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Damian WalkerPersonal Web PagesNewsen-gbCopyright (C) Damian Walker 2026Showcase Content Management SystemProgress on Barren Planet and the Wargame Library
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Sat, 26 Sep 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.211 I've made quite a lot of progress on the wargame library since I last posted about it. The four basic modules are complete and tested: unit types, terrain, individual ...CGALIB is available on GitHub
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Wed, 23 Sep 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.205 This week, CGALIB has been uploaded to GitHub . GitHub is one of the principal sites for developers to make their source code available for inspection and adaptation by ...Planning the Generic Wargame Library
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Sat, 19 Sep 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.199 While working on the generic wargame library I'll be using for Barren Planet: a New DOS Project , I got to thinking about the limitations of the old wargame ...Evolution of my Wargame System
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Wed, 16 Sep 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.200 In my Barren Planet: a New DOS Project blog post I mentioned how I was going to develop an old system into a new game. Starting on this project ...Barren Planet: a New DOS Project
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Sat, 12 Sep 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.197 October will bring an interesting event: the DOS Games Fall Jam 2020 . It's a month-long event, which is plenty of time to develop a game - it's how ...Ossuary Source Code Available
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Sat, 05 Sep 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.196 The source code to Ossuary for DOS is now available. It has been tidied up and put on GitHub . So if you want to see how the game ...Ossuary: The End Game
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Wed, 02 Sep 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.194 As you appropach Ossuary 's end game, things become a lot more difficult, and the ways of dealing with them depend upon the type of character you are playing. ...CGA: So Why All the Cyan and Magenta?
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Sat, 29 Aug 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.185 Part 5 of a blog series on CGA palettes.
Since the 1990s I've known about some of the possibilities that the CGA graphics card offers, and looked with ...Ossuary: Becoming a Bad-Ass Dual-Wielding Barbarian
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Wed, 26 Aug 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.192 One of the most fun combinations of stats in Ossuary is an average attack strength and a high defence skill. This will always be offset by a lack of ...Some Background on CGA
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Sat, 22 Aug 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.184 Part 4 of a blog series about CGA Palettes.
Black is a very useful colour, and artists don't give it up lightly. But CGA can give you some ...Ossuary: the Role of Magic
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Wed, 19 Aug 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.190 As an intelligent hero trying to make a living using magic, it's easy to feel hard done by down in the Ossuary . After the dagger, you see swords ...Updated Astrowar PBEM Game Available
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Mon, 17 Aug 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.195 I've updated the source code to Astrowar , my play-by-email space conquest game from 1996. Last touched in around 2000, the ravages of time hadn't been kind to Astrowar. ...CGA Graphics: Not All Cyan and Magenta!
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Sat, 15 Aug 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.181 Part 3 of a blog series on CGA palettes.
Reading the original BASIC manuals for my first PC, I found out what CGA claimed that it could do ...Ossuary: Your First Descent
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Wed, 12 Aug 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.189 Some games encourage you to go into them with an attitude like "I wanna be a WIZARD !" and let you choose what you are. Ossuary isn't like that. ...Ossuary: a New Game for DOS!
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Sun, 09 Aug 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.186 Today sees the release of a new retro-game for DOS. Ossuary is a dungeon crawler originally released on the ZX Spectrum platform in Spring 2013. Over Summer 2020 it ...What Can CGA Do?
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Sat, 08 Aug 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.180 Part 2 of a blog series on CGA palettes.
Today I want to give a broad outline of what the CGA card is capable of, particularly for gaming. ...My Journey into CGA Graphics
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Sat, 01 Aug 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.178 Part 1 of a blog series on CGA palettes.
One aspect of computing that has been fading from the collective consciousness is that of CGA graphics. Gamers of ...CGALIB and Composite Monitors
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Mon, 13 Jul 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.171 Many old games intended for the North American market supported CGA composite mode. This uses the colour artefacts generated by NTSC televisions and monitors to show more colours than ...More on CGALIB
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Sun, 05 Jul 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.170 After playing the Droids game a few times, I've noticed a little bug that affects the Personal C Compiler version. The randomiser doesn't seem to work, so you and ...A New Graphics Library - With a New Game!
