Game writers portal?

**Matt_T_hat** · Dec 7th, 2001, 09:22 PM

There seems to be a massive amount of not quite repition in questions relating mainly to BITBLT.

There also seems to be not just a few people writting articals on much the same subjects.

Given my skills in web site stuff still far outstrips my VB knowledge whos "UP" for putting togeather a web site on the subject??

idea: to contain idiots guide to BITBLT and say a whole buncha stuff on makeing games and good/bad aproaches and all the example code you could ever want

Not to mention a link (or two) to all the articals that are getting written.

perhaps it could act as a portal for such sites. (that's a well easy thing to do).

Sastraxi I know you have a site with some stuff I have found at least interesting (thanx m8)

so - thoughts?

**Sastraxi** · Dec 7th, 2001, 10:59 PM

Only that one article, but I plan to write more. Right now (as I said before) it's at http://vbden.tripod.com/articles/

But...

Eventually I will have my Star Axis (anagram for Sastraxi) Productions website at http://sastraxi.crystal-rain.com/

Zaei · Dec 8th, 2001, 12:59 PM

Someone attempted this a while back, but it never took off (probably because they were never here =). Go for it. At some point in the near future, I will be writing a series of tutorials on Direct3D8.

Z.

**Sastraxi** · Dec 8th, 2001, 01:13 PM

Yeah, I believe it was Jamie (plenderj).

**Jotaf98** · Dec 9th, 2001, 01:39 PM

Talking about VB gaming forums, what happened to The Nexus?

http://www.thenexus.bc.ca/

**Sastraxi** · Dec 9th, 2001, 03:04 PM

I've been wondering that meself lately.

Maybe it went under...? Not enough money to keep the site going maybe?

**Jotaf98** · Dec 9th, 2001, 03:39 PM

No, they'd probably tell us about it... Btw thanks for the Christmas hat (look at my avatar)

**Sastraxi** · Dec 9th, 2001, 03:55 PM

I could custom make one for you, it'd look better!

**Sastraxi** · Dec 9th, 2001, 04:00 PM

Get the one in my signature (it's actually a 256-colour bitmap).

**Jotaf98** · Dec 9th, 2001, 04:22 PM

Thanks hehe

Hum, if it's not asking too much... can you draw that on top of my avatar (any frame will do, I'll convert it to the other ones

)? Please?

**Matt_T_hat** · Dec 9th, 2001, 09:41 PM

*Under whelmed*

Ok bomb this thread with your links and I'll add them to MAD.DEN (see my sig).

If there is a bit more response I'll convert that section later.

If there is suddenly more input *feels doubtfull* then maybe I'll go for it big time.

Any one want to join me on this project, solowebbing is rather dull.

thanx for the input (small) and chit chat (largely irrelivant)

sorry to be neg just got flamed at KoR cos I had (HORROR OF HORRORS) some fresh ideas.

**Jotaf98** · Dec 11th, 2001, 07:13 PM

Well, that's an excellent idea... but there are many other sites like that, like the black hole and the nexus (online again) so it wouldn't cause that much impact

**Jotaf98** · Dec 12th, 2001, 09:43 AM

Thanks

I'll do the same with the other frames now

**Matt_T_hat** · Dec 15th, 2001, 07:01 AM

so should I, like, not bother do you think??

Or shall I have a go (on my tod it seams)???

indecision, inDcision.....

Behemoth · Dec 15th, 2001, 08:12 AM

If you're serious and want to put the effort in, make a start. After a while people will join you and start to contribute (if you're lucky

).

I'd help, but I have no programming expertise whatsoever. I might be able to help when it comes to graphics though.

My first piece of advice is to start a thread in the communications/projects forum. Get to know the member that are involved with games and graphics projects and try to persuade them to help. With a bit of work, it should start off nicely.

Good luck.

**Sastraxi** · Dec 15th, 2001, 11:35 AM

Once I finish my new

BitBlt tutorial, I'll give you the link. It will leave out nothing.

Behemoth · Dec 17th, 2001, 08:17 AM

I assume you've given up with this then, Matt? Its a shame cos theres so much information around here if only you're prepared to pull it all together.

Good luck if you change your mind and make a start...

**Matt_T_hat** · Dec 18th, 2001, 06:24 AM

Okay dokay then. I will begin work on the main layout and start the HTML just after crimbo.

Some graphical content could be very helpfull.

Thanks for the words of support.

see you there!!

Behemoth · Dec 18th, 2001, 07:17 AM

why do I feel like Ive just walked into something...

**Matt_T_hat** · Dec 18th, 2001, 07:35 AM

Dude! - I can-ney tell if that's good bad or indifferent.

Hath thou any articals or sites that this new portal can link to??

**Jotaf98** · Dec 18th, 2001, 07:42 AM

I'll gladly help with some contents and stuff, but I can't promise anything ok?

**Matt_T_hat** · Dec 19th, 2001, 10:17 AM

THANKS

vshammas · Dec 21st, 2001, 06:49 AM

Go for it, it's hard to find good resources on vb online. keep up the good work all...

**Matt_T_hat** · Dec 21st, 2001, 05:09 PM

UPDATE:

BETA version is almost ready to go.

Just need to reach at least 10 sizeable links.

**Matt_T_hat** · Dec 21st, 2001, 06:23 PM

Erm hate to be thinck but what's the URL for this nexus and Black Hole web sites??

60% of the way to haveing the basic version up and running.

**Jotaf98** · Dec 23rd, 2001, 05:52 PM

http://blackhole.thenexus.bc.ca/
http://www.thenexus.bc.ca/

**Matt_T_hat** · Dec 23rd, 2001, 06:54 PM

Thanx,

I've started following links and haveing a damn good look around.

