BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

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romfis
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BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by romfis »

Hiya all.

Is BZFlag possible on iPhone and iPod Touch?
It is another BZFlag not compatible this BZFlag Version but new BZFlag in "2D Touch BZFlag" for iPhone and iPod Touch.

Is this a idea?
Play vs WLan (iPhone vs iPhone or with iPod) and Internet or Robots.

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Winny
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Post by Winny »

Been asked before for the iPod/iPhone, and other platforms.

http://my.bzflag.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=12211
http://my.bzflag.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=12466

In other topics too, but I can't find them.
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Post by JeffM »

anything is possible, if someone writes it.
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romfis
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Post by romfis »

JeffM wrote:anything is possible, if someone writes it.
Right! :D
But i cant writes, i have not mac or software for this and not programmierer :(
But i can help with donate for this app! :P
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Post by JeffM »

Sadly it would take much much more then just donation. What you are talking about is simply a new game that is inspired by bzflag written for the iPhone platform. I would start by finding a set of developers who would seriously take on this project, and then work with them to get a set of design goals together to work out what you want to do and how to work with the benefits of the platform.
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Post by romfis »

Hehe i found yesterday this app on iTunes App Store that Crazy Tanks, is for iPod Touch and iPhone. :D

Screenshot: Image
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yE2_5TR4LI

On this Game is not Jump and the Bot is dead at 3 shoots. Is with more Levels that game. Price is normaly 0,99 Euro i have Discount price (special offer) with 0,79 Euro buy.

This game is similar as BZFlag.
Sorry for my English.

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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by zaphod »

really nice game!!! had lots of fun playing it !!!!
replaces BFZlag on the go ::: but not the real deal!!!

well i'm not a programmer but with great pleasure and willingness i would like to get involved graphic vise to get BZFlag on the iPhone!
count on me!
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by allejo »

as jeff said this topic has been discussed before. but any way. if bzflag would go to an iphone and ipod touch how would u read the chat? how would u jump? how would u shoot? besides i think bzflag needs a keyboard. even though i would love to see this game on an iphone and ipod touch it just wont happen. besides u would go blind if u stare at that tiny screen to read the chat ;)
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by ducktape »

Ha You Got Shot By Me wrote:as jeff said this topic has been discussed before. but any way. if bzflag would go to an iphone and ipod touch how would u read the chat? how would u jump? how would u shoot? besides i think bzflag needs a keyboard. even though i would love to see this game on an iphone and ipod touch it just wont happen. besides u would go blind if u stare at that tiny screen to read the chat ;)
As jeff also said, Anything is possible someone just has to want it. The gameplay and chatbox are far from the hardest part. I could see it being playable. Just coding it is the hard part. And you never know, this could happen.
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by ashvala »

I can probably help in the design part of the iPhone edition
nahh
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by Ride »

I remember when legolas was either on his iPhone or ipod touch using I think bzadmin, it was pretty neat, especially as I write this from my I touch, it would be interesting to see.
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by ducktape »

Ride wrote:I remember when legolas was either on his iPhone or ipod touch using I think bzadmin, it was pretty neat, especially as I write this from my I touch, it would be interesting to see.
Pretty sure he was ssh'ing to his pc.
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by Branton »

I can't imagine that it would be hard to program it ( assuming you are an experienced IPhone programmer). The hard part is already done -- Algorthms, graphics, and network interface. Just needs to be ported, with some Iphone specific implementations. I guess the hardest part is finding time to implement it.
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by zaphod »

and to distribute it ::: i guess it needs to go over iTunes to share among us (on "official" iPhones)!
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by JeffM »

Branton
It isn't. Most of the code for bzflag would not work on the iPhone, that is the problem. It is not the same as a full blown mac.