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Sat, 04 Jul 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.167 I've been doing quite a bit of DOS development work over the past few weeks, not all of it directed in an organised fashion. I've done a bit of ...Ossuary Port for DOS
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Mon, 29 Jun 2020 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.169 Over the past week I've been working on a port of my old ZX Spectrum game Ossuary to DOS. It's aimed at an 8088-based PC with CGA graphics. I've ...Euclidean Distance Subroutine
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Tue, 15 Oct 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.156 I found another interesting text-based game from the 1960s or 1970s called Snark. This is one of a trio of games that run on a 10x10 grid, the others ...Can the Wumpus Program be Simplified?
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Sun, 13 Oct 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.155 Hunt the Wumpus was the first example program I developed for Tiny BASIC, and is still probably the most entertaining of all the samples. It suits the language very ...Compilation, Bug Squashing & a Treasure Trove of Games
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Sat, 12 Oct 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.153 Development of the Tiny BASIC compiler has been that much of a whirlwind affair that I forgot about blogging over the past couple of weeks. The code generation proved ...BASIC Compilation Approaches!
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Sat, 21 Sep 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.152 I put together a to-do list for Tiny BASIC, and for the past few weeks I've been ticking off various refactoring tasks that I wanted to get out of ...Tiny BASIC Road Block Cleared
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Sat, 14 Sep 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.149 It's been a while since I posted about the Tiny BASIC Interpreter and Compiler project. After I finished writing Intergalactic Space Rescue, I returned to the compiler itself and ...Intergalactic Space Rescue in Tiny BASIC
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Fri, 30 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.147 As I predicted, I've got severely distracted now that the Tiny BASIC interpreter is working. I decided to see if I could port my old game Intergalactic Space Rescue ...Tiny BASIC: Interpreter Largely Completed
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Tue, 27 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.146 A long holiday weekend, made longer for me because of health issues, means I've made a lot of progress on the Tiny BASIC Interpreter and Compiler project. After parsing ...Back to BASIC Games with Hammurabi
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Sat, 24 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.145 Having spent quite a bit of time on the Tiny BASIC implementation and its manual, I'm starting to miss writing the little games that it will eventually compile. I've ...More Progress on Expressions
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Fri, 23 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.144 With the Great Refactoring out of the way, and with setting up a github repository for the project, I've been able to make some more concrete progress. Before all ...Giving in to git
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Thu, 22 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.143 I gave up on using Dropbox for synchronising my Tiny BASIC project. It works really well for keeping files synced between my Intel-based Linux machines, so I can sit ...Writing the Tiny BASIC Manual
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Wed, 21 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.142 Lots of people have documented Tiny BASIC already, and in various forms. But if I eventually want to publish my own version, I want it to have its own ...Tiny BASIC: The Great Refactoring
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Sun, 18 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.140 With further work on Tiny BASIC I managed to get the parser to recognise simple LET statements in the form:
LET X=5
It doesn't properly understand expressions ...An Improved Random Number Generator
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Sat, 17 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.139 I don't know where I went wrong, but my attempt to adapt the random number generator I found ended up as complete nonsense. Once my expression was simplified, I ...I Love Finite State Machines!
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Fri, 16 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.137 I learned about Finite State Machines over twenty years ago and was captivated by them. I've used them in all kinds of projects, from game logic to more serious ...Debugging the Tiny BASIC Games
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Thu, 15 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.136 I finally got around to downloading an existing Tiny BASIC interpreter. Tom Pittman rewrote his Tiny BASIC interpreter in C for 21st century enthusiasts. This single C source file ...Adventures in AWK: a Tiny BASIC Conversion Script
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Wed, 14 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.134 I've finally found the time to settle down and re-learn AWK . After getting fed up of manually numbering the lines of my Tiny BASIC programs, I decided it ...And Another Tiny BASIC Game: Mugwump
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Tue, 13 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.133 As I said when I implemented Hunt the Hurkle , it would be trivial to convert it to play the game of Mugwump too. The only difference between the ...Syntax Highlighting for Tiny BASIC
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Mon, 12 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.131 I spent quite a bit of time preparing a GTKSourceView language definition file for Tiny BASIC. It's not perfect, but it recognises all the core commands, comments, output strings ...Hunt the Hurkle: Another Tiny BASIC game
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Sun, 11 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.130 It looks like I jumped in at the deep end with Hunt the Wumpus . Simple as it is, when I chose it as a sub-project I hadn't realised ...Progress on Wumpus!
