Volume Number: 13 (1997)
Issue Number: 2
Column Tag: Uniform Resource Locators

Uniform Resource Locators

By Nicholas C. "nick.c" DeMello

If you're interested in touring the online world of Macintosh game programming, to get started I recommend pulling in to Sean M. McDowell's Bitstop. Sean's Mac Game Programmers' Bitstop provides links to the latest news and some of the most essential sites for Mac game programming.

Mac Game Programmer Bitstop

http://www.undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca/~smmcdowe/Bitstop.html

Does your program use animation? If so, you probably know about Tony Myle's SpriteWorld, one of the most prominent Macintosh freeware libraries for generating sprite animation's. However, you might not have heard about SpriteWorld 2.0. This is the latest major release of SpriteWorld brought to us by Karl Bunker KarlBunker@aol.com and Vern Jensen Vern_Jensen@lamg.com. SpriteWorld 2.0 introduces new routines that allow you to scroll a large background across your window without having to create a huge GWorld. Imagine what your about box could look like if you made use of Nintendo quality scrolling backgrounds

Version 2.0 also introduces new "tiling" routines, which allow you to layer sprites so that a closer one passes in front of another sprite. With this release, SpriteWorld even has it's own web site (I'm proud to tell you I was visitor #00000009.) Check out the SpriteWorld pages for documentation, to download the libraries and source code, or just to check out some very impressive demos.

Sprite World 2.0 Pages

http://users.aol.com/spritewld2/

The best resource a starting programmer can have is a good book. Two of the most popular reference books for Macintosh game programmers are Black Art of Macintosh Game Programming and Tricks of the Mac Game Programming Gurus. To help folks get an idea of what each of these books has to offer the publishers have put brief descriptions of the books online.

Matthew Xavier Mora is just beginning to build the "comp.sys.mac.games. programming.book" pages - an HTML format book that will act as a tutorial for Macintosh game programming. A more complete "HIT" format Mac game programming FAQ maintained by Joshua Grass is called the Macintosh Game Programming Workshop.

Comp.sys.mac.games.programmer is the usenet forum dedicated to Macintosh game programming, and the place to look for the comp.sys.mac.programmer.games FAQ - maintained by Kyle Ellrott. Rec.games.programmer and comp.graphics.algorithms are also useful resources, and folks can subscribe to Apple's Macintosh Games Developer mailing list by sending email to <listproc@solutions.apple.com> with "SUBSCRIBE mac-games-dev <your name>" in the body.

Black Art of Macintosh Game Programming Page

http://www.mcp.com/waite/waite/books.new/Black_Art_Mac_Game_Program/html/bamgpcov.html

Tricks of the Mac Game Programming Gurus Page

http://www.mcp.com/hayden/mac_game-gurus/

Comp.sys.mac.games.programming.book

http://www.best.com/~mxmora/c.s.m.g.p.b.0.html

Macintosh Game Programming Workshop

http://anytime.cs.umass.edu/~jgrass/MGPW/index.html

Some will tell you that the Mac can be all things to all people - including a Nintendo system for those of us addicted to Mortal Kombat. If you doubt them, check out John Stiles Macintosh emulators page. John lists twenty five platforms that can be emulated with a Macintosh - everything from an Atari 2600 to a ZX Spectrum. Each of these links takes you to a summary page describing what emulation programs are available, listing important information, and providing links to related sites. For example, the Apple II page begins with a link to an Apple II emulation FAQ; it compares the features and stability of two Apple IIe emulators; provides links for downloading 68k and PPC versions of Apple II+, Apple IIe, and Apple IIgs emulators; and wraps up with links to Apple II software archives.

It is comforting to know that our favorite platform can generate a working environment for testing Magic Cap utilities, a playground for enjoying our favorite Game Boy programs, or even a shell for using TI-81 or HP48 calculator packages. However, it can also provide us with a link to the past, allowing us to remember our first experience with a TRS-80, Commodore 64, or an ancient environment called "Windows."

Macintosh Emulators Page

http://www.cs.csubak.edu/~jstiles/emulator/