Send Gamers mailing list submissions to
gamers@audyssey.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
gamers-requ...@audyssey.org
You can reach the person managing the list at
gamers-ow...@audyssey.org
When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Gamers digest..."
Today's Topics:
1. Game accessibility help. (michael barnes)
2. Re: audyssey starwars game from thomas? (Thomas Ward)
3. Re: USA Games News (dark)
4. Re: USA Games News (QuentinC)
5. Re: USA Games News (dark)
6. Re: Swamp, version 0.8b update (Kai)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:51:56 -0400
From: michael barnes <c...@samobile.net>
To: gamers@audyssey.org
Subject: [Audyssey] Game accessibility help.
Message-ID: e2cc97c3-71f6-40b9-8e96-f5424c8be...@samobile.net
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format="flowed"
Hey, earlier I wrote a message to the list about helping me getting the
developers to make Transylvania on iphone accessible with voice over.
I gave the wrong email address so I'll give the right one this time.
To sum it up the developer of Transylvania for the iphone told me that
if I can get alot of blind people to write him he would work on making
the game accessible to voice over.
Here is the email address transylva...@roemobiledevelopment.com
Please help me and other blind gamers to get this task done?
Thanks for your help.
--
Email services provided by the System Access Mobile Network. Visit
www.serotek.com to learn more about accessibility anywhere.
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 01:52:51 -0400
From: Thomas Ward <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: Gamers Discussion list <gamers@audyssey.org>
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] audyssey starwars game from thomas?
Message-ID:
<caafbg10aodtifmz_3h9jpnmr-ytiqjhwsgmny3soj7ouuu6...@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Hi,
Well, right now any and all Star Wars games are on indefinite hold
because of two reasons.
One, as I have mentioned several times on list, Lucasfilm has been
very uncooperative with us in terms of licensing the Star Wars
trademarks, characters, etc. Which means if we can not obtain a valid
license from Lucasfilm any games we create with the Star Wars
trademark, characters, music, sounds, etc would technically be
illegal. We could get sued by Lucasfilm for developing and
redistributing a Star Wars product without proper license.
Two, there may be a legal way around this using the fair use
exceptions in the copyright laws, but if so that would mean we could
not proffit from the project in any way. The game would have to be
released as freeware, potentially open source for educational
purposes, and have all the proper copyright information stated in the
license agreement. Basically, what I'm saying is while we still would
like to create a Star Wars game its not exactly going to help USA
Games financially, and the game could still be a financial risk if
Lucasfilm feels that the game doesn't fall within the fair use
guidelines of the copyright laws.
Finally, as you know USA Games is working on Mysteries of the Ancients
and Raceway. As we have a few hundred preorders for those games
obviously those customers have to come first. We can't afford to spend
too much time on freeware projects when we have new and existing
customers waiting on our commercial products. So after we get those
projects out of the way we will see about some Star Wars games. No
promises though as it is a messy situation.
As far as a Star Wars trailer I'm not sure which one you mean. We
originally started a game back in 2005 or so and scrapped that one
ages ago. Then, I want to say early last year, we put up a preview of
our clone of Mysteries of the Sith. While we have a basic outline of
the project its nothing like a complete game. Just some test code.
Cheers!
On 11/1/11, Connor Moser <connor.mo...@aon.at> wrote:
Hey thomas,
Is that starwars game stil worked on? because, the trailer is sounding
great
and I am so looking foward to it!
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 07:52:02 -0000
From: "dark" <d...@xgam.org>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News
Message-ID: <21BE467742ED457AB11382CC5C1416D5@ownere8ba8066c>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original
Hi Tom.
i'm glad the documentation is actually out, but certainly when i spoke to
Dolphin there was none of this business about hiding the api, afterall
it's
not as if having it would let someone Hack supernova at some point.
I'll have to talk to them again, sinse if a developer for a free products
such as Aprone can't get easy access to it that would not be a good thing.
At least the documentation is actually donewhich is further on than I
thought things were.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2011 3:21 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News
Hi Dark,
Well, I just talked to Dolphin support today and while they don't have
any issue with me using the API it apparently is under a NDA type
license. Therefore they are going to send me some forms to fill out
including a non-disclosure agreement before I get to see the
documentation, headers, and libraries. So, yeah, they are treating
this API like top secret information. Personally, I'm not so sure what
Dolphin is worried about.
So far the APIs for the various screen readers are very very simple.
Take the JFW API for exampl here. If I want to send some text to Jaws
I need to include jfwapi.h and jfwapi.lib to a Visual C++ application
and use the JFWSayString() function. To silence/stop speech use
JFWStopSpeech(). There is nothing there to be secretive about. So why
is Freedom Sientific treating it like proprietary top secret
information?
GW Micro on the other hand has been very cooperative and helpful
today. They gave me some links to their developer resources, gave me a
link to get the Window-Eyes SDK, and pointed me to some source
examples. Great! That's exactly the kind of response I expect to get
from a screen reader developer. Especially, since its their job to
insure Windows applications are A, accessible, and B, works with their
screen reader. Being all proprietary and secretive like Dolphin and
Freedom Scientific are being is a good reason why a developer might
choose not to support their screen reader and customers.
NV Access---as I mentioned yesterday--is similarly cooperative and
helpful. In fact, NVDA was the first screen reader the G3D Engine
fully supported just because the information and help was there from
the start. NVDA is open source so there is no NDA agreements to sign,
no proprietary information to gard, and nothing to be secretive about.
