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![<div class='d-flex align-items-center'><img class='media-img mr-2' src='https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png'><div class='d-flex flex-column justify-content-between align-items-start' <h4 class='text-white'>johnhattan</h4><div><i class='fas fa-heart mr-1'></i>2354</div><div>Joined June 15, 1999</div></div></div> Profile](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Southlake, TX
Imparting game development wisdom of dubious quality a ridiculously long time.
![Ooooh, bump maps](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Played Doom 3 today.
Actually I just watched another guy play it.
Lemme back up. About a month ago I ordered two new machines for CivilGrrl --fully loaded Dell 3.6 Ghz machines with 1 gig of memory and Serial ATA drives and RAID controllers and ridiculously overpowered PCI-express graphics cards. She…
Actually I just watched another guy play it.
Lemme back up. About a month ago I ordered two new machines for CivilGrrl --fully loaded Dell 3.6 Ghz machines with 1 gig of memory and Serial ATA drives and RAID controllers and ridiculously overpowered PCI-express graphics cards. She…
![The Hacktins Diet](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Throwing together the Java Project That Cannot Be Named following making a dozen small Flash games, I gave some thought to my development process. I gave the process even more thought upon seeing my client's development setup, which consists of networks of CVS servers and WIKI's and XML and build-s…
![EH?](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Went to Sam's Discount Warehouse Club yesterday to pick up some necessaries. Knowing they had some trouble with the credit card companies, I asked the checkout ladies what credit cards they accepted. Here's the well-rehearsed "party line". . .
We accept Discover Card, along with debit cards and, of …
![More J2ME goodness](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
The Java Project That Cannot Be Named is essentially complete now, save for sound.
Had a conversation with the "technical leaders" today musing about some cute extras I could work into the program. At first they wondered why I was talking about such frivolous bits so early in the project. Far as I'm…
Had a conversation with the "technical leaders" today musing about some cute extras I could work into the program. At first they wondered why I was talking about such frivolous bits so early in the project. Far as I'm…
![Progress](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
The Java Project That Cannot Be Named is going swimmingly (and that's the second time I've used that adjective this week, esoteric cuss that I am). They were hoping for "first playable" (i.e. you can start to interact with the game) to be ready around the second week of August, but I hit that miles…
![Fourth (or is it fifth) time's the charm](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Got another contract on the house. Looks like this one's gonna go through. It's set to close in two weeks, so we'll see.
HOMEBUYING HINT: YOU CAN CHANGE THINGS!!!
Upon talking to the realtor, I don't know how many times I heard that people passed up the house because it didn't have a carport or the c…
HOMEBUYING HINT: YOU CAN CHANGE THINGS!!!
Upon talking to the realtor, I don't know how many times I heard that people passed up the house because it didn't have a carport or the c…
![The best laid plans (huh huh, I said "laid")](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Week one at work is complete, and things are working out. I've been developing the project on a laptop from home with plans to have worked on the game over the weekend. And of course, it didn't happen. Spent most of the weekend doing leisure-type things and replacing yet another ceiling fan.
Finishe…
Finishe…
![Good day and welcome to day five](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Day five of The J2ME Project That's Name Cannot Be Spoken (no, really, I signed the NDA yesterday). It's gotta run on a Nokia S30-series phone, which has a mind-numbing 32k of available heap. The code is based on a game that's already completed, so I've at least got the advantage of learning from o…
![I'm a J2ME kinda guy](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
First off, big thanks to that guy who made that J2ME book that I reviewed a few weeks back. It's getting a lot of use here around the. . .job (it's still difficult to say).
Yep, I'm writing a game for a cellphone. Should be fun. Not a huge challenge, but a lot of stuff I haven't used before. Hopeful…
Yep, I'm writing a game for a cellphone. Should be fun. Not a huge challenge, but a lot of stuff I haven't used before. Hopeful…
![I got a job](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
No, really.
I got a job.
That sounds so weird.
After 8+ years of blissful zenlike existence in the magical fairy-world of felicitous unemployment, I made the dumbass mistake of getting talked into a game-project.
It just sounded. . .so. . .interesting, so I accepted it.
It's only for a month, so I'm hop…
I got a job.
That sounds so weird.
After 8+ years of blissful zenlike existence in the magical fairy-world of felicitous unemployment, I made the dumbass mistake of getting talked into a game-project.