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Sat, 10 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.129 Over the past few days I've managed to complete my Hunt the Wumpus implementation in Tiny BASIC. Programming in Tiny BASIC for me feels like running a marathon or ...My Tiny BASIC Implementation
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Fri, 09 Aug 2019 18:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.127 I've fleshed out some of the details of my Tiny BASIC implementation plan. Although I want to stick to the original specification, with no arrays, string handling, functions or ...Hunt the Wumpus in Tiny BASIC
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Thu, 08 Aug 2019 08:34:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.124 Since I started researching Tiny BASIC, I have found that program examples aren't as plentiful as I'd hoped. Most of the examples I have found use one of the ...How Many Years? An Update
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Thu, 01 Aug 2019 09:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.123 The last time I wrote a blog entry on my compiler project must have been a few years ago. I've worked on it on and off over that time. ...Starship Travel
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Mon, 27 Nov 2017 09:00:00 +0000damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.122 Yesterday I wrote about how ships will be designed in Star Governor. Today's post is more about how they'll work. At the time of writing, I haven't decided which ...Starships in Star Governor
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Sun, 26 Nov 2017 09:00:00 +0000damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.121 I've almost settled on a ship design system for Star Governor. I say almost, as I have an alternative path I could go down. So I'll describe both systems. ...Resource Stockpiles: Planet or System Based?
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Thu, 23 Nov 2017 09:00:00 +0000damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.119 After my progress on game map and planet generation, I started to hit the kind of road block that shows I need to do more planning. A few issues ...Scientific Advancement in Star Governor
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Thu, 16 Nov 2017 09:00:00 +0000damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.118 Most 4X games I've played have a model of scientific advancement that reveals discoveries in discrete steps. Either they have a technology tree where specific abilities become available at ...Orders, Reports and Play-by-mail
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Wed, 15 Nov 2017 09:00:00 +0000damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.117 There are two types of "turn-based" game mechanism that I know of. One allows each player in the course of their turn to move, build, attack or whatever else ...Brought to you by the numbers 3 and 7...
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Tue, 14 Nov 2017 09:00:00 +0000damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.116 In my last half dozen games or so, I've developed a habit for conforming my games to certain numbers. Somehow it just feels neater to me. Barbarians has twelve ...A Problem Easily Solved
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Mon, 13 Nov 2017 09:00:00 +0000damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.114 At the time of writing yesterday's post on my space game project, I had a problem with the DOS executable. Sometimes it would freeze. Sometimes it would more helpfully ...Planets in the Space Conquest Game
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Sun, 12 Nov 2017 09:00:00 +0000damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.113 Here are some more details of the space conquest game I'm planning, centred on another mock-up screen that I've created. This is the star system screen, which follows on ...A Game of Space Conquest
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Sat, 11 Nov 2017 09:00:00 +0000damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.111 Since I want to blog about my DOS game development, it makes sense that I should tell you what it is, otherwise future posts might all get a bit ...8088 DOS Emulation under Linux?
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Sun, 05 Nov 2017 18:00:00 +0000damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.108 This weekend, I wanted to test a program I'd compiled, to make sure it actually works on an 8086 machine. The documentation for the compiler I'm using doesn't make ...Trying Out C Compilers Again
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Sat, 04 Nov 2017 11:33:00 +0000damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.109 Over the past week I've picked up an old DOS game project I started over a year ago. This one will probably break the 64k limit for the Personal C ...Program Syntax
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Thu, 24 Nov 2016 19:31:00 +0000damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.107 I haven't yet settled on a name for my programming language, but I know what its programs will look like. I learned to program in BASIC, and I'm most ...More Adventures with Personal C
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Sat, 18 Jun 2016 16:54:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.105 In the past week I've been playing with the Personal C Compiler a lot more, particularly on the Hewlett Packard 100LX. It's surprising how quickly programs are compiled on ...Some Adventures with Personal C
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Sat, 11 Jun 2016 15:16:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.104 Since installing a couple of C compilers onto a CF card on my 100LX, I've been playing more with Personal C. It creates smaller executables than Turbo C does, ...The Search for a C Compiler
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Sat, 04 Jun 2016 14:52:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.103 I've spent more time playing with the HP 100LX I bought last September. For a while I've had a CF disk full of strategy games, but more recently I've added ...A New Virtual Server to Play With
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Tue, 05 Apr 2016 07:45:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.100 After a couple of weekends with significant down time on my web sites, I decided to move hosts. Until now I've been happily using very cheap shared hosting from ...Some Linux Projects
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Tue, 09 Feb 2016 18:28:00 +0000damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.93 My laptop and desktop computers are all running Linux . I don't do much Linux-specific programming now, but some decades ago I enjoyed programming in C. I recently dug ...A New Retro Computer on the Way
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Fri, 11 Sep 2015 17:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.102 Today I ordered a computer I've been wanting for a long time. I saw a Hewlett-Packard 100LX on eBay for a reasonable price, and have a bit of cash ...An Invisible ImageView Peculiarity
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Fri, 26 Jun 2015 07:21:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.67 This morning I had a little bit of difficulty with a custom ImageView on a new project. The image wasn't being displayed at all. In fact, putting "Toast" messages ...Unrecognised Device in Linux
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Sat, 20 Jun 2015 10:38:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.65 I've been doing Android development almost exclusively on my laptop till now. That's because Android Studio on my desktop computer didn't recognise the Sony Xperia I'm using to test ...Indentation in Android Studio
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Thu, 18 Jun 2015 11:17:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.63 Since I last blogged, I made a lot of progress with just about no real road blocks. I'm implementing an Android implementation of Steve Meyers' excellent BoxOff puzzle as ...Untangling Java classes, or Not
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Sat, 30 May 2015 07:02:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.61 Since I'm at the stage where I can start thinking about developing an actual game, I decided to tidy up my decade-old board game applet code for inclusion in ...Scaling Part II: the Game Begins
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Wed, 27 May 2015 06:37:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.59 The next step of my development learning curve is to learn to manipulate images. In particular, I want to take a board graphic and put pieces on it. I'm ...Scaling with Aspect Ratio
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Thu, 21 May 2015 05:59:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.56 I was very pleased with having built my first functional app, which shows one image and allows the user to select a menu option to change it for another. ...A Breakthrough!
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Wed, 20 May 2015 06:17:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.58 As a first step towards writing a board game app, I wanted to display an empty game board on the screen. This can be done very easily in Android, ...CGA Palettes
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Sun, 08 Feb 2015 15:17:00 +0000damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.52 As part of my retro-computing hobby, I've been playing with colour palettes on an ancient computer. In this case, it's an old-fashioned PC with 4-colour CGA graphics. You might ...A Hnefatafl Game
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Fri, 04 Oct 2013 12:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.41 Birka was a Viking trading settlement on the island of Björkö in Sweden. It's famous for its archaeological riches. A huge cemetery was excavated which yielded a wealth of ...A Greek Temple
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Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.40 After playing with imaginary Saxon churches for practice, I started to work on another project: an ancient Greek temple. I based my model on the temple at Paestum in ...First Steps in Architecture
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Mon, 08 Oct 2012 12:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.31 For a brief time I was addicted to Minecraft. I'd use the game to build little mediaeval houses and towns, classic temples, windmills and other things: its "creative mode" ...The Little Tanks
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Mon, 28 May 2012 12:00:00 +0100damian.cyningstan.org.uk.post.16 In 2011 I started writing a new game for the Psion Series 3 handheld computer. This was a simple strategy game set in the future, played out with a ...