So, the working name for my homebrew videogame system for infants is now InfraBaby. If anyone has any better suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Though I can't test it until my IR receiver arrives in the mail, I've built the core of the system. I've got a small Python program that reads data from LIRC, and, based on a configuration object, presses keys in Windows. Obviously I've still got some work to do to discover what codes the V.Smile emits, but I'm hoping that'll end up being relatively straightforward.

Now, if everyone was happy writing python code to configure their games, and starting up three programs whenever they wanted their baby to play a game, I'd be done. But no -- I'm coming to the realization that I've got a frontend to write, which lets you set up configurations for your games, and has one-click (or one-press-the-orange-circle) launching of games. I'm really, really itching to give the program a try, but at least a proper user interface will give me something to do while I wait for the damn sensor to come.

After successfully finishing Tek Demo, I've been thinking about other aspects of KnP that haven't been fully explored. I've never made use of active object internal flags. What does "spread a number" do to alterable values? The event editor has its own options panel? But one thing really hit me as being full of potential. Klik & Play had support for a very old animation format: FLC/FLI. No sound, palletized, somewhat dodegy playback speed, and very poor compression. That, and no modern video converters seem to support the format. But a while ago, I found this old DOS command-line converter called DTA. Running it under dosbox, I could convert a directory of tga or pcx files into a knp compatible flc video. And just now I've finished the conversion path, from shooting video, to jpg sequence, to tga sequence, to fli animation.

The filesizes are awful. What started out as an 882kb avi lasting maybe two seconds turns into a 4.5MB(!) fli animation with no sound. But I have the batch processing steps down now. And my planned idea won't take more than maybe 8 videos to do, each lasting about two seconds, at double the tested video dimensions, and half the framerate. I'm looking at about 64MB of fli video, plus whatever filesize the actual GAME part of this idea clocks in at. I think this could end up being very, very funny indeed.

My first step is going to be shooting video, of course. And dealing with the difficulty of convincing friends that they desperately want to be the stars of this overwhelmingly foolish idea.

KnP FMV, here we come!

So my son turned one year old yesterday! We got him a videogame console for babies.

Now I dare you to look at that thing and not immediately think "Baby Pop'n Music." It is obvious that the giggly Baby Einstein "smartridges" (Seriously! That's what they call them!) are only of limited interest. I'd originally thought that it might be interesting to write software directly for the unit, but it soon became clear that I would have to do a LOT of reverse engineering work -- something I don't have the time or experience to do properly before my son grows out of the thing.

Then I realized that the interesting thing is not the system itself, but the controller. The controller is a very simple IR transmitter, like a remote control. And you can pick up IR receivers for PCs for under $10 on eBay.

So if I pick one of these things up, and write a simple program to convert these IR signals to keystrokes, I could very well make videogames for my 1-year-old son in Klik & Play. For that matter, so could all of you! Kirk just DID!

You guys, you have no idea how exciting it is to think that you could make toys for your child that aren't obnoxious. Every toy on the market has a sound chip in it that talks to my son in a sing-song voice about how fun counting is, and about how fun the alphabet is, and about how fun opposites are, and about how fun manners are. They repeat themselves endlessly. They stunt the imagination. Some of them even tell my son they love him. I have inanimate objects in my house that tell my son they love him!

I can do better. This is my next project.

While watching the Spindler Splindey Spindley's raycasting demo, an idea popped to my mind.
Idea of Doom in KNP isn't new, yeah, but I reminded myself trying to implement very primitive Eye Of The Beholder-like "3d". I googled up in looking for full-length games using this and I've found an old friend, Death Mask.

As we can see, even with jerky scrolling/movement, gameplay is fluid and clear. It would be a sin to not try this!
So I dig up my old WIP-stuff notebooks and found the theory of algorithm for such an engine. Here we go.
Map is a matrix built from 32 cells, 16 x 16. Each cell is a fragment of map with a number. Player starts in cell 1,1, and moving forward changes the cell to 2,1, then turning right - 2,2 etc. Every cell has it's own "3d" picture. Some cells contains monster - which we can shoot out with a gun.
Algorithm has many fails flaws, like no open rooms, just maze and no backwarding.
Hope my engrish isn't too high and everyone can undestand this bullcrap without beer or two.

I will try to implement this once again.

Oh, and a screenshot. A little teaser. 4 different fonts on title pic! Face that, man

I drew this terrible sprite

and I haven't been able to stop laughing at it. A game needs to be made for this man with arched eyebrows, severely deformed leg and crabwalk.

I was thinking something along the lines of Castlevania 3, with visual nods to games from LJN, Software Creations, and Ultimate/Rare, but more specifically Ocean and their goddamn super white people sprites.

Okay, maybe that's not exactly what I'm going for. I will post later when I have a clearer idea.

So here it is. My first game trainwreck ever released. 2 player mayhem full of lasers, rockets, swords, Black Sabbath and sharks. Controls are bit shitty, so don't forget to read the txt. And that it's two player only.

Hope it's crappy enough to place it here.

Next one - Unnatural Brutality Ex - Human Slaying Mechanism!

I've spent nearly all day playing some trainwrecks. Some people are really high, high
So this is probably good time to announce my first train. If anybody cares. Nobody? Crap.
It will be two player, as I haven't seen any 2p game here. Many stupid attack moves and sounds. Street Fighter II parody. Kind of.
And now, let's have some Doom.

So here it is. It kind of only works for part of the map for some reason, so I'd need to find a more object-efficient technique, I think, if I wanted to continue working on this.

Having been thoroughly inspired by snapman's brilliant Tek Demo, qrleon's glorious cracktro, and the recent discovery of some excellent Vic-20 demos, I have come to the startling conclusion that it should actually be possible to create a raycasting engine in Klik & Play.

WATCH THIS SPACE.

Let me repeat that: TEK DEMO is the full game. (Not a demo)

You are Tek Demo, on a quest to find the missing gems! Marvel at the lush realistic graphics, and unbelievable advanced special effects! Featuring no less than three title screens, Tek Demo is my most ambitious KnP trainwreck to date. By my records, the first version of this game's engine is over 8 YEARS OLD, and was never released online. After hearing about Glorious Trainwrecks on Tigsource (which I heard about for... other reasons) I knew I had to finally complete a game using this engine/trick/technique/whatever. So this is my gift to you, internet. A little bit of knowledge for an obsolete game maker nobody uses anymore. I hope you like it!

note: If the full version starts acting weird at some point, try the lite version. It has less data, which might avoid the collision detection freezing up.