It just sounded. . .so. . .interesting, so I accepted it.
It's only for a month, so I'm hop…
![The book queue revisited](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Okay, I finished reviewing the two monster 800-page phonebooks known as Game Programming All In One and 3D Game Programming All In One, thus clearing a few pounds from my book-queue.
Publishers, though, follow The Law Of Conservation Of Pages To Be Reviewed, which states that the number of pages tha…
Publishers, though, follow The Law Of Conservation Of Pages To Be Reviewed, which states that the number of pages tha…
![The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out. . .](http://members.gamedev.net/johnhattan/diary/worm.png)
Well, "Worm Sojourn" (formerly WhirlyWorm, formerly Nano, formerly John's-shameless-knockoff-of-TANS's-JetLag-game) is pretty-much done. I'll add an internet high-score table once the PHP high score table stuff is working. Until then, here's a pic.
It's cute and fun to play like TANS's original. It …
It's cute and fun to play like TANS's original. It …
![Worms of the world, unite!](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Finally got back to doing my Jetlag knockoff in Flash. I started it a few months ago, but got busy working on other stuff. Wondering on what other projects I could start, I remembered that I started that project and got stuff moving but didn't finish it.
Playing around with the graphics a bit, I cha…
Playing around with the graphics a bit, I cha…
![The import happened](http://www.thecodezone.com/diary/images/bb_pocketpc.jpg)
Looks like the import happened mostly without a hitch. Unfortunately, it looks like the December 1998 entries got promoted to December 2004, which is why I've got nothing for 12/98 and a few invisible entries for 12/04.
At least I think that's what happened. I went through and fixed all the picture …
At least I think that's what happened. I went through and fixed all the picture …
![Review controversy (oooh, controversy)](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Well, not really controversial. Maybe. We'll see.
I just finished reading Harbour's Game Programming All In One and posted a review here.
While the review itself isn't all that controversial, this is the first book from Jonathan Harbour that I reviewed since PocketPC Game Programming Using The Window…
I just finished reading Harbour's Game Programming All In One and posted a review here.
While the review itself isn't all that controversial, this is the first book from Jonathan Harbour that I reviewed since PocketPC Game Programming Using The Window…
![Importing existing diaries](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Well I just reformatted about 150 entries from my old developer diary into the XML format that I mentioned here, and the almighty Michael will likely be importing 'em when he's got a chance. If everything works as planned, there'll be entries for all of 1998, 1999, and the pre-June-15 2004 entries …
![Times they are a'changin'](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
I just read that Comdex is canceled this year.
That's pretty heavy. I remember going to Comdex around 1993 with a couple of other developer friends in an attempt to find some publishers for our stuff. Hotels were damn near impossible to find and the wait in cab-lines could go on for 30 minutes. Cab …
That's pretty heavy. I remember going to Comdex around 1993 with a couple of other developer friends in an attempt to find some publishers for our stuff. Hotels were damn near impossible to find and the wait in cab-lines could go on for 30 minutes. Cab …
![My book queues](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
My "books to be reviewed" queue is getting a tad thick. I'm gonna have to plow through these things. If there's one you particularly wanna see reviewed, lemme know and I'll move it to the front of the list.
Mathematics for Game Developers
Beginning C++ Game Programming
Shaders for Game Programmers and…
Mathematics for Game Developers
Beginning C++ Game Programming
Shaders for Game Programmers and…
![Brain Bones starts](http://www.thecodezone.com/diary/images/bb_pocketpc.png)
Made some good progress on Brain Bones in Flash. The scoreboard's working. Selecting and dragging is working.
The adorable little iPaq around the window was added by Flash when I chose a PocketPC project.
Should make a dandy little PC app too. I'll just size up the window a bit. I like the effect wit…
The adorable little iPaq around the window was added by Flash when I chose a PocketPC project.
Should make a dandy little PC app too. I'll just size up the window a bit. I like the effect wit…
![Rolling the bones](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Well Shelly and I finally upgraded our cheesy old cellphones for a shiny new pair of PocketPC-based phones. It basically looks like those new iPaq things, only it's also a phone. I bought 'em because they'll run Flash 6, and it'd be cool to get some of my games running on 'em. Shelly demanded that …
![Cool bit of Flash](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Just found this. If you liked that samorost game that I posted a few months ago, you'll like this one too. It's by the same guy, and it's got a similar "plot". It's not as long as the first game (only three screens versus six or seven for the previous), but the animation is better.
http://questforth…
http://questforth…
![How to move your blog](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Attention to any of you folks who've got blogs or journals elsewhere and are interested to moving 'em to gamedev hosting (like me).
