Computing and Development

Justins Computing and Programming History As you have probably already guessed from the other pages on this site, I am very much into computing and I have been for many years. I am especially fond of programming in a variety of languages as well gaming. I have written many programs over the last few years and it was always somthing I wanted to get into professionally, and in a way I have gotten there with web-development. It might not be as technical (most of the time) as coding stand alone systems, but its just as rewarding. This page contains some samples of my coding projects and a bit of background information.

Programming History

I started programming when I was about 12 and still had my old 286 with its monochrome (Green!) monitor and a massive whopping 1MB of RAM. Ahhh those were the days when I sit up late at night learning Q-Basic and writing menu systems for games that never actually got developed as I then lacked the knowledge and skill I have now. I also self taught myself everything about DOS from this 286 with no reference matierial what-so-ever. I miss that computer :(

When my parents finally gave in and bought a decent computer (decent at the time that is), we got an Acer Aspire with a Pentium 133MHz from a Store called Tempo, who I would later go on to work for for four and a half years before they were forced into liquidation. I started learning C and C++ around this time with my Handy Borland C++ Builder 1.0 compiler and a 'C for Dummies, Volume 1' by Dan gookin. I started out learning how to write simple programs and learn my way around the interface. Altough it was a Rapid Application Development System (RAD), it was still challenging at first to learn the ropes. Actually come to think about it, I never really learnt anything about Windows GUI applications until a year or so later when I finally got bored of coding programs for DOS. To this day I still feel a greater sense of acheivment writing DOS applications to Windows applications. I have no idea why. Maybe its the nostalgia kicking in or somthing.

Before completing my GCSE's and moving onto college, I managed to finally get my own computer which was from Time, and was a Pentium 2 300MHz, which absolutly flew at the time, especially when it came to my Duke Nukem Level designing, (See Gaming Information). I also stuck a 3DFX Voodoo 2 in there as well that christmas and was in love at the changes it made to Quake II.

During college I got to grips with Pascal, Delphi and Visual Basic as it was part of the course, and as always I had to take it all one step further and learn as much as I could with each language. It wasnt until Uni that I even touch OOP (Object Oriented Programming). This is when I got into Web Development and Programing in Java. I was so obbssesed with coding that I even did other peoples coding projects to help them out, altough when you do that theres always one or two people who will start to take the mick and I started getting frustrated with all the requests.

After Uni I got my job that I have now as a web-master for Computational Mechanics. I am starting the standalone coding again and have recently started using the DirectX SDK combined with C and C++ to write games! Just thinking back about those times I wish I had the knowledge to make my own games, and now I do! This is mainly down to some new Books that I own about game development with DirectX that I bought for a read and it has reignited my passion for development lol. You can view these books [Here]

Current Development Activities

As mentioned above. a few months back I decided to get back into C++ as I had grown quite rusty at it (not to mention I had never touched OOP with C++, only Java!), and to re-ignite my passion i decided to look into game development with DirectX.

Big mistake. I purchased my first game book called 'Beggining Game Programming' by Johnathan Harbour and was immediatly taken in... until I ran into problems with the DirectX SDK. Through no fault of the author, a lot of the code in the book will not compile with the release of the DX SDK that is provided, and upgrading (whilst fixing most problems), still leaves a load more! Anyway I started making a childrens game called patches adventure which is still in development, but due to a system rebuild about a month ago, I havnt made any further progress.

Having forgotten most of what I learnt from the book, I have also purchased 2 others. So far all these books are great and serving as great references. I am going to start getting back into the C++ scene when I have sorted out my VC6 Compiler with the Latest DX SDK and am sure everythings working correctly. I might just have to bite the bullet and pay obscene amounts of money for the latest C++ compiler from ms, whatever that is.

All of the books I use are reviewed by myself [Here]

Small Past Projects

Obviously this section wouldnt be complete without putting some of my coding projects up for download would it? The following samples of my work are most likley incomplete as they are quite old now, especially the Visual Basic ones. I have also included my Uni Discertation project and documentation.

Project Name: Secu-Cam
Language: VB6
Description:
This is a new test project I just started working on in VB. At the moment its a knock up of code I have found online to enabled viewing a web cam in vb. I have also implemented some code to use Intels JPEG compression system to output small JPG screenshots at a user specified interval (in seconds), and to a user specified location. The system is being built so that I can monitor my room when no one is home as a security device. The user can also tell the system to log to sequential JPG's, numbered accordingly upto a specified number of images before they start getting replaced.

When I have added my code and designed the other features, I will pull the code apart and learn the techniques for cam capture myself. Have to start somewhere though!

(No Screen available)

Project Name: Patches Adventure
Language: C
Description:
This is my first EVER game, thanks to Jonathan Harbours, 'Beginning Game Programming'. It is a simple 2D platform game that features a cat called patch. The game is aimed at 4-6 year olds and involves navigating through levels to collect balls of wool that each contain a letter to a secret word. When all letters are collected, the player must find the level exit. After exiting the level, the player must organise the letters they collected during the previous level into a secret 'pass-phrase' in order to gain access to the next level.

To add a bit more fun and interest for th kids, I have also included mario style gameplay whereby enemies have been added that try and prevent the player from progressing through a level. The player can jump onto their heads to knock them out. There are also dangerous ledges involved.

This game is no-where near finished. Currently it is using free graphics libraries (again included on the accompanying cd to J Harbours Book) so they have to be redone. Also I have yet to implement sound as this is the DX SDK problems I have been experiencing for a long time, (as described in a previous section above.) Theres lots to do!

Patches Adventure

Project Name: Duke!IT v3
Language: Visual Basic 6
Description:
This system is nothing more than a gloryfied setup program for Duke Nukem 3D. It allows you to reconfigure your game, start a new single player game etc and much more! Its quite old tho so expect bugs!

[ Download Zip (690KB) ]

Project Name: Yahoo Y!Smiler
Language: Visual Basic 6
Description:
This little program allows you to access all smilies for Yahoo!Messenger and send upto 6 at a time to a selected messenger window! Simple select the window to receive the codes, left click or right click on the repeat bar on the right to increase or decrease the number of smilies to send, and click on a smily :D its that simple!

[ Download Zip (173KB) ]

Project Name: GameLaunch 2003 (Finaly Year Project)
Language: Visual Basic 6
Description:
This system is BIG (for one of my projects anyway!). This was my final year project at Uni to obtain my BSC degree in Computer Studies. It is designed for PC gaming arenas as a management system that allows remote access to each client on the network.

It requires any customers to login to the system and restricts what access they have. They can only open programs that are setup for use with GameLaunch 2K and cannot access the system shell. Its too complicated to explain here so I have included my project report to.

[ Download Zip 752KB ] [Download Documentation (doc) (1MB)]