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-----> PLAY SWARDTRIS NOW! <-----
 

Monday, June 27, 2005

Tetris Development Slowing

My first round of development on tetris went pleasantly quickly. Unfortunately, since my first tetris post, I have become busy enough that advancements have been displeasurably few and far between. Such is the life of a new dad (although other factors have contributed as well: "Batman Begins," new responsibilities at work, etc.).

So that none of you think development has halted entirely, I am posting a link to my latest version of tetris. The animated image is a clickable link, as is this entire phrase. Included on the page with the playable game is a list of instructions, as well as a list of features I still need to add.

Updates in this version that didn't exist in the previous post are:
  • A smaller playing screen (for screens like my parents')
  • Space bar drops a piece.
  • Down arrow makes pieces fall faster.
  • Improved painting routine for sub-cool hardware.
I know it's a very modest list, but it's the best I've been able to do given the circumstances. There are a handful of other things I've added, but they're not complete yet so I can't put them on the list.

 

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

New Development - Tetris

Thank you everyone who left your congratulatory notes. Mallory and Mom are doing well. We know Mallory is growing because some of her clothes are actually starting to fit. This should be no surprise, though, since she eats all the time!

In the meantime, I decided I needed to change the topic of this blog. Henceforth this blog will no longer be dedicated solely to my ray tracer. It will now be a place where I can write about all of my "extra-curricular" programming projects.

First in line is the game of tetris. A few weeks ago I decided I liked the idea of writing simple games. Since my co-worker wrote his own little game of tetris last year, it was somewhat fresh in my mind.

I started writing a tetris Java applet a little over a week ago. I wanted not only to write a simple game, but I also wanted to test my Model-View-Controller (MVC) skills. In the case of my tetris game, my view and my controller are the same class (they are the applet class), and then I also created a Game class which is the Model.

I'll explain the implementation further in future posts. For now, I just wanted to introduce everyone to SwardTris. Click on this play tetris link. Enjoy!

 

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Happy Birthday, Mallory!


Dear faithful readers,

I'm sorry I've been out of blogging/programming commission for a little while. I've been a little busy of late. The picture you see above is of me with my wife and our first baby, Mallory, leaving the hospital. I promised I would keep you posted, so even though it has nothing to do with ray tracing, I'm posting it here nonetheless.
Mallory was born at 6:55 a.m. on Tuesday, May 31, 2005. A memorable day in our family to be sure. Thanks for your patience while I enjoy these first few days of being a dad.