hey folks!
here’s my submission for the contest… its a lander-style game, in which you have to rescue guys whilst balancing fuel/health.
http://www.harebrainedgames.co.uk/java4k/CaveRescue/
any feedback appreciated - also, if anyone is running on Mac it’d be great to hear whether this works ok for you.
Cheers 
Hey,
doesn’t work for me 
Here is the Exception I get:
Laden: Klasse T nicht gefunden
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: T
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.findClass(AppletClassLoader.java:211)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:307)
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadClass(AppletClassLoader.java:144)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:248)
at sun.applet.AppletClassLoader.loadCode(AppletClassLoader.java:662)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.createApplet(AppletPanel.java:785)
at sun.plugin.AppletViewer.createApplet(AppletViewer.java:2354)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.runLoader(AppletPanel.java:714)
at sun.applet.AppletPanel.run(AppletPanel.java:368)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:680)
I’m running on Mac OS X 10.6 Java 6 Safari.
I got pretty much the same problem when trying to play Double Dragon 4K, so maybe he knows how to fix it by now 
Interesting that Creativ gets that error on Mac, because I just get terrible FPS (as I do on almost every other 4k game this year). There was a bad update to applets on Mac since last year which causes certain types of rendering to be slow as all hell.
At some point I promise I will figure out what’s broken and what isn’t post that somewhere.
I can’t pick up the last two guys on level 2 for some reason. I run passed them, but they don’t pick up like the others.
Great game. I got blown up on level 2 on my first attempt. Has that one-more-go appeal
A small amount of fine tuning would make it even better. The controls are pretty sensitive, and I have to keep ‘pecking’ at thrust as otherwise I bounce rapidly all over the screen. Might be worth checking this is not dependent on machine speed. Also I keep pressing Down for thrust as I tend to think of the direction of thrust. That might just be personal preference though.
Alan
that’ll be because you’re already carrying 4 guys (the blue blips at bottom-right of the screen)…
you’ll need to return to the top of the level to empty your cargo, then go back for the others 
Doesn’t work for me with IcedTea* / Firefox / Linux, Konqueror / Linux, or appletviewer (same IcedTea). I think the problem is that your server is responding to a request for /java4k/CaveRescue/T-pro-k.jar with a 404 when it should send T-pro-k.pack.gz with a Content-Encoding header. This whole issue of configuring servers correctly for pack.gz is one which has caused many of us headaches**. It’s probably simplest for you just to put up the jar for the time being, so you can get feedback on the game.
Thanks, I’ve uploaded the non-pack200 jar file & hopefully this’ll fix the non-loading error… shame about the Mac framerate issue
Yeah I agree the controls are pretty twitchy… but with practice it gets easier! I’ll see if I can tweak them a little
Nice Idea and Good Graphics.
I would go with Alan_W, the controls are way to hard to control here, maybe my hardware is too fast ;D
But other than that, it runs real smooth.
Even the “Explosion” 8)
Very cool game.
But I agree that the controls are a bit too sensitive, even if it’s kinda fun to rush through the cavern like a bunny after eating a basket of chili peppers.
I would like to have a stronger indicator that you have to drop of the guys at the surface.
For instance, if you try to pick of someone and the ship is full, display the text “Ship is full”
Otherwise it’s a cool game, i love the old lander/gravity force feeling to it.
That looks awesome so far! It has great physics.
@toasten&Pit: thanks the framerate is locked to 60, and is defo h/w independent - so I guess that’s just the twitchy nature of the controls… I’ve dampened them down a little, but find the softly-softly application of the boost kinda central to the gameplay (8-bit ‘Thrust’ was a big influence!)
@bysse: cheers - yeah, the only indication of cargo & capacity are the grey/blue blips at the bottom right of the screen… Some help text would have been great, but sadly I’m right out of budget now!
@fruitmaze: thankyou! Its using verlet integration for the player & enemies; for the cavern walls I’ve calculated a vectorfield bitmap which repulses the entities’ verts… wanted to do lots more to showcase teh physics, but ran right outta space! oh well
ps. right, that’s me all submitted… I changed the name to “CaveFighter” since it sounded a bit more snappy… i’ve had a lot of fun with this, and with playing everyone else’s games too! ;D
I think the new controls are much better
How many levels are there? Or is it a secret? 
Physics are awesome, great work
+1
Ditto here on my mac.
Pretty cool!
It’s taking me some time to get used to the controls. The angular momentum of the spinning has caused some problems, in particular. I think I’m going up but the spinning continues and turns me back down again. Got rather frustrated before figuring out what was going on. Am wondering, maybe the maximum spin speed could be lower, or the spinning momentum subject to more dampening?
It took me a while to figure out I had to click IN THE GAME itself before the keyboard controls would work. Is there a way to program around that? Is this a generally known Applet issue, pertaining to focus or something like that?
It took me a while to figure out I could only carry four men, and the first time I went to the “surface” I couldn’t tell if I had successfully reached it or not, and didn’t notice that the four had been off-loaded! Kept banging into the ceiling asking WTF! Maybe more a comment on my intelligence than on the game design. :-\ (Maybe have a more explicit mothership or docking graphic to aim for?)
I’m not clear on when my shots are effective or not. Is it a simple count that has to be achieved to kill an enemy? Does a shot have to land on the enemy guards when they are in a specific state? I noticed there is a slight color shift in the middle section, but don’t know if it is decorative or functional.
Definitely has that “try it just one more time” quality. Best score so far was getting up to level 5, on about a dozen tries. Amazing what one can do in under 4K, truly.
use: Component.requestFocusInWindow();
I think the new controls are much better
Cool, thx for the positive feedback
How many levels are there? Or is it a secret?
Heh, I’m afraid that there is no ending to the game… I’ve tweaked the random generation for the first 10 levels, but after that they continue to be generated randomly. After level 10 the depth of the caverns remains at 10 screens however, to stop things getting too ridiculous! If you complete level 10+ then you can consider yourself pro
It took me a while to figure out I could only carry four men
Maybe have a more explicit mothership or docking graphic to aim for
Yeah I agree… but unfortunately I’ve squeezed the bytecode down to the best of my ability, and cannot fit anything more in :-\
I’m not clear on when my shots are effective or not. Is it a simple count that has to be achieved to kill an enemy?
Does a shot have to land on the enemy guards when they are in a specific state?
I noticed there is a slight color shift in the middle section, but don’t know if it is decorative or functional.
All enemies will die with 4 or 5 hits (I can’t remember how many offhand), and the slight color change is just there to signify when an enemy has noticed you - its a basic radius check.
use: Component.requestFocusInWindow();
Cool, thanks for that Riven… I will be sure to use that for next year’s entry! ( and also hopefully find a workaround for the Mac issue >:( )
James