Category: Programming

A Rare Update

A Rare Update

August 14, 2021 | By

I’m an artist now! There I said it, so it’s true! Who woulda thought it? Having spent almost my entire adult life so far, as a software engineer, I decided I needed a change. Actually, it’s not quite that cut and dry, and in fact my current artistic distraction began as a tech project. Essentially, […]

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The Pickup Artist

The Pickup Artist

May 13, 2020 | By | Add a Comment

After my lazy weekend working on the high score stuff, which I ultimately shit-canned trying to keep the game in scope, I got my head down to finish up the pick-ups and power-ups in the game. I’ve been working on in-game pick-ups the past couple of days. Pick-ups are bonus items like secondary weapons, power-ups, […]

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Building a High Score Web Service (Considerations)

Building a High Score Web Service (Considerations)

May 10, 2020 | By

As part of this new game, I’m planning on having a global high score system where players from anywhere can post their initials and have them displayed across all game instances, and on the game website. Technically, doing that is pretty straight forward. You have some code running on a web server that receives and […]

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Enemy Wave Daily Dev Update: Day #1

Enemy Wave Daily Dev Update: Day #1

May 9, 2020 | By | Add a Comment

Honestly, I didn’t get much done today. It’s Saturday and there are a ton of distractions all vying for my attention. I was supposed to be working on my high scores web service (which is mostly done), and the in-game UI and high score table functionality (which is NOT mostly done), but I ended up […]

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New Developer Blog (Enemy Wave)

New Developer Blog (Enemy Wave)

May 8, 2020 | By | Add a Comment

ENEMY WAVE DEVELOPER BLOG! Because the world needs another grumpy old game developer blogging about his game dev escapades, and because I happen to be developing a game right now, AND because I’m stuck in my house hiding from COVID-19, I’ve decided to do a dev blog. Hooray! Over the next few months, you can […]

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Pub Quest (C64) BASIC Listing

Pub Quest (C64) BASIC Listing

March 19, 2019 | By | Add a Comment

This is possibly the most boring post ever, but I wanted to preserve this silliness for posterity. This is the listing for the first commercially published game I ever made. It’s called “Pub Quest”, it’s 100% BASIC, and I wrote it in 1983. The game was published by a Dream Software based in Basingstoke. They […]

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WordPress Admin Dark Theme – Stylish

WordPress Admin Dark Theme – Stylish

June 5, 2017 | By | Add a Comment

Following on from my previous post about hacking the dark theme on VS 2017, I thought I’d share another useful trick for making the WordPress Admin Dashboard nice and dark and easy on the eyes. There are various addons for Chrome that will let you invert the screen (Deluminate), or modify a page’s CSS (Stylebot), […]

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Visual Studio 2017 High Contrast Theme Dark Registry Hack (Updated)

Visual Studio 2017 High Contrast Theme Dark Registry Hack (Updated)

May 31, 2017 | By | 7 Comments

I run a high contrast Windows theme because I have crappy eyesight. I also program for a living and use Microsoft Visual Studio. Visual Studio has a rather lovely “Dark” theme that suits my tired old eyes very well. Unfortunately, Microsoft won’t let me use their nice “Dark” theme, because someone at Microsoft thinks they […]

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The Only Thing That is Constant is Change.

The Only Thing That is Constant is Change.

September 25, 2016 | By | Add a Comment

I don’t update this site often, and I always get a kick out of reading the last few posts, sometimes years old, and having a laugh at my sincere naivety. It also makes me cringe a little, to read about stuff that just never panned out for one reason or another. Oh well, such is […]

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Batman Returns (Sega CD) 3D Driving Game Source Code

Batman Returns (Sega CD) 3D Driving Game Source Code

March 27, 2015 | By | Add a Comment

Hey gang! I finally found the source code to the Batman Returns project on Sega CD.  Yay!  I know I’ve been teasing you with the dead link on the archive page for so long, and I’m sorry.  The package is now live and ready to download for you delight and amusement. Please link to the […]

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