Missile command game, no bugs, please provide feedback

[Maximum_defiant]

hey,
i fixed my game for vb, you can download it at
my home page ( exe included)
planet source code (no exe, requires vb)

the game has 21 levels of increasing difficulty, bombers, stealth planes (please tell me if it's too stealth or not stealthy enough). powerups. and please comment on if the game is too difficult or too hard. the game gets really fun at higher levels, levels 15-21

the game file on homestead does not require vb, it has it's own exe file, while the one on planet source code does not.
i'd like some feed back to perfect my game, i've already spent half my life writing this.

btw, one minor known issue is that for those of you who use 2k/nt OS cannot have their cursors changed back to their original because i don't have 2k and unless someone provides me with a registry path for the cursors, there's nothing i can do, sorry.

[PsychoMark]

Didn't download your code, but:

Registry path for the cursors? What are you doing with the cursor? As far as I know, every application can have their own cursor. Even ShowCursor can be different for each process, I don't see any reason why you would need to change the global cursor...

[Maximum_defiant]

animated cursors

[PsychoMark]

http://vbaccelerator.com/codelib/gfx/anicur.htm ?


Even better, since it's a game, why don't you just hide the cursor and draw your own?

[Maximum_defiant]

Originally posted by PsychoMark
http://vbaccelerator.com/codelib/gfx/anicur.htm ?


Even better, since it's a game, why don't you just hide the cursor and draw your own?

thanks, but i'd rather not change my cursor display codes. besides the cursor restore thing for NT 2k thing is minor, the core of the game is finished and polished, i just need to tweak the settings to make it a good game.

[PsychoMark]

I wouldn't call the cursor changing permanently a minor bug, it's a major problem. If any of my games would do that, I would not change to 9x/ME, I would just get rid of the game.


Btw, could you post the part which changes the cursor? Maybe you can get the current cursor another way and restore it anyways...

[Maximum_defiant]

Originally posted by PsychoMark
I wouldn't call the cursor changing permanently a minor bug, it's a major problem. If any of my games would do that, I would not change to 9x/ME, I would just get rid of the game.


Btw, could you post the part which changes the cursor? Maybe you can get the current cursor another way and restore it anyways...

it's not a major anything, it's not even a bug, it's a "lacking feature" it's not major because the original cursor is restored if you restart. this is because it reads the cursor path of the registry when windows starts and i'm not altering the registry.
anyways, if here's the api call that i used

' api
Public Declare Function LoadCursorFromFile Lib "user32" Alias "LoadCursorFromFileA" _
(ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long
Public Declare Function SetSystemCursor Lib "user32" (ByVal HCur As Long, ByVal id As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function GetCursor Lib "user32" () As Long
Public Declare Function CopyIcon Lib "user32" (ByVal HCur As Long) As Long
Public Const OCR_Normal = 32512


'code
LngNewCursor = LoadCursorFromFile(cursor_path ) SetSystemCursor LngNewCursor, OCR_Normal ' set the animated cursor for normal mouse pointer


i got it from places like vbsquare (article ). there is a way to restore to the last cursor used by copying the cursor graphics. HOWEVER. the way they did on that tutorial is very bad, since it copies the current cursor picture, if you start the game and your cursor is displaying the "waiting cursor" then it will copy that instead of acutal "arrow cursor" (normal cursor)

[PsychoMark]

Hello, Missile Command helpdesk, how may we help you? What? Yes, you have to restart your computer every time you run the game. No, that's not a bug, it's a lacking feature.... *tuuuut*




Ok, sorry about the sarcasm .


I thought there was an easy way to work around this other than drawing the cursor yourself (which is still my favourite way for games ), and it is quite easy in fact, just not if you're using VB.

It involves calling SetCursor() with your own cursor, capturing the WM_SETCURSOR message sent to your form and stop further processing of the message by returning true, this will set the cursor for your game only. Not only will that solve the problem with closing the application, it will also prevent your cursor from being displayed when a user alt-tabs out of your game or when the user moves the cursor out of the window if your game isn't fullscreen.

The link to vbAccelerator I gave uses a similar technique, probably wrapped in a nice class as with most of their code.

[Maximum_defiant]

Originally posted by PsychoMark
Hello, Missile Command helpdesk, how may we help you? What? Yes, you have to restart your computer every time you run the game. No, that's not a bug, it's a lacking feature.... *tuuuut*




Ok, sorry about the sarcasm .

i wish i had tech support
well, i kind of do, if you downloaded the game, take a look in the help files / trouble shooting, i wrote that part based on microsoft's trouble shooting
with the cursor thing, i still don't see how it's such a big problem, the cursor in the game isn't that bad of a cursor ( i made it), it's better than the plain white arrow that most people still uses as default. anyways, i'll look into that SETCURSOR thing. thanks.