NEW MEMBERS! Come say hello!

[Adam Schmelzle]

I've noticed a lot of new members lately. We're a small but friendly bunch, so come and introduce yourselves!

We are up to almost 150 board members now, but only have 17 people that have posted 1 or more times. Do I scare people?

.... BOO!

[gnasher1001]

Name : Duncan

Location : Essex, UK

Occupation : Support worker for adults with learning disabilities.

Favourite AG game : AC 2

Hi there!

[Adam Schmelzle]

Come on, don't be shy!

I read every post in here. If anybody has any ideas for games, please post them! Even if you hate these games, tell me why!

... first newbie to say hi gets a cookie!

[thomeister]

yay, do i get a cookie now? if yes: wooo!!!

name: Thomas
location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
occupation: currently scholar
best AG game: attack paddle FTW!!!
other interests: games, computers
age: 15 ( 1 month till 16 yay!)
hi all

[Adam Schmelzle]

Somebody wants a cookie! I'm all choked up...

[MrDee]

burp - sorry i took the cookie without reading the thread properly.
it was a very NICE cookie. ;D

[Adam Schmelzle]

You BASTARD! You killed COOKIE!.... err too much south-park

[Adam Schmelzle]

This is ridiculous. We have over 200 members now, and nobody new is posting even "I HATE YOU", or "YOU SUCK" topics. The new members can't be all bots, or we'd have a ton of spam on the board. Comeon people, tell me why "I SUCK"!

[Adam Schmelzle]

239 members now, and still only a handful of posters. Come on, I WANT people complaining about the latest game! Go download "Attack BReaker: Challenge" and then come tell me what sucks the most about it...

[mc3]

admin said:

239 members now, and still only a handful of posters. Come on, I WANT people complaining about the latest game! Go download "Attack BReaker: Challenge" and then come tell me what sucks the most about it...

[mc3]

I am a new member mc3, I finally showed up cause Ive cleared 93%? of AC2 and anything left to attack is behind Blue Shields and I cannot find the trick to move on. There is one support hatch on the bottom left in the maze next to two radar under Blue SHIELDS. I seek further Attack C OPTIONS. AC1 3 month Graduate 07. LG fusic, No PC. thank you AG!

[Adam Schmelzle]

Have a look at the map I posted on the AC board...

attackgames.proboards84.com/index.cgi?board=attackchopper&action=display&thread=1174585136

I don't have all the shield generators marked on it at the moment, but it should give you something to compare to your in-game map...

You don't need to find all the support hatches to finish the game, nor do you need to get all the radar. Just kill all the guns.

Have you managed to make it into the last area that looks like AC1 yet? If you have gone into the right half of the map, and something is still shielded, than there is a bug I did not know about. That is really strange.

[Adam Schmelzle]

300 members!

So uhh, anybody want to actually post here? Come on guys, why register if you are not going to at least complain about my games?

[jonneymendoza]

hello i was refered to the owner of this website from the j2me forums hello everyone

[Adam Schmelzle]

Welcome!

Don't forget to post about every little thing you think is bad about my games. It's the only way I can improve them! That and not many other people post anything at all, so I'm happy about every single message that pops up!

[qmei]

Hello Adam,

Very pleased meeting you in Sun' J2ME forum and am very grateful to your input to my post there.

Sorry I am not a game expert so nothing to say on the game side. I am starting my own company and have already spent nearly 2 years in this (www.com2mobi.com).

Wish you were UK or London based so I could pay you a visit or invite you to coffee or beer or ...

Best of luck,

qmei

[qmei]

One more:

HELLO everyone!

[Adam Schmelzle]

Welcome!

Those are some lofty goals listed on the com2mobi.com website! I wish you guys the best of luck. Can I assume that you won't be targetting older/low-end handsets with this new, uhh... system?

[qmei]

Hi Adam, thanks for your wishes!

The system is written in MIDP 2.0 plus JSR 75 (local file system access) support. Almost all old and most low-end phones do not support local file storage.

Copied below is a message I sent to MoMoLondon mailing list - just for your information:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.com2mobi has developed a technology platform for the rapid
development and delivery of feature rich J2ME multimedia browsing
applications for mobile. Key features are;

1. A Flash like (or better) user experience (all user interactions are
responded with pixel based animation). Intuitive, effortless,
automatic, smooth, easy, convenient and fun to use.
2. Artificial intelligence based knowledge collection and application
manager
3. AI backed mechanisms tackling information/ content overload and
phone's small screen factor, resulting in "what you want is what you
get", with full support for server based content category/widgets
library customisation, content download user configuration, as well as
UI and on-device content category/widgets library user personalisation.
4. Built-in advertising channel with AI backup
5. Powerful and intuitive context sensitive UI modelling framework
6. Built-in browser with unique ways handling image and text
7. Smart on-device screen size adaptation algorithms achieving best UI
layout

The platform can be used to integrate with most internet based data
service sites (e.g. WAP/XHTML sites) today to significantly improve
their user experience and bring user clear cost-effective benefits. It
can also be used to build novel data services on its own.

