WIP: Cricket Game.

Community Forums/Showcase/WIP: Cricket Game.

Arabia(Posted 2011) [#1]
Haven't tried posting a link to YouTube before, hope this works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmsBFSchTdg

I'm guessing around .1% of people on here played a game by a small programming house called "CRL". "Test Match" was written for the 8 Bit machines (Amstrad and possibly the C64). Anyway, I've long wanted to recreate it and improve on it.

This is as far as I've ever got into making it. A very very early video, if I ever finish this game it will surprise me :)

The graphics suck, but that is something I'll try to improve on later.

If you are from a country that doesn't know what Cricket is, then this video will make no sense whatsoever :D

Current video (43mb AVI - could make it smaller but just trying YouTube for the first time to see quality) just shows the bowler running in and the batters running up and down the wicket. I've now go an image of the ball being bowled, I'll try and do more tomorrow and upload another vid if I make any decent progress.

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Arabia(Posted 2011) [#2]
nup, link is not clickable :( how do you post a clickable link anyone? forum code help doesn't tell me (but I could also be too drunk to see it) :D


GfK(Posted 2011) [#3]
If you are from a country that doesn't know what Cricket is, then this video will make no sense whatsoever
Australia - this means you! :P

[edit] Take the first http:// bit off.

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Arabia(Posted 2011) [#4]
Cheers, that fixed it Gfk :) Too many drinks - removed something and then posted link again and forgot about the extra http :)

I take it you are a pommy? :D I'm an Aussie, and actually loving the current Ashes series. First time in a long time that England has beaten us on home soil, given us a good wake up and hopefully we'll see some much needed changes in our team before we head back to the motherland (where they refuse to give us the Ashes even when we win it)

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GfK(Posted 2011) [#5]
Yep, I'm a pom. Don't really like cricket - can't stand all the boring county stuff with hours on end of tippy-tapping about and getting about 3 runs an hour. Don't mind the ashes, though. I know its the first time we beat Australia on home turf in a long time, but you can't argue the magnitude of the win! It was an onslaught.


LineOf7s(Posted 2011) [#6]
Yes, you smashed us. It was embarrassing, really. Good for you though.

The only upside? It was a nice change from winning all the time. And I say this totally seriously.

Jeez though... Just..... jeeeeeez. Someone tell the Aussies to hold the bat by the skinny end, eh?


Hotshot2005(Posted 2011) [#7]
if You make Cicket Sensible sprites then it would be big Hit :)


Arabia(Posted 2011) [#8]
if You make Cicket Sensible sprites then it would be big Hit :)


Are you talking about sprites from Sensible Soccer? :) I actually got a screen grab of them, and have used them as a basis for these sprites - but they still don't look right. If anyone wants to modify what I've got and make them better, let me know :)

Haven't done too much today (yet) - mucking around with getting pretty "mower" stripes on the ground to make it look like a real cricket ground.




MGE(Posted 2011) [#9]
they do look like little crickets! ;)


Arabia(Posted 2011) [#10]
Not too much "visible" progress yesterday. Mainly started writing the proper code, previous code was a mess because I was just testing different stuff out. Put previous code into functions, and commenting my code as I go (always been slack at commenting)

Got a fair bit of coding done today. Some background functions done, and am probably about 25% of the way through the code for showing the scoreboard. Hope to get a bit more done tonight.

Couple of screen shots. Feedback welcomed on the graphics/readability.

P.S. If you haven't seen the scores from Day 2 of the 5th Ashes Test, here they are (used to test out what the scoreboard looks like)






matt!(Posted 2011) [#11]
This looks great - nice one!


Arabia(Posted 2011) [#12]
msephton (Posted 1 hour ago) #11
This looks great - nice one!


Cheers!

I have got bugger all done tonight. It's taking me a long time to seemingly achieve very little :(

Drinking Jim Beam is not helping the creative process either :D

Just having a look at other cricket games on the net tonight. From what I've played, it's been the indie games that have been the best (statistically speaking). The EA and Codemaster games have been very pretty, but they don't seem to understand that hitting six sixes in an over has happened once in about 130 years of test cricket and is not likely to happen again any time soon :)

Hope to be up early tomorrow to code some more and hopefully watch an Aussie fightback on D3 of the last test of The Ashes :)


Dabhand(Posted 2011) [#13]
What do you call an Aussie with a bottle of bubbly?

A waiter!!! \o/

Wahoo!!! :D

Sorry, couldnt resist! :P

Looks promising that game, I used to love playing Brian Lara cricket games of old, not too big watching it, will watch the 20/20's, and the Ashes when their on over here, but this one is on too late for obvious reasons and sadly, I missed the best Ashes England have ever played EVER!!! :P

Dabz

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Arabia(Posted 2011) [#14]
Don't worry Dabz, the Poms will win the Ashes in Australia in another 24 years or so, just set your VCR to pre-record now :D

Have done pretty much nothing (except find a basic bug which took about 1hr) on my little game lately. Going back to work really knocks it out of me, I don't know how so many people can work all day then come home and code. I have about 15mins of coding at the end of the work day before my brain is fried.


