The first post!

Well, I had to start somewhere!

Welcome to my Arcadia blog.  At the time of this post, the theme I installed is still untouched, so if you've ended up here and wondered what all those crazy default menus are about...  Sorry, I'll get on to those asap!  (Mind you, by the time you read this its likely I will have updated a few things)

Arcadia is a space where I want to share some of my own personal tips, thoughts and historical memories about a little of everything related to (mostly retro) gaming development.  That may be snippets of old-school programming mentality, or it may be a look back at a classic game from my past, or links to interesting articles.

As well as that, its also a space for documenting the process and production as I work my way through the development of my own personal gaming projects. Right now, I'm developing (proof-of-concepting at least) a game - a sort of arcade arcade game (double-arcade...  now that sounds like double the fun! lol!).

For now I'll refer it as 'myCade' (not a final title, but I have to give it something, right?)

"myCade" - Ancient Influences

My main inspiration for this game (once I start blogging about it) was an old Apple ][ game called Spare Change, released by Broderbund Software back in 1983.

Nothing says more retro then classic green screen!

In the game, you filled up machines with tokens, and then would collect them back out of the machines...  There were two characters (Zerks) in the arcade who would run around and steal the tokens and place them into a piggy bank.

Your goal was to collect the tokens to get to the next level.  Of course, as you collected tokens, the machines would run out and you'd have to refill them.  If the other characters managed to fill their piggy bank, the game was over.  You could distract them for a short while by placing a token into a phone (one of them would pick up the phone and have a conversation), jukebox (they'd go and dance about) and later a popcorn machine.

You would eventually collect all the tokens from machines, and need to go to the till to collect more to load up the machines.  Problem is, the till only has a finite amount of tokens in the till, and you would occasionally need to go to the safe to fill up the till again.

There was only so many tokens that the machines would take before they were out of service.  When that happens, you'd lose the tokens you placed in and its one less machine that is active.

When you think about it, it does seem a somewhat odd game idea, but the cartoon antics of the Zerks (you'd get to see a variety of different Zerk Show's - short animated sequences - as you completed levels), plus the challenge of collecting as many tokens as you could before they bet you was quite addictive.  You know its a good game if the memories of it stick with you for 35+ years.

No - I'm not out to create a modern version of the game, just one inspired by its arcade theme.

myCade as I've mentioned is just a working title for now.  I'll post up more about the actual game in a later post once I get something completed and ready to talk about. For now, I'll just keep it under wraps (ahem, well, until I actually have something to show ;-) )

The Nerd factor...

My goal at this stage is to prototype using Python and pygame.  I'm a pretty old-school programmer - my roots set in the 80's where you invented and wrote your own games - before the booming industry it is today.  It was a different world back then, and I like the feeling of just coding the whole thing from scratch rather then use a game development tool that takes away the nerdy fun.

Well, that and to be honest I just love toying in Python for my 3D work as well as punching out the odd retro game just for kicks...  Though I will eventually take that prototype across to a more mobile platform. No escaping the modern world forever...

As mentioned, Arcadia is also a space where I will post up some snippets and tips - there's definitely a few things as I code that I'm sure may be of interest to others...

Anyway, enough waffle for now.  My day job as a 3D animation and VFX tutor has picked up again (a whole new class for the year) so life will be busier which may make this a slow blog, but lets see where the year takes us.  Until the next post...

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