Phew - glad to take a break.

Glad also that a portal is just what is needed to tie the whole lot togeather.

What do you recon to the idea of providing "artical hosting"?

**Jotaf98** · Dec 23rd, 2001, 07:00 PM

It's a good idea, but you shouldn't open that section until you have all the basic tutorials and some other good ones

**Matt_T_hat** · Dec 27th, 2001, 07:14 PM

Ok sounds reasonable.

I hope to have the basic form of the protal running before 20th Jan.

With any luck It may be up before new year but dont count on it I've been rather ill of late.

**MoMad** · Dec 29th, 2001, 07:25 PM

Hey Matt, Try finding out some of the "hidden" sites out there on your own, goto a search engine and search, follow links and so on... and just collect a whole bunch of links, relevent or non-relevant, then put them all together...

Search engines: (www. name .com)

Google
Yahoo
DirectHit
Altavista
Lycos
About
MetaCrawler
Webcrawler
HotBot
msn
Search

Game sites:

Gamasutra
GameDev.net
GameAI

and more, i dont have the time, gotta go, bye.

**MoMad** · Dec 29th, 2001, 07:26 PM

Oh ****, almost forgot:

http://www.2dgame.nl/

Its on C++ Game developement, but very very very useful

**Matt_T_hat** · Dec 30th, 2001, 07:41 AM

Thanx, that'll help a lot as anything upto 75% of links I have found on even highly recomended sites like the nexus are dead ends or in some other really anoying way useless.

clearly a lot of sites were once "out there" but now they seem to be "up there" where all sites go to die.

ho hum... In better news I now have around 20 decent sites ready to be indexed.

**MoMad** · Dec 30th, 2001, 04:50 PM

Allright, Im just glad to be of any help, because I did once make an auto-indexer which goes through a page and finds every reference and back-reference and then try's to rate each page according to those

It was in PHP and mySql. If you need hosting for that, I can help you (by hosting it on my site) but im not sure exactly how much bandwidth I have because im just on my unix server which is on a T1 Line but its never gave problems before so we'll see.

**MoMad** · Dec 30th, 2001, 04:53 PM

Daaaaang, I just visited mad.den and realized it was completely static!! Are you out of your mind?? You cannot have a "top" anything page that is static unless you have "30 monkeys on a computer" updating all of the links on an hourly rate

But anyways, let me know if you havent yet gotten anything started or what...

**Matt_T_hat** · Jan 2nd, 2002, 01:30 PM

Thanx for the offer of help, I seriusly appriciate it.

I'm currently useing a PICOSEARCH free account and... well it does the job I guess...

As for MAD.DEN Aaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh it's been nothing but a headache since it's conseption. If you can help me get that thing to work properly with out me needing to do the job of ten monkeys you will be my personal HTML hero.

The whole project kinda died after the first round of reviews - I have a gigaton of CGI that would do wonders for me if only I wasn't on a Microsoft server useing a free account aimed at ASP.NET etc. The only up side is the compleate absence of adverts.

I have the ideas do the donkey work and then -duh- the technical stuff gets too much for me. I appreaciate your honesty tho'

**MoMad** · Jan 2nd, 2002, 04:00 PM

Well, here's what Im thinking:

Some form of Database (sql, access, mysql, cf, etc)
Some form of server-side scripting (asp, php, perl, cgi, etc)
Some form of "add" feature to allow users to add to the db
Some form of "vote" for ratings, and also a counter
A NON-FREE server.... all I can say is, Free servers suck big time!

Is there anything that I have missed here?

I can help you with #1 - 4, but #5 you're on your own... (wait, i might be able to help with that also; I have PHP+mySql server). I have a ratings module in PHP that I created a while back, which basically does the following:

you insert this tag into your link:

<img src="rate.php?id=123" alt="Rate">

And it shows you a picture that has your current rating and a counter that shows how many times that image has been downloaded, eg #1 or #99 if the rating is greater than a certain amount eg 99, it will not show your score, but instead just the counter.

Say for example you have:

Code:

  [  the pic        ]
  [      #16  (125) ]

Where 16 is the rating, and 125 is the hit count...

But anyways, there are MANY, MANY, MANY different sollutions out there for you to explore... let me know what you are thinking here ok?

**numtel** · Jan 3rd, 2002, 08:53 AM

I support you completely, If you got a lot of help I think anything is possible

**MoMad** · Jan 3rd, 2002, 04:42 PM

Good, thx

**Matt_T_hat** · Jan 7th, 2002, 07:41 PM

Hey guys thanks a lot. I'm really glad to get some constructive input for a change.

On the subject of MAD.DEN I've started a community over at MSN to get peeps togeather to discuss what to do with the thing and where to go next.

I'm currently on the best free host avalable and have ziro adds and ASP and .NET support. Unfortunatly I have a big fat ziro of a chance to use them coz I don't understand the first thing about them other than you can do cool stuff with 'em.

For the time being the Portal is on a bravenet free host coz it is easy to use and free. That gives me space to test stuff out.

The index is unfortunatly a free picosearch account due to my lack of relivent PHP/ASP skill. Am hopeing to find someone with some ASP / .net background and then move to BRINKSTER.

Brinkster has the added advantage of not being blocked at college so I can use the connection there when I don't want to do any progect work.

For what it's worth the cack looking outer shell is located at http://gamewriter.bravepages.com

Believe me it looks rubbish.

I'm going to take some advice and russle up some more support.

**Matt_T_hat** · Jan 7th, 2002, 08:42 PM

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.p...hreadid=132322

for all those who want to get behind this idea and help out in any way they can.

Or if you just have an idea!

-Matt

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