This post was written on my new iPad with the WordPress app. I am the very happy owner of a 16GB iPad since last week and I like it VERY much! We are on holiday in the UK cruising around with the MINI Clubman and ofcourse I took the iPad with me. Until now we have had free WiFi in every hotel and it is really great to be able to check my email, browse my favourite websites, reading the news, watch a RTL TV program or writing a blog post…
Yes it is true! With the new DragonFireSDK you can develop iPhone games in Visual Studio with C++.
The SDK is very simple and easy to learn and there are some great examples. The iPhone simulator is great and even features emulation of the accelerometer.
The DragonFireSDK is the reason why I have been busy the last weeks on coding my very own iPhone game ‘World Topo’.
World Topo is an educational game to learn topography of the world. You have to guide your plane to famous places and capitals of the world. Your aim is to unlock all 3 levels and fly as far you can before you run out of fuel…
“We invite you to use your Silverlight skills and imagination to design attractive, educative and informative Silverlight-based applications that help support and promote any kind of environment-friendly activities…”
My entry for the SilverlightShow EcoContest is the game OXYGENE inspired by the iPhone game Blowfish. In OXYGENE you fight against the CO2 pollution by creating oxygene (O2) bubbles to overwhelm the CO2 particles.
You can play and vote for my entry here
Silverlight Circle Twist was inspired by the cool game AlphaBetiC on my iPod Touch and the old Bros demos Circle Twist I and Circle Twist II on the Commodore 64.
Try typing your own text by clicking on the circles and then use backspace to remove the current text!
Reload the page for some different color patterns from COLOURlovers
And ofcourse you can download the code and play with it yourself. Have fun!
Today I have submitted my entry for the MIX 10K Smart Coding Challenge. I think this competition is so cool and it is very challenging to build something nice in only 10K.
This year I have made an animation that is very much inspired by the demo scene.
Because the Commodore 64 still is my all time favourite computer I have added a funky SID tune ‘Unsophisticated’ by Thomas Manske (Peace). This tune is downloaded on the fly from the Stone Oakvalley’s Authentic SID Collection (SOASC=) where they have converted (almost) all SID tunes ever made to MP3.
To save up Kb’s the characters used in the animation are all in the Webdings font that is pretty much standard on Windows but I don’t know if it will also work on Mac OS. Please let me know if not!
Here is a small demo with source code of a Silverlight Snow Storm with sticky snow.
The application displays a maximum of 1500 snow flake controls. When the maximum is reached the old snow flakes melt and are reused.
I am using Andy Beaulieu’s Improved HitTest method (again) to test if the snow flakes hit the text (converted to path).
TouchTyper is great fun and learns users how to use Touch and Handwriting Recognition in Windows 7. TouchTyper provides Rich Animation using the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).
Goal
The goal of the game is to write the letters of the scrolling words with your finger, stylus or mouse before they reach the laser.
How it works
If a letter is recognized the ‘Touch Scanner’ will turn green and the letter dissapears. If not the light will turn red. If a word reaches the laser the letters will explode and you will lose your energy. The game is over when you run out of energy.
Technical information
The game is compatible with 32 bit Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 and uses the Handwriting Recognizer.
For Windows XP you have to have the Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 Recognizer Pack installed.
In Windows Vista and Windows 7 you may have to activate handwriting recognition for the desired language.
The game uses a dutch word dictionary but I have also provided english words in the installation folder (default C:\Program Files\John Bruin\TouchTyper). Simply rename words_en.xml to words.xml.
Screen shots
Download
You can download the installation package for TouchTyper here: TouchTyper.msi
Back in the 80′s I really liked to watch Tros Wondere Wereld presented by Chriet Titulaer. Tros Wondere Wereld was a dutch TV program about new technology and gadgets. It really makes me happy to watch it again after so many years on YouTube.
