Need advice on my Major Project

Newbie & Debugging Questions
#1

Hi everyone, I would like your professional and sagely advice on my current situation regarding about my major project.

I have been tasked by my supervisor in my polytechnic to produce applets for a Philips Streamium device.

Naturally I want to code video game applets.

I have a period of 8 weeks left to my project judgement and I am concentrating much on my applet development.

Therefore I humbly seek your wisdom, what kind of video game applets should i develop during this short period of time ? Simple ones like pong and space invaders ?

Is it advisable as a student in my position now to look at the source codes of such applets and attempt to code my applets in the same fashion or code it with modifications ?

I will look forward to your answer and your professional advice.

#2

KISS… Keep It Simple Stupid. As with all things education, your supervisor is (probably) more interested in the process than the technological prowess of your applet. Make documentation and design your primary focus. Better to have a good space invaders, with correct documentation and design than a lousy 4D-MMORPGFPS.

There is some good advice in this thread: http://192.18.37.44/forums/index.php?topic=9820.0

Good luck with your endeavor.

#3

If this is your first game, I agree think simple and and basic. A classic game like Pac man or Asteroids makes a good first game projtect.

But I to say anything mreo repcise I need to knwo a lot more abotu thsi device you are programming? What kind of horsepower and VM does it have? What kind of Java is it? (J2ME CLDC, J2ME CDC, J2SE, if J2ME what profiles(s)?) I’ve seen “JavaTV” set top boxes that coudl abrely manage to pump 3 frames a second running Pac Man. If its oen of these you better be thinling about board or card games…

#4

I use JDK 1.1.8 to program my applets.

Also, I use the Personal Java Emulation Enviroment 3.0.2 software to see if my applet is compatible with a Phillips Streamium device. Its this entertainment device for specific phillips branded televisions.

I have tried to program a 2D platform game but ran into some complications,

So I am concentrating on simple arcade games.

#5

I might be misquoting here, but I think if you wanna do a tile based platformer with sidescrolling, you’re in for a treat. I don’t know if the device you are using is fast enough, but for sure, you need to dynamically load the tiles into renderspace. I believe it was the technique John Carmack used to do sidescrolling on the Commander Keen series, which has evermore been used in sidescrollers. If you’re thinking about a slower paced kind of game, like a small RPG or such, or maybe tic tac toe, then you’re in the clear with slow rendering.

#6

I have tried to program the 2D platform game, but due to some problems i have encountered with the applet methods not being compatible with JDK 1.1.8, I gave up the project. It can run on JRE but i need to produce an applet that can run perfectly on PJEE 3.0.2

I’ve already produced a Pong applet for the PJEE 3.0.2 environment so I’m moving on to another arcade game called BreakOut.