The gamedev folks are working on an import functionality, and it's gonna be absurdly simple. It'll be an XML format, and it'll look like the following:
This is the text …
The gamedev folks are working on an import functionality, and it's gonna be absurdly simple. It'll be an XML format, and it'll look like the following:
This is the text …
![I am sorry in advance](http://www.thecodezone.com/diary/images/bees.png)
To misquote Butterfly McQueen in Gone With The Wind, 'The happiest days are the days that I get to develop games'.
And, given that Gone With The Wind predates the first computer game by about 25 years, that's about the most egregious misuse of a quote that can possibly happen.
I apologize for it. Rea…
And, given that Gone With The Wind predates the first computer game by about 25 years, that's about the most egregious misuse of a quote that can possibly happen.
I apologize for it. Rea…
![FreebieFest 2004](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Got a truly phenomenal freebie today.
This one's Expression, which is a vector-based draw program similar to Adobe Illustrator and the like. For a long time it was a commercial product offered by Creature House and was licensed by Metacreations back when they were an industry player. Creature House …
This one's Expression, which is a vector-based draw program similar to Adobe Illustrator and the like. For a long time it was a commercial product offered by Creature House and was licensed by Metacreations back when they were an industry player. Creature House …
![Netflix and Annoying Music](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Signed up for Netflix a couple of weeks ago. Did it for two reasons. We're no longer 150 feet from a Blockbuster Video, and I wanna watch movies that Blockbuster doesn't have without buying 'em. Rented Mutant Aliens (Plympton at his most graphic, you've gotta be a fan), Triplets of Bellville (a bit…
![Nuther good freebie](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Got a good freebie today. Actually it's a freebie that replaces another freebie, but since it's better than the original it's worth a look.
I like RealPlayer and the QuickTime Player because I occasionally need to look at Real or QuickTime content. I dislike RealPlayer and QuickTime player because t…
I like RealPlayer and the QuickTime Player because I occasionally need to look at Real or QuickTime content. I dislike RealPlayer and QuickTime player because t…
![Moved in](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
We're finally moved into the new digs full-time. We still own the old place, but all that's left are a couple of pickup truck loads of miscellaneous junk and some old furniture that's marked for donation. The new place is pretty-much painted except for some trim. The top floor (the office) is newly…
![One house too many](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Having two houses is one damn house too many.
When I'm not painting or dragging boxes of hardwood flooring up the stairs, I'm trying to keep the previous house in order, as people are still looking at it despite it having a buy-contract on it already. Both lawns look awful now.
On top of that, I'm ha…
When I'm not painting or dragging boxes of hardwood flooring up the stairs, I'm trying to keep the previous house in order, as people are still looking at it despite it having a buy-contract on it already. Both lawns look awful now.
On top of that, I'm ha…
![Hoo Boy](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
Hoo boy.
I've recently gotten a couple of emails from a guy in Iran. He's beaten Bulldozer 1 and wants me to send him bulldozer 2. Problem is, no online vendor will ship the games there, and they're not available on the shelves anywhere.
I gave him my standard 'Due to an agreement with my publisher, …
I've recently gotten a couple of emails from a guy in Iran. He's beaten Bulldozer 1 and wants me to send him bulldozer 2. Problem is, no online vendor will ship the games there, and they're not available on the shelves anywhere.
I gave him my standard 'Due to an agreement with my publisher, …
![House Hell Revisited](https://uploads.gamedev.net/profile/photo-15.png)
112 signatures and 56 initials later (we counted), we're owners of a new house in Southlake (see the 3/15 entry for pics).
And it wasn't as easy as it should've been. Turns out the existing owner was a complete creep, and he was half-hoping that we wouldn't qualify for the loan.
You see, the house ha…
And it wasn't as easy as it should've been. Turns out the existing owner was a complete creep, and he was half-hoping that we wouldn't qualify for the loan.
You see, the house ha…
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