Everything is right there in the open and the developer is available
for assistance if needed. No wonder NVDA is becoming the most popular
screen reader next to Jaws. Besides being free and open source I'm
finding it is very easy to support either directly or via Python
modules. That's a totally different approach to what the commercial
screen readers are doing which inhibits accessibility through
proprietary and exclusive licenses in my opinion.
Cheers!
On 11/1/11, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:
Hi Tom.
Well I'm hoping that the supernova api won't be that! secret, sinse I
have
pointed out to dolphin that it is necessary to get this support going in
Supernova as well.
Hopefully they'll release it soon, but we'll see.
Beware the gRue!
Dark.
---
Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to
gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the
list,
please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2011 08:56:49 +0100
From: QuentinC <quent...@cfardel.net>
To: Gamers Discussion list <gamers@audyssey.org>
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News
Message-ID: <4eb0f7c1.4060...@cfardel.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Hello Thomas,
Do they want to have applications working with their screen reader or not
?
Such an API is normally made for being publicly available. Look at
twitter and google, they are commercial companies but their respective
API are publicly available. Having to pay to use some of the services
provided by the API is another problem. The API itself can always be
downloaded freely.
Dolphin must understand that such an API is made to work with their
screen reader and improve existing applications, not to break,
decompile, crack it or whatever. Being so protective is suspect, it may
proof that their API is bad made and that it allows to do too many
things and/or enter too deeply in their proprietary code. That would be
a valuable reason to protect it so much, otherwise I don't see what's
the problem.
To be honnest, I haven't considered potential legality issues. I already
use JFW API for ages, and I'm sure FS completely don't care if I use it.
Anyway, their API is so made that you are totally unable to break or
crack something. You can just be collaborative and tell the API to say
something, or run a script.
Where I got my information: nothing is really secret there
* JFW: it was a long time ago, in a french blind programming
mailing-list. The creator of SoundRTS sent me a zip containing
jfwapi.dll and corresponding header. Nowadays however, we shouldn't use
jfwapi.dll anymore but use the COM interface directly. I got the
information about the COM interface by using OLE explorer and my though
was confirmed when I read say tools source later.
* NVDA: I have nothing else that what is publicly available, and it's
sufficient. Something is to mention, the return values of the functions
are pretty unclear. I tested myself with my copy of NVDA to exactly
clarify how it works exactly.
* System access: I don't remember who sent me a zip containing the DLL
and the headers, but it was by mail. Only recently I was able to ask
somebody to test.
* Window eye: I just allmost copied and translated from VB to C the code
in say tools package by jamal. I asked somebody else to test it. I was
unable to install window eye demo in a XP VM, the install systematically
crashes. I'm not a window eye customer and don't want to be unless I'm
obliged, so I never contacted them, I think this is rather impolite.
I'm sure we can improve that part of the code.
One interesting thing about my API is the following: if you quit jaws
and start NVDA, then my code notice that jaws was exited and
automatically connect to NVDA, without quitting the application using
the API. It works also if you do the reverse, quitting NVDA and start
jaws. For window eye and sytem access that thing doesn't work because I
don't have any info on return values from the say functions.
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 07:57:21 -0000
From: "dark" <d...@xgam.org>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] USA Games News
Message-ID: <AA810081F8034BEAB615CFC1CA7800DF@ownere8ba8066c>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original
Hi Tom.
It's good to know that if I ever end up with 64 byt windows which would
make
the freely useable version of scansoft daniel I use for sapi obviously
problematic, I won't have to pay the earth to get a decent voice to
replace
it, sinse I certainly won't! be paying hundreds of dollars to scansoft.
Beware the grue!
dark.
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 01:01:17 -0700
From: "Kai" <kaixi...@sbcglobal.net>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Swamp, version 0.8b update
Message-ID: <AF0AA42FCFCA4DE2952B2E73DBB023E1@wraith>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original
Greetings jeremy.
Encountered the following whilst exchanging shots with a normal zombie in
the Kai-mart:
Run-time error '40006':
Wrong protocol or connection state for the requested transaction or
request
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeremy Kaldobsky" <jer...@kaldobsky.com>
To: "audyssey" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2011 7:01 PM
Subject: [Audyssey] Swamp, version 0.8b update
I've just posted version 0.8b. Assuming I haven't introduced any new
bugs, I think people will be quite happy with the improvements.
Changes from version 0.7b to 0.8b
---------------------------------
- The item system has been removed for now, and now weapons have been
moved up to the number keys.
- To use the beacons, you now hold Shift while pressing the number keys.
- Ammo is stored in each individual weapon, so if you loaded your pistol
before switching to a shotgun then it will still be loaded when you
switch
back to it.
- Loot carrying corpses can be heard from twice as far away now, so it is
easier to find them.
- When selecting a beacon, you will be told what direction you need to
travel in.
- Using the Shift A and D keys is finally fixed, so that it takes your
mouse rotation into consideration.
- Additional sounds have been added to multiplayer, including players
being injured or killed.
- The Assault Rifle has been added to the game.
- Picking up a new gun will start it out loaded with 1 full clip.
- If you normally would have found a second gun that you already have, it
will be converted into extra ammo instead.
- Pausing the Music should be remembered between games now.
- Zombies are more likely to growl while chasing you.
- The bug has been fixed that made gun shots go quiet at times.
- I've fixed a few bugs that were crashing the game for people.
- I've removed the announcements for when people join or leave the
server.
www.kaldobsky.com/audiogames/Swamp.zip
---
Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to
gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the
list,
please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Kai
------------------------------
---
Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to
gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the
list,
please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
End of Gamers Digest, Vol 69, Issue 14
**************************************
