Stuff
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 A reasonably random collection of certain items of interest written, experimented on - or just enjoyed over the years.
From a game or two, through some learning creatures to the original Thundercats. Have a click-around and explore.
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Secession
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Written in assembly and C/C++ over the final year of my degree, Secession started as an experiment to draw triangles quickly.
But once you can draw a triangle, you can draw anything, so the sights were raised to create a 3D space flight combat simulator
that was both fun ans realistic in a way that the competition of the time was not. The AI was not scripted, but fuzzy logic which
genuinely reacted to the environment, understanding threats, allies, charges, objectives, damage, heirachy and mood. The potential
number of craft fielded was intended to be epic - the game engine could run with hundreds of craft in battle at once from fighters all
the way through to capital ships, moons and asteroids. Intended to be believable, it is set in the not-too distant future when
humankind, though now in space, has not yet left the solar system. Explore the universe and download the game here.
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Flibbidy Jibs
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Secession was the ticket to what was considered to be the dream job at the time: a software developer in the games industry.
Flibbidy Jibs was an after-hours collaboration exploring a cross between platform games and puzzle games. Up to four people
could play simultaneously, chosing from different characters, or jibs who had been trapped in a machine that regularly
generated blocks which fell from the top of the screen. Some were inert while others contained power-ups or special
abilities when triggered. They could be moved around the screen by the jibs, encouraging players to use the blocks to build.
The aim of each level was to depress a plunger before the timer ran out. Flibbidy Jibs was initially written in C++ and DirectX but was ported to, and published on,
several different platforms including Windows Mobile, iOS and Android.
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Asteroids
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Just a bit of fun, Asteroids was the result of experimentation with Java applets for the first time. I never
took up thick client development with Java but this was quite fun. It is pretty much classic Asteroids, only you get all your lives
at the same time and the aliens are a little more deadly - which means more points - and more points mean more lives.
Control your ships with the mouse using the different buttons to thrust or fire.
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80s TV
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Children's TV in the 80s was amazing. It was the best. Lasers had been invented, electronics were getting big and the main TV
channels in England were devoted to broadcasting peerless excellence from 3:30pm till 6:00pm. When it was time for the news.
Here you will find He-Man, Thundercats, the A-Team, Bravestar, CHiPs, Grange Hill and more wonderful memories.
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Other Stuff
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A couple of versions of a foray into genetic programming, these genetic tanks need a long time to run, but exhibit learning
and behavioural evolution (their brains were the genetically programmed parts). Mr Rice, written in Pascal and assembly, was
a side scrolling platformer.
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You'll need a tray
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Some of these guys are old. For those that are, use DOSBox; an emulator that recreates a MS-DOS compatible environment (complete with Sound, Input, Graphics and even basic networking). This environment is complete enough to run many classic MS-DOS games completely unmodified. In order to utilize all of DOSBox's features you need to first understand some basic concepts about the MS-DOS environment.
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