranks of Visu- colons go. Vice President/Circulation Jerry Okabe al Basic and PowerBuilder users out there. Larry O’Brien Vice President/Software Development Division Regina However, game developers have even more Editor Starr Ridley 4 GAME DEVELOPER • APRIL/MAY 1995 SEZ U! More to the Mystery by Our Readers Dear Editor: but I still think that it’s worth it. I think it would like to offer a few suggestions to sup- would be enormously helpful if after each arti- plement Andre LaMothe’s article “The Myste- cle you gave a brief reading list of good books Something on your Irious Mode 13h” (Sept. 1994). that provide more information about a partic- I am a shareware game programmer who has ular topic. For instance, in the December issue been using Mode 13h for about two years now. I you featured a great article on Mode C (umm... can see at least one obvious ways to speed up excuse me...Mode X) but I would like to know the graphics functions Mr. LaMothe described. of a book that would give a beginning-to end mind? A response to an The first would be to avoid using the palette breakdown of the technique. This would help ports (0x3C7/0x3C8) as much as possible. One those who aren’t quite as technically blatant way that I can see to do this would be to advanced as some, and keep the folks who are eliminate reading the port whenever the pro- advanced happy. Plus the market for computer gram needs the value of a specific register. books is so full of crap that it would be nice to article, a query about Instead, simply create a structure: have someone who knows something suggest good books. typedef struct { Gideon Stocek unsigned char red[256]; via e-mail code, a little poem or unsigned char grn[256]; Editor Larry O’Brien responds: unsigned char blu[256]; Good suggestion! We’re running book reviews } PaletteStr; regularly to try to cut through the crap (see Dean Oisboid’s article on page 48). One sugges- Clear the structure in the beginning of the tion: don’t buy a book that calls you stupid. If ditty, perhaps? If you program, and also clear the palette (set all the title’s condescending, the text will be as “bucket” values to (0,0,0)) using the write well. port. Then, whenever the structure is updated, simply update the array value as well. That way, a function can simply look up a value in WHERE’S THE CODE? have anything to get an array instead of having to write/read to a Dear Editor: port. This also streamlines the color cycling ’m looking for the code for Carl Muller’s function by eliminating the overhead associat- article “Hitting on Collision Detection” ed with procedure calls (about five processor I(Sept. 1994). The article states that it is cycles). Simply rotate the array, then push the available on CompuServe, but I can’t find it. off your chest, please whole thing out to the VGA card when the cycle Do you have any more detailed information on function is done. exactly where it is, the filename, forum, and so Mason McCuskey on? I’d also like to know if it’s available on any via e-mail ftp sites. do. We’ll probably Leonard Guy MORE READING MATTER via e-mail Dear Editor: Editor Larry O’Brien responds: enjoy your magazine, I find it helpful and On CompuServe, Go SDFORUM and visit our interesting. I would like to see the price go library. Or set your browser to the print it here. Idown or the amount of material in it go up, /pub/gdmag/src ftp directory of whiz.mfi.com. GAME DEVELOPER • APRIL/MAY 1995 7 CROSSFIRE Media Vision Picks Up The Pieces Alex Dunne igital entertainment is often months after the company went public in the media spotlight. Usu- at $15. Although the stock was gener- ally we hear about technolog- ally regarded as overvalued, nobody ”We‘ll be quiet, but ical breakthroughs, though— realized how much so until a few rarely are high-tech compa- months later. nies involved in controversies. There have been some Greenberg Blows we‘ll be here,“ notable exceptions, though, The Whistle Dand surely Fremont, Calif.-based Media Herb Greenberg, a columnist for the Vision stands out as a Silicon Valley San Francisco Chronicle, did some inves- soap opera. Media Vision scraped bot- tigating and discovered that Media tom last summer when it filed for Vision had falsified sales records and says Robert Brownell, Chapter 11, ironically due to the lack of engaged in shady business practices to vision that the company—led by former paint a better picture of the company’s CEO Paul Jain—had.