Dabhand(Posted 2011) [#15]

Don't worry Dabz, the Poms will win the Ashes in Australia in another 24 years or so, just set your VCR to pre-record now :D



See, winning is like steak... If you have it every day then you'd get tired of it... Its better to have a nice slab of it every couple of months, makes it 1000% special see (24 years is a tadge longer than that but you get the picture)

You've got to remember that Pomland as a nation are very up and down when it comes to sports... Usually down in the ones we sodding invented! ;)

*DONT MENTION THE WORLD CUP*

Back on topic, I'm looking forward to seeing how this spins out, will you be having a two player mode, me and a mate used to have some cracking pre-pub matches back in the day when my money went straight to the local... I'm sure he'll be interested to see this cos the sod is always bugging me to make a cricket game! :D

Oh, and you should really do sensi-style player naming, just in case the ICC tries to knock you for six! <----- See what I done there, eh! :D Hehehe

Dabz

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LineOf7s(Posted 2011) [#16]
If there's anything that'll take the edge off the pain of one of the worst Ashes series for Australia in recent years, it's the knowledge that a Pom that wanted to watch it, couldn't. :o)

Thanks for that, Dabz. ;o)


Arabia(Posted 2011) [#17]
Back on topic, I'm looking forward to seeing how this spins out, will you be having a two player mode, me and a mate used to have some cracking pre-pub matches back in the day when my money went straight to the local... I'm sure he'll be interested to see this cos the sod is always bugging me to make a cricket game! :D


As I've mentioned, the game is based on Test Match by CRL - If you want to see how this game plays, I'll post you the link to the original audio tape ROM (if I can find it). Plays perfectly using WinAPE (Amstrad 464 emulator)

So yes, it's either a 1 player (controls both teams) or 2 player game. I'm having a bit of a read of network modules to see how easy it would be to make it network play.

I want to pretty much make this the same game as on the Amstrad (as in game play) but to make it more statistically accurate. The original game was very limited - i.e. Batter 1 was better than batter 2 in the team, batter 2 was better than batter 3 etc... Which is not correct all the time.

Generally, No 3 is your best batter (or in the recent ashes series, the No. 8 or 9 for Aust. was better than the no. 3) :D


Arabia(Posted 2011) [#18]
Oh, and you should really do sensi-style player naming, just in case the ICC tries to knock you for six! <----- See what I done there, eh! :D Hehehe


You mean name players like "Brad Horrible"? Can you copyright a name?

I want to use real players names, can I get in hot water for that?

I'm working on the section that shows players stats now - i.e a pic of the player (that I swiped off the cricinfo website). I'm obviously not going to distribute these pics with the game if/when I finish it because they are copyrighted - but naming players and their real life stats isn't a copyright infringement surely :S


Arabia(Posted 2011) [#19]
Another thought - since this game is based on a CRL release (from probably 25+ years ago) - any idea on how I can get in contact with original programmer to get their permission to give this game away (or sell it maybe?). I've googled him, but there doesn't seem to be a link to him on the net.


Dabhand(Posted 2011) [#20]

I want to use real players names, can I get in hot water for that?



Probably, players names generally get licensed out to companies like EA, so, I'd tread carefully because with stuff like this, they are very protective of their licensing, its not a major deal really changing their names to something close, and sometimes, it can be a laugh:-

PM Swiddle
MA Bear
MJ Priory

etc

You'll probably get away with the stats thing, because at the end of the day, they are just numbers.


Another thought - since this game is based on a CRL release (from probably 25+ years ago) - any idea on how I can get in contact with original programmer to get their permission to give this game away (or sell it maybe?). I've googled him, but there doesn't seem to be a link to him on the net.



There probably really isnt any need to go that far, just rename it to something like "Test Series Cricket", you can probably get away with using the same gameplay, though, I probably would attempt to update the graphics a little, so it is a remake, but, looks more modern.

By all means, contact the original programmer/publisher, but generally, I think if you do the odd little changes here and there you'll be fine (Though, dont quote me on that, hehehe)


As I've mentioned, the game is based on Test Match by CRL - If you want to see how this game plays, I'll post you the link to the original audio tape ROM (if I can find it). Plays perfectly using WinAPE (Amstrad 464 emulator)



I had an Amstrad, and do recall playing it, well I say that, it look's familiar but 25 years is a long time and theres been a lot of cassette tapes, floppies, CD-ROMS and downloads gone under the bridge since then! ;)

I really hope you do get this done, because since I dont see my mate that much nowadays due to growing up (Hahahaha, ahem), it'll be really cool to give him a match via the interwebs! ;)

Dabz

EDIT: Oh, and post a linky poo's if you find it! ;)

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Arabia(Posted 2011) [#21]
Thanks for the info Dabz.

I was sure you could use player names without any problems, but I'll certainly check this out. I will have a player editor, so having fake names is not a problem - the user can change them to the real names. There are plenty of little freeware/shareware games around that use real names, maybe I'll see if I can get in contact with a couple of the indie authors and ask them too.

I've tried to make my graphics more "modern" which is what you see above :) My graphic design skills are not good :D The original game was a top down view only, and used very basic modified characters (using the old locomotive SYMBOL command)

Anyway, here is the link to the ROM (I haven't test this link, but pretty sure this is where I got it from originally).

http://www.romnation.net/srv/roms/6878/amstrad/Test-Match-and-Ltd-Overs-Cricket-UK-1985.html

WinApe is the only emulator I've tried, and it seems to work faultlessly.

http://www.winape.net/

BTW. After you finish a game, you can quit out of the game and list the program and get the original BASIC program :) I could possibly do a direct conversion from this, but I think from memory there was a tiny bit of machine code in it, which I have no hope of understanding.

I really hope I get this program finished, but it will be some time off yet. Just find it very hard to find the energy to get anything done. What I have done so far was achieved when I had a week off over xmas.


Dabhand(Posted 2011) [#22]
Gots it... Cheers Arabia!

Dabz