Our technology has been in development for 2 years and is now
approaching market readiness. Accordingly, I am now looking for help
in maximizing the market potential of what we have built. In
particular, I am looking for individuals that can bring commercial and
business development skills to the table.

This is a mutual selection process. There will be opportunities for
you to use our demo app and evaluate our technologies after signing a
NDA. If there is a meeting of minds and vision, I envisage entering
into discussion around an equity share of the business for the right
individual / individuals.

Please contact me if you are interested and believe that you have the
qualities and ambition that will make a real difference to the success
of .com2mobi.

QM

Director
www.com2mobi. com

[Adam Schmelzle]

That sounds really cool. Too bad it's still under NDA, I'd love to see some video of it in action!

[switchback]

hello everyone, i'm Dan and i'd like to pass congratulations onto u guys for attack chopper 2... it's the first java game i've played that impressed me enough to wanna tap out a msg of thanks on my pda. now game ideas....being over 30 and a gamer since i was 8, i have many memories of games that i love...

the one that springs to mind immediately is gravitywars, a public domain game on the amiga (i miss workbench lotsly)
the game was similar to lander with the lil ship u controlled being subjected to gravity constantly....the ship was a lil filled triangle similar to the asteroids spaceship. anyway, you as the player negotiated a level avoiding obstacles trying to reach another ship to fight against (either cpu or player controlled) it was such a fun game and my friends and i played it to death...i wonder if anyone else remembers this game?? anyway a 2 player game might be a right mission but a lander style game with combat aspects similar in style to ac2 would make my nipples erect...


take care and thanks for reading this ramble...
DaN
=)

[Adam Schmelzle]

Hello and welcome!

I love being reffered to as 'u guys'! Maybe I talk to myself sometimes, but I didn't realize that came through so obviously over the net. I'm gonna hunt around for an image of 'gravity wars', as you have me intrigued greatly. I love so many of the old C64, Intellivision, Amiga, Atari games that kids these days have never heard of. The costs are so high for commercial games now, that you really only ever get games from the major genres of FPS, RTS, RPG and bland shooters. Makes me sound old, but 'kids these days don't know what the missed'. I'd say the 80's(into early 90's) was the most creative time for video games. Everything was new back then, so nobody was afraid to be different.

I'm always happy to see a new post on my board, since I'm almost the only one who posts here. I don't get a whole lot of feedback, so please don't be shy. One thing I really would like is some more people coming by and telling me what they don't like about my games. I guess if people don't like a game, they won't bother finding a way to let me know, as that would require effort.

I have been sooooo lazy for the last little bit. I havn't been updating my progress using the messageboard, since I havn't really been making any. This week has been especially bad, since I spent all day on Tuesday playing Team-Fortress-2, and All day Wednesday watching Anime and MMA fights.

For anyone out there that reads this, but hasn't read any of my other posts, I'm currently waiting on my advertisers to release 6 more games. They are updating their systems, and are planning on going back to regular releases in October, so I've been waiting since the middle of July for my games to be made available. I've got a tetris style game in progress, but there's nothing hard about it, and I've got other games done already, so I'm not very motivated to get it out the door yet.

The games I've got coming are 5 more flower games, and a 'mobile rosary'. It may not soud very exciting to those of you who are into the 'Attack' games, but it will likel tripple my advertising revenue judging by the popularity of my 'Origami Rose' game, which has been solid in the #1 position on Gamejump.com for the last 2 months straight since it's release.

When I've got a nice stable income from all those flower games, I'll(hopefully) be able to go back and spend more time on games like 'Attack Chopper', and 'Attack Cannon', without worring about paying my bills.

Some game styles I'd like to bring to mobile, with my own changes are...

-> Tower Defense (Warcraft 3 mod)
-> Smash-TV (Arcade, etc.)
-> Island of Dr. Destructo (C64)
-> Impossible Mission (C64)
-> Peggle (Popcap)
-> Metal Marines (Win3.1, SNES) : I already started this last year, about 60% done, but wanted a stable online system to back it up

-> Aerobiz (Snes/Genesis) : This is probably the game I want to see the most, but would make the least amount of money. I'd of course make it an MMO style strategy game, instead of just 4 players infront of the TV. I'll make this game when I think I have enough money that I no longer care if my games bring in any $$'s. May never happen, may happen next year, next decade, who knows.

[Adam Schmelzle]

I'd also like to add that I'm super glad my games run well on your PDA. I don't actually have one to test with, and I've had some negative feedback from the odd person complaining that I don't support track-balls, or touch-screens! Maybe one day I'll be able to afford such toys, but for the moment all my development is done using 4 mobile phones.

The entire development of 'Attack Chopper 1' was done using a singe cheap 'Sanyo SCP-2300' pay-as-you-go phone, but I managed to make it compatible with just about every Java device on the planet. It always surprises me that there are so few games made to work on multiple devices.