You would have to write a new game using the smaller feature set of the phone, and it's limited hardware. You would also need to find a way to remap all the input. The phone has no keyboard. In the end it would not be very fun to play the full bzflag game on the phone, so you'd end up designing a simple game just for the phone that was inspired by bzflag.
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by romfis »

Yes, that ist right Jeff. Smaller is better, teams and shoot vs robbot is sure that running on iPhone, or iPhone vs iPhone with G3 or Wifi, and the grafik (texture) can be 2D or 3D. Or see example the game "Crazy Tanks". Tank-Control is moving handy position (with jump?).
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by BuBu »

What about htc g1,android platform
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by blast »

BuBu wrote:What about htc g1,android platform
What about it? It's pretty much in the same situation as the iPhone.
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by z[h]ero »

BuBu wrote:What about htc g1,android platform
The other big difference between those two plattforms is the programming language.
Android => Java
iPhone => Objective C
On the other hand, as the BZFlag developers are massively C++ oriented, Obective C would attract more developers.
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by F687/s »

> The other big difference between those two plattforms is the programming
> language.
> Android => Java
> iPhone => Objective C


Um, from what I know about programming, Objective-C is way different than C++. Objective-C is a pure superset of C that adds OOP implementation. C++ is also a (slightly-less) pure superset of C that adds OOP, and the two aren't really interchangable. In fact, Java is more similar to the C++ way than Objective-C (which is allegedly Smalltalk-ish) is. The reason why the iPhone uses Objective-C is because that is Apple's programming language of choice for everything, which makes a smooth transition for the current Apple devs out there.

> On the other hand, as the
> BZFlag developers are massively C++ oriented, Obective C would attract
> more developers.


From the way this post is going, the BZFlag developers are massively "I don't really want to go through the headache of porting a game to a phone" oriented.
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by tobylane »

In the same way you ported to PPC for Mac (as opposed to intel which is similar to what you had for Windows), ARM for Mac iPhone isn't much more work as a completely new thing.
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by JeffM »

umm, tobylane, I'm not sure how much you know about programing, but the PPC to mac port for bzflag was simply a recompile, the computers support the same stuff.

the problem with the iPhone is, that the phone platform doesn't support the same kind of APIs as a full desktop PC, not the CPU it runs under.
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by romfis »

Hiya i have a better example... :D

Vector Tanks
by Peter Hirschberg
Availability : Worldwide
Released : 16.02.2009

Available For :
iPhone, v1.0 | €2.38

Summary :
Vector Tanks -- you are in command of a futuristic tank amid a surreal 3 dimensional battlefield.

Description :
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".. the most enjoyable retro offering to be found in the App Store. Great fun..." - Blake Patterson, TouchArcade.com Founder
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Vector Tanks -- you are in command of a futuristic tank amid a surreal 3 dimensional battlefield.

Enemy tanks are everywhere. Survival seems impossible! The best you can hope for is to take out as many enemy targets as you can before you are destroyed.

Retro gamers and fans of early arcade games will appreciate this classic video game battle of machine against machine - rendered in hyper-retro 3D vector style graphics and entertaining physics modeling.

Vector Tanks Features :

* Enemies - 3D Tanks, Jeeps and mines
* Incredible physics - even flying shrapnel can take out other tanks
* Mind blowing particle system - watch the debris and shrapnel interact with the environment
* Superb iPhone specific landscape play - place a thumb on each side of the screen to control your tank
* Power-ups including rapid fire, shield and the nuke option!
* Out of this world explosions
* Unreal attention to sound detail - wear your headphones for the ultimate 80's arcade experience
* Many more features coming soon!
* In-game language automatically set to English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian or German

Vector Tanks is developed by Peter Hirschberg and published by Chillingo Ltd

YouTube:
http://www.clickgamer.com/moreinfo.htm? ... ion=IPHONE

Pics:
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by joevano »

That is a knock-off (copy/remake) of the old arcade game that BZFlag was inspired by. That one was all vector graphics and EVERYTHING was green, none of this red color stuff...
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Re: BZFlag on iPhone and iPod Touch

Post by russ14n »

I still think that the coding for the ipod would not be too difficult..... i have a bit of experience with C++ and after looking at objectiveC they are relatively similar. Whereas the controls, jumping, shooting, moving, etc. wouldnt be too hard to plan out either. The jump could be a two-finger tap, shooting obviously a single tap, moving just sliding, etc.
As for the keyboard, chat problem, i dont think it wud be really required on the iphone. People could play with bots, PvP, and with millions of others online over WiFi, we could have servers up and running constantly over WiFi as well as other people just starting their own server......
I really believe we should put further thought into this.............................
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