December 2002

BOMB Level Editor, Source Updates and Art
12/23/2002 by K3V

The graphical level editor for BOMB is now available for download on the BOMB Page. You will need to have Tcl/Tk installed on your machine, so head over to http://www.tcl.tk/ and install that before running the level editor. From there, follow the instructions in the readme or as can be seen here:

"The editor is pretty simple. After starting "blck.tcl", you have to specify the playfield size (max. 32). In the editor you can now select tiles and place them onto the field (drag&drop works, too). When placing teleporters, switches or teleport destination (crosshair) you need to select which one (0-5). For switch destinations (0/1 tile) you also need to specifiy the "on" and "off" state of the tile.

A "right-click" on switch destination shows the tile's "on" and "off" states. With the "Export" button a small window opens showing the ASCII representation of the level and the switches. Use Copy/Paste to add them to the "level.h". The "Import" button opens also a small window, where you can Copy/Paste from the "level.h". That's it."

Click here to check out a screenshot. Also, a bug was found in the "bomb.c" source code file, which has been updated in the source code downloads. Oh, and you'll also see on the BOMB Page that we're working on the high scores table, but it's not functioning properly just yet. So don't bother putting in any codes for now.

Next up, MMDN from the forums has put together 5 new levels for BOMB. You can download them from here, then unzip the levels.h file and replace it with the one found in the BOMB source code. Recompile using gmake and then burn the new NUON.CD file to check them out. Or just wait for the next release :)

MMDN also provided the BOMB character art for the DVD Cover and CD Label that we've put together. You can get those on the BOMB Page too.

New Decaying Orbit Update
12/21/2002 by K3V

DragonShadow Industries has released a new build of Decaying Orbit, just in time for the holidays. They admit that while the game is quite slow still, most of it (including the in-game level editor) does work. Here is how the buttons are laid out:

NUON PSX
A X
B Square
C-down Circle
C-left Triangle
C-up L1
C-right R1
L L2
R R2
Start Start
NUON Select

From the update on the DragonShadow site:
Remember that on the PSX, canceling things and backing out of menus is done with the triangle button (C-left). Selecting menu items is done with X (A). When starting a single player game you can skip the opening text crawl with the START button.

FYI, lasers don't seem to work, the player engine thrust doesn't show up, and a bunch of other stuff is broken. Don't press START since it's supposed to bring up a pause menu, but all it does now is crash the game. I guess you could say that's a kind of pause.

I really need to figure out why all my sprites are rotated slightly.

See y'all in a week. Think cheery NUONy thoughts :)
So what are you waiting for? Get to downloading already!

BOMB Source Code Released
12/20/2002 by K3V

The source code for Andreas Binner's Bombuzal clone BOMB has been released today, and is available in two versions: with or without the audio files.

To edit levels, look in the 'levels.h' file. There, the levels may be edited or new levels may be added using a simple ASCII editor such as Notepad. A graphical editor that runs under Windows is in development, and may be released soon. Other non-programming improvements that can be made include Screens (TGA files), sound effects (WAV files), background audio (PCM files) and sprites/fonts (PPM files).

BOMB now has it's own page over in the Downloads seciton. Click here to check it out, and to download the source code.

Bombuzal Update
12/18/2002 by K3V

Yet another version of Bombuzal is now ready, this time weighing in at a whopping 13.7 MB thanks to a bunch of new streaming audio. In addition to the extra audio, here's what's been added/fixed:
Teleporter destination isn't obvious anymore
More than one streaming audio track. The audio files are now called level1.pcm, level2.pcm etc. The game works fine with any number of audio files. It always loops to the available files. The files can be replace with your own audio files (as long they are in the following format: raw data, 32kHz, 16-bit stereo, big-endian format)
One more test level
All sort of screens (start, pause, game over, etc.)
Score verification ID
Many fixes
Click here to begin downloading the file.

New Version of Bombuzal
12/13/2002 by K3V

Andreas Binner has sent along the latest build of his Bombuzal clone for NUON today. This release sees many improvements, including streaming background audio! Here's the complete list of what's new:
4 test levels
Score, bonus, lives and timeout
Improved frame rate
Streaming background music
There are still no "in-between", start or end screens, and many sound effects and the music are placeholders.

This version uses the CD reading library, so there are two files to burn to the CD - NUON.CD and ambient.pcm. You can download the latest version of Bombuzal right here.

Get Your Iron Soldier 3 Posters
12/9/2002 by K3V

Now available in the NUON-Dome Store are all-new Iron Soldier 3 posters. These posters feature high-resolution, original artwork straight from the creators of IS3, Eclipse. They are available in two sizes, 35" x 23" or 20" x 13".

Take a look at a larger version of the image by clicking here. Thanks!

New Bombuzal Build
12/6/2002 by K3V

Here's a new version of Bombuzal, featuring some sound effects and new gadgets. There is still no score, levels etc.

Once again, you can discuss the game's progress over in our forums!

New NUON Game in the Works
12/3/2002 by K3V

Andreas "Mr. X" Binner announced today that he's begun work on a new NUON game. Based on a "Bombuzal" clone he wrote for the Atari 8-Bit computers, he's already got the basic playfield renderer working. The screenshot seen here is taken from the game running on NUON hardware.

Bombuzal is a puzzle game with an isometric perspective, where your goal is to destroy all the bombs on the level and stay alive to advance to the next level. Stay tuned, progress with the game will be posted here as it becomes available!

Update: Andreas has released a NUON.CD file of the current build of Bombuzal, which you can dowload here. Bombs can be activated with the "A" button. Please post your burning success/failure feedback to the thread over in the forums.

Hidden VLM Features
12/2/2002 by K3V

Mr. X was kind enough to pass along some new hidden VLM features for the Samsung DVD-N504. Here is what he posted to the forums:
Before everyone gets too excited. The following only works on N504 and it would work on a N505 and DRC300N if it had joystick support

But I like to share it anyway:

A single press on the right shoulder joystick button while in Power-Random or Time-Random mode will hold the current effect.
Another button press will unlock the random mode.

A single press on the left shoulder joystick button will freeze the current analog joystick position (well of course not physically . Another button press will reset.

Both features got in because Jeff wanted some more "Live" VLM controls. I'm not sure if he actually knows about it
I almost forgot - it has been quite a while since I left VML/Genesis...

I verified that this works on my personal N505 with added joystick ports
I've archived this information on the Codes Page for future reference.