[switchback]

hey you guys =p

it was gravity force 2 .. gravity wars was like attack cannon but set in space and the shots were affected by planets gravity so you could slingshot around a planet and smash ur enemy...
just had a madly heated discussion with some mates about "the old days" and you're so right about the way games have become so corporate...its such a shame. great graphics and sound but bugger all playability. i miss my rubber keyed speccy too!
the 8bit age is sorely missed by everyone who was part of it.

if you need any help from me regarding pda fun ur most welcome to it, it's nice that you've released ur games in this way allowing peeps to play and the ad peeps pay...really good stuf imo.

shame bout the release backlog but you cant do these games for bugger all..i'm gonna be bluetoothing the jars to everyone i know so i hope your revenue will be Boosted..


please keep motivated, peeps like you are too few and far between...only orange pixel and you do anything remotely decent in the land of java fone games and ur games really do kick ass!

take care man and in the words of the chav;

bigupz me lion =D


smash tv was a brilliant game,

[Adam Schmelzle]

Thanks for the encouragement!

At one point last year I was thinking of using RumbleX for high scores, which is Orange-Pixel's system. They responded to my inquiries saying

In all honesty we think the games look a bit on the homebrew/simple side (graphic wise). However seeing as they are mostly available for free and there is some promise...

. (*edit* In all fairness, this was last year before the rankings were automated and determined by how often a game is replayed, so I didn't have my games listed in the top ten at the time) Since I didn't really seem to be worth their effort, I coded my own. My games are doing better than there's anyway.

...sorry, didn't mean to get all pissy. It just buggs me whenever I get treated like some insignificant ant by the well established companies and publishers out there. You'd think having 2 of the top 10 ad-supported mobile games would at least grant me a little respect. In all likelyhood when my other games get released I'll have 6 of the top 10, and my 'Attack Stack' game(tetris thingy) should take over the #1 position(my own speculation of course) giving me 7.

I think the whole free-game thing is proving a point I have been living by: graphics don't keep you playing, they just get you more initial downloads / sales. The guys out there that make their livings off the sales don't care, so they assume it's not even worth discussing. I can pay the bills off my games already, and I've only been releasing free games for 12 months.

... Sorry, I think I got wound up again. You may appreciate this, but back before I released 'Attack Chopper 1', I was actually emailing back and forth with Bobby Prince, the composer for all the music in 'Wolfenstein 3D', 'Doom', 'Doom2', 'Duke 3D' etc, and he said he'd do some music for me, but mysteriously stopped returning my e-mails. Never found out why, just got stonewalled all of a sudden.

[switchback]

well, orange pixels games do look good, thats a given but tbh they dont have the playability or longevity that yours do imo. i also think the retro gfx feel that the ac series have for example add to the overall experience.
look at how many arcade classic game packs get released on consoles namco arcade museum etc proving that there is a market. it's great that you have an income from this, essentially giving games away and allowing people to enjoy them, no ethical minefield here!

if you want music, i'd be more than happy to knock some tunes up for you, i own a record label and have been writing music for a few years..just let me know what format u want, (i'd guess midi) the length and size in bytes or kb and also the style u want. you dont have to use em if u dont dig the crazy rhythms but it'd be fun to do nonetheless.

i'm a slightly bit addicted to attack breaker now...ac2, breaker and peeps by orange pixel are officially eating my life!!!

thankz mang

eZ

[Adam Schmelzle]

I'm glad you like 'Attack Breaker Pro' as well! I had that game done, and then struggled for nearly 2 months to come up with a new game-play element for a brick-breaker game. In the end, nothing I tried worked out very well, so I just added all the stats and rewards. I felt bad when I released the game because I thought I hadn't added anything new. Lots of people enjoy it now though, so I feel better about it.

As far as music goes, I'd LOVE to hear anything and everything you think could work well on a mobile. It does have to be in midi format, and I think some phones can't handle more than 4 instruments, but I honestly haven't tested music playback much yet. I wanted to add music to my newest game 'Attack Stack', and was going to start looking around at how much it was going to cost me to purchase the rights to use some midis.

I have no idea how much it will cost me to have somebody else write a few short tracks, and / or license some. I can't afford anything that requires me to pay out per game-install, as the costs would likely be higher than the revenue I get per player. I'd have to work out a deal where I can pay once for the right to use the midi in my game an unlimited amount. Like I said, I have no idea about the costs, since up until now I've done 100% of the work for all of my games.

Actually, depending on the costs, I was thinking of having some sort of 'radio' type feature that I could place into my games so that I wouldn't even need to include the music in the installation. The system would download a new random track from my server every time one finished(or use a stored one), so that there isn't the same repetitive track going all the time.

Any samples, or info on the costs involved would be greatly appreciated. If you want, I'll send you the current build of my 'Attack Stack' game, which may give you some ideas.

Wow, now I'm really excited. The one thing I have felt that really lacked in my games was the missing music.

[switchback]

Sweet,

I suppose it might be best if you let me know exactly what u want, the style of music like with attack stack being a Tetris game...did u want a Russian themed set of tunes like the gameboy version of Tetris. A brief would be