Shmup in Ascii Art

thyseus · Post by **thyseus** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 3:54 pm

Hello.

I am programming an Ascii Art shmup. I am Programming in Python using the ncurses library.

I already got a nice start, you have 3 lives, a scoring system, asteroids to dodge and enemy ships (that dont shoot at the moment).

the source has only about 180 lines of code, so it is still a very small game.

is anybody interested in sharing any ideas? i think an ascii shmup has many potential but at the moment i just cant realize any bullet paterns because you only have 24x80 pixel available.

if anybody like to see the program please contact me via icq 38541423, email thyseus@gmx.net or in this forum, thanks!

Post by **Ghegs** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 4:10 pm

You might be interested to know that a shmup using ascii graphics already exists, called Vax11. Screenshots here, download here. We have a high-score thread for it, too.

Maybe you can get some inspiration from it.

mrMagenta · Post by **mrMagenta** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 8:39 pm

Vax 11 is cool. but i'm sure you can come up with ways to extend upon it. using ASCII gfx ought to be a good way to focus on the core gameplay.

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 5:55 pm

vax11 isn't an ascii shmup, it's just a normal shmup with ascii-style sprites.

to be a true ascii shmup, it must use text mode.

Post by **Ghegs** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 6:01 pm

zaphod wrote:vax11 isn't an asci shmup, it's just a normal shmup with ascii-style sprites.

I know, hence I said it was "a shmup using ascii graphics", though I suppose I should've phrased it better to avoid confusion. Still, he may get some good ideas from it.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 7:11 pm

There is no makefile in the source package. Anyone know how to compile this under Cygwin?

thyseus · Post by **thyseus** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 8:35 pm

technically speaking, it is much harder to implement nice shoot patterns when you only have 24x80 pixels available! I am programming "hardcore" on the console, using the ncurses library.

today i added a primitive highscore board and tried to implement the first shoot pattern (only a straight line aiming at the player)

perhaps i will get the code more structured (object-oriented?) and i release a pre-version of this game.

at the moment it only runs under python 2.4/linux; i still have problems setting the keyboard repeat rate (at the moment it only works using xset; but thats nothing worth when playing under windows or unter a real terminal).

if anybody has technical experience with the console it would be nice if we could speak about some problems i have in detail.... thanx

btw. vax11 is nice, already got a nice score perhaps i post my score soon