Lyon

[Commodore]

If it's a multiple world game, you're going to have to use more than one eventually. I imagined the interface more like you open and explore the zips like a folder from the load world dialogue window.

[Saxxon]

If it's a multiple world game, you're going to have to use more than one eventually. I imagined the interface more like you open and explore the zips like a folder from the load world dialogue window.

This is what I really want. But it would involve some creative hacking of the dialog window which I'm not terribly familiar with. Might need to do some research. Right now it just picks the first world in the ZIP. Which works great for single world games but fails on stuff like ESP where it loads up only file 4.

Edit: Holy hell that will be a lot of really stupid workarounds. I'm actually amazed what needs to be done to modify a simple file dialog. I'll come back to this in the future and instead just opt for a selection.

Edit 2: When loading ZIPs, all the other files in the archive will be loaded too. This means you can pack in HLP files, high scores, etc.. and the game will be able to access them.

[Commodore]

can you get the file names from the zip? maybe something like this?

[Saxxon]

Oh yeah. Right now what it does is it loads the archive, scans for anything that ends with a compatible extension (so far ZZT and SZT) and, if there are multiple worlds, presents it to you just like you've drawn. Except instead of a drop down it is a full listbox format so that fewer clicks are required.

Edit: Also, the TXT wouldn't normally be shown in the list. Only acceptable world files.

Edit 2: Putting source in this post so I can grab the newest at home.

[Commodore]

Lyon throws in some erroneous characters when opening external .hlp files.

[Saxxon]

I just ran a test to see how and when ZZT ignores 0x0A.

ZZT only seems to do this on external files. Just using 0x0D works fine for a newline but if 0x0A follows it will also ignore that (only once). I'll get this patched up.

[Saxxon]

Fixed up the help file display, you shouldn't see those weird boxes anymore.

Added ZIP archive support. When you load a ZIP, it will present you with a list of worlds contained in there if there are more than one. If there is only one, it will automatically load the world. All other files are loaded in case the ZZT world references them in some way (HLP files for example). Saving to ZIP is not supported yet (this may be a consideration in the future if I implement CRC32). Folder structure processing is nonexistant - Lyon ignores it.

I am wrapping up testing and will have a new release tonight.

[Saxxon]

As promised.

[Commodore]

I loaded this save game from SZZT in Lyon, and it starts the game with the player energized, where it is not so in SZZT.

Also the Quit Y/N? prompt for when you press esc would be nice. Maybe a shift esc could bypass it.

Edit, removing the side is looks cool! SZZT takes on 80 column proportions though.

[Saxxon]

Haha, I noticed that too, a little too late. Oh well. Just note that removing the side bar, you won't be able to cheat well as you can't actually see the text entry.

Will certainly consider Quit Y/N. It wouldn't be too hard to add.

[bitbot]

I loaded this save game from SZZT in Lyon, and it starts the game with the player energized, where it is not so in SZZT.

Also the Quit Y/N? prompt for when you press esc would be nice. Maybe a shift esc could bypass it.

Edit, removing the side is looks cool! SZZT takes on 80 column proportions though.

I concur. Good suggestions.

This is coming together very nicely. I'm curious, how stable is the editor?
It would be slick if it had MOD2ZZT(mid2zzt) and BMP2ZZT built right in.

Also, any plans for a new locking mechanism?

[Saxxon]

I loaded this save game from SZZT in Lyon, and it starts the game with the player energized, where it is not so in SZZT.

Also the Quit Y/N? prompt for when you press esc would be nice. Maybe a shift esc could bypass it.

Edit, removing the side is looks cool! SZZT takes on 80 column proportions though.

I concur. Good suggestions.

This is coming together very nicely. I'm curious, how stable is the editor?
It would be slick if it had MOD2ZZT(mid2zzt) and BMP2ZZT built right in.

Also, any plans for a new locking mechanism?

The editor is crap. It's only left in there to debug stuff and create simple situations to test code. It will be removed and replaced with something closer to the original's editor (without hiding elements of course, etc).

MOD2ZZT would be easy; I have worked a lot with that format - MIDI, not so much. BMP2ZZT was implemented in ZAP; I could port the code.

I added Quit Y/N.

[bitbot]

So I was playing my LINK II project straight through in Lyon with all the latest fixes... and I fell in love. It's rock-solid!
PC speaker sounds crisp and hi-def, and there's more FPS than ever before.

Now don't get me wrong. The interface is great as a workstation, but what if an author could "build" a minimal binary.
It could have a config file for autorun, toggling the zzt menu, menubar etc. and how about a new extension for zipped games like ZZP?

I'm not a hardcore programmer myself but this inspires me to explore the code.
You have my full backing Mr. Pike. The future is in your capable hands!

Commodore: I was just fooling around with this, but you and I ought to demake the first killer FPS.

[Saxxon]

Thanks :)

Autorun could be implemented with a config file. I could design it so that if a game is autorun it won't run in the Lyon MDI environment and instead run as a standalone. This way you'd just pack the EXE, config and game file, end user will just run the EXE and play.

I am not a big fan of installers unless they are absolutely needed. Lyon doesn't really need one. What I did consider was making it possible to associate file types and a shell extension so that if you right-clicked a ZIP file you would see "Play In Lyon". I don't think ZIP files should be associated to Lyon, but this is the best compromise that I considered. I don't really want to create another format.

[bitbot]

I agree. It should keep true to the file format and be portable. (no installers)

Please let me know when you get fake-to-monitor working so I don't have to zap my treasure chests. :)