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| Author | Developing a new System 7 game (Read 10711 times) | ||||||||||||||
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Bolkonskij
Administrator 1024 MB  Posts: 2023 
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on: September 14, 2021, 10:16
Hey everyone, I thought in order to brush up our development section on the S7T forums I'd write something about my plans on developing a new game for System 7 Macs in my free time. I'm currently unemployed and while I have three kids to take care of, there's always an hour or two a day to spend for coding. So why not use it to get something done for System 7? There's two reasons why I'm posting here. The first one is to encourage others to develop for Mac OS (the real one). Even some professional coders find it hard to code anything for classic Mac OS and I can't blame them. It's rather the complexity than the difficulty that makes it hard and since the documentation side is underdeveloped, most stop after dabbling a bit with CodeWarrior. Because i'm not one that can use an emulator for more than simple testing (just doesn't "feel right") and because it adds to the fun, I decided that I'll exclusively develop my game on my Power Mac 8600/200 running System 7.6.1. The compiling times will give me a moment to think about my code or take a sip of coffee and I have no problem with that. After all, I have scrum master bugging me about when it's done :-) The second reason I plan on posting this one here in diary style is because I know me. I have a great range of interests and unfortunately, that means I tend to shift my interest to other things after the initial excitement. I actually hate announcing stuff before it's done. But in a way, this thread is to hold me accountable and to keep me going. If you don't see any update from me for weeks, ask what's going on and tease me ("you'll never finish that game, Bolkonskij!"). That ought to do it. :-) So, I'm looking forward to fill this thread with some more info on the development process, the challenges, the helpful things I found along the way etc. Come and check every so often and give me feedback, tell me your opinion or share helpful insights. All three will help me going. I also encourage you to open up your own thread and share your development process. |
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Last Edit: September 14, 2021, 10:34 by Bolkonskij
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023
Reply #1 on: September 14, 2021, 10:30
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So to kick it off, a bit of background about my plans. I have experience in web development (PHP, JavaScript) but I haven't coded anything in a compiler-based language yet. So keep in mind, this is really more of a newbie approach to Mac OS coding. A few words about my "tech stack": As for the programming language, I decided to write the game in plain C. It's not because of a deep affection for C (from a pure aestetic standpoint, I much prefer Pascal) but there's at least some useful documentation for coding in C and you're much more likely to find help these days. My target platform will be a 68k System 7 Mac, including b&w compact Macs. It's because I think machines like my Macintosh SE deserve more cool b&w games(the SE sits next to my 8600 on the desk and will be used for testing purposes. Both are connected via PhoneNet - as much 90's as it gets ;-) ) My plan is to distribute the game for free as shareware (in the original sense, no registration/key etc.). I'm right now jotting down my thoughts on the game concept. I personally always liked strategy games, ever more so as I grow older and my reflexes worse :-) I also loved the economical simulation that used to very popular during the 1980's here in Germany. (I've spend hour after hour playing "Kaiser" with my friend on his Commodore 64). So I'm thinking of writing a turn-based strategy / economy game with a historical setting. Leaning towards middle-age / Vikings but I also thought of giving it a feudal Japan setting or have you play as Gorbatchev trying to rescue the crumbling Soviet Union maybe. Still undecided, we'll see :-) As an IDE, I'm going to use CodeWarrior 4 Pro as my coding environment. I've downloaded it from the Mac Garden. It should do everything I want it to do (judging from the features) but has less bloat then later versions. If you're coding on a 200 Mhz System 7 machine, you don't want unneccessary bloat :-) Obviously I'll use ResEdit for working on the resource file and I've got Studio/1 for pixeling those 1-Bit graphics. Let's see how it fares, I'll post an update soon again.
Last Edit: September 14, 2021, 10:36 by Bolkonskij
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zChris
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16 MB  Posts: 20 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #2 on: March 21, 2022, 10:43
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Any updates to this? 
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023
Reply #3 on: March 21, 2022, 13:23
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How good someone's asking! and welcome to our little forums!I've got a simplistic version running (largely without assets), stuff like the toolbox inits, event loop and such is implemented. I can already "play" a simplistic version. But I recently spent more time "fighting" with Code Warrior and the docs than actual coding. I sure hope that I can pick this up again very soon!
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