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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT size=2><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>From:</STRONG>
jjb [mailto:realnug@gmail.com] <BR><B>Sent:</B> 03 July 2010
13:59<BR></FONT><SPAN class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT size=2><SPAN class=901012108-06072010><SPAN
class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff>></FONT></SPAN> </SPAN></FONT>I recently bought my 9 year
old son this book <A
href="http://www.amazon.com/Game-Makers-Apprentice-Development-Beginners/dp/1590596153/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278161293&sr=8-1">The
Game Maker's Apprentice</A> and he is working his way through it at the
<SPAN class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>></FONT></SPAN>moment.</DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>></FONT></SPAN>It comes with software enabling users to easily create
2D games with all the bells and whistles (lives, health, levels, <SPAN
class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>></FONT></SPAN>explosions) and supplies</DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>></FONT></SPAN>lots of resources (images and sounds) for sprites etc.
For most of the book users learn to create games by instancing built-in <SPAN
class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>></FONT></SPAN>objects</DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>></FONT></SPAN>and altering their attributes and behaviour. Only later
in the book is coding introduced to enable users to extend beyond <SPAN
class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>></FONT></SPAN>what's provided.</DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>></FONT></SPAN>I think it's a wonderful but imagine if the language
that was introduced was object pascal!</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff></FONT><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff></FONT><SPAN class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>></FONT></SPAN><BR></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>></FONT></SPAN>I would be grateful for any information.<SPAN
class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2> </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=901012108-06072010></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Now
here's a curious thing.. this is based around GameMaker, which was written
in Delphi in the late 90's and early 2000s, and the dev for it (Mark Overmars)
has occasionally been seen here, as I recall. GML (the game maker language) is a
cross between Object Pascal and C, unless it's been changed in the last few
years you can type fairly std Pascal in :-) It also allows C/C++ conventions,
and so in some ways is a good way for your son to learn just about event driven
programming.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I
recent years they moved to a C++ backend for the runtime, I think they were
intending to target the mac (I'm not sure they were happy with FPC/LCL at the
time to provide what they wanted), but looking at the YoYo games site
(the current owners of GM) I can't see any reference to mac now. I followed
GM from about version 3.5->5, it's a good program.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>If you
want to know more about writing games using Object Pascal, <A
href="http://delphigamedev.com/"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>http://delphigamedev.com/</FONT></A> used to be alright (haven't
looked at the content for a few years now), and there are a couple of others
dotted around.[e.g. <A href="http://www.afterwarp.net/"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>http://www.afterwarp.net/</FONT></A>
<A href="http://www.delphigamer.com/main.php"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>http://www.delphigamer.com/main.php</FONT></A> <A
href="http://delphi.about.com/od/gameprogramming/Game_Programming.htm"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"
size=3>http://delphi.about.com/od/gameprogramming/Game_Programming.htm</FONT></A> ]
Before you ask, no I'm not a games developer, but there are things within games
that interest me, certain algorithms, etc. I write Digital Signal Processing
software as a hobby, and there can be common ground between the two
disciplines.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=901012108-06072010><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>ATB,
Duncan</FONT></SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>