On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 12:29 PM, Nick Sabalausky <a@a.a> wrote: > "Paulo Pinto" <pj...@progtools.org> wrote in message > news:je9e3t$1g3l$1...@digitalmars.com... > > Hi, > > > > so you are also following Andre's attemps to revive the > > old homebrew developer feeling. :) > > > > Yea, I grew up on that sort of thing. And I'd been working with Andre' > (LaMothe, of course) since well before he started doing hardware kits. His > old DOS-based game dev books are what moved me from various forms of BASIC > into finally really grokking things like C, pointers and low-level > programming (which I had only "kind of" understood before). Then I just > happened to end up in contact with him through a mutual aquaintence (via > AOL > 1.x ;) heh, yea, way back then). Andre' was starting up a budget-game > publishing company and was looking for a breakout clone, which I happened > to > already be working on. So there was that, and then he started some gamedev > forums that I was a regular on for years. Then Hasbro Interactive fucked > everything up with unsubstantiated litigation and typical corporate "drown > in legal fees" tactics, and then he got into doing hardware kits like he's > doing now. >
I was a regular on there too. Small world. > > IMO, Indie gamedev is really the only way to go if you want to make games. > All the way until college I was convinced I wanted to work for a major game > company. Then I started learning more about the nature of the industry at > the time (around 2000-2001), and that was also the point where the industry > itself was starting its slow descent into becoming into the > Hollywood-wannabe cesspool it mostly is today. ("Fuck actual gaming, we're > gonna be cinematic storytellers!" Too many Pixar rejects in the industry > now, I guess...Not to mention all the "packaged-goods" managers...) > > > I also miss those days. I grew up with the ZX Spectrum, > > doing some BASIC and Z80 stuff, then most of my friends > > moved up to the Amiga 500 and I eventually got a PC, > > since my dad was the opinion the PC would be the future. > > > > For me, it was Apple IIc and ApplesoftBASIC (I'm normally critical of apple > products, especially after having spent a year or so with OSX, but the > Apple > II line is the one major exception for me. I guess you could say Woz was > the > *real* Apple for me). Plus a small amount of Logo and machine code on the > machine. Then I got a [Packard Bell, remember them?] 486DX2 and moved to > QBASIC, had an enormous amount of fun with that. (IIRC, Amiga was pretty > much out of the picture by then, and I hadn't even heard of it. Sometimes > now I feel like I really missed out on it.) > > Tinkered a bit with C/C++, but didn't quite "get it". Then did VB 3 (It > came > on a bunch of floppies and was for Win3 :) ). Then I found Andre's DOS > books > (this was still *just* before DirectX, or at least around the time of what > was then called the "Game SDK"). Was into that for years, and somehow > managed to get sucked into web dev, and these days all my free time goes to > D-related projects (mostly things that will directly or indirectly make my > webdev work slightly less painful). > > > Anyway, I had lots of fun doing x86 assembly programming > > with some Turbo Pascal and eventually C. Then quite a few > > languages after that. > > > > Nowadays I develop business software mostly in JVM and .NET > > languages, running in clustered environments. With development > > teams scattered around the globe. > > > > Doing low level programming and graphics related stuff is > > now only a hobby, when real life permits to do so. Until the > > day I manage to change area. > > > > Wow, now I am a bit nostaligic > > > > > Regards, Brad Anderson