I would like to mess around with building a very simple naval warfare simulation somewhat like “Harpoon” was back in the day. For starters all I really want to be able to do is have a 2D graphics area to show the ships/planes and land/water, some controls to act on them, and an area to display text output. I’m pretty new to this stuff, can I do this with just Swing or should I use AWT?
Thanks for any input and pointers on good tutorials to check out.
Chris
I’m about as “new” as you probably are, but my expectations are pretty similar ( I love XCom and Master of Orion style and are working the skills to go retro in those directions ).
I have been reading Killer Game Programming in Java ( search here or Amazon for links ) and it seems a good basis for starting that would work with the scope you’re after. Starting w/ 1.4.2 ( and better in Java 1.5 ) Java2D can take advantge of some hardware acceleration ( there are some gotchas you’ll read about later ) which means you can use Swing as well.
Of course, if I’m a bit off-base I’m sure someone with more experience will correct me…which will actually save me some headaches down the road anyway! 
And nice to see you’re not after making an MMOG in 21 days as your first project!!! That’s refreshing around here… 
Interested to work on: http://www.java-gaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=12406.0.
It’s a harpoon-like game I started, but got bored of it … It’s a FULL version! The graphics are just bad … and there is always more that can be added!
Thanks for the replies. I’m going to try to pick up a used copy of that book for sure. And that game looks a lot like what I’m after creating, but I want to understand how to do just the basic parts for now, thanks though!
Was that game done with Swing or AWT? I think what I’m asking in a way is how customizable are the Swing controls appearance?
Thanks again.
Chris
Swing!
Very cool 
That is really good looking, kingaschi. I may have to fire some messages off to you now and then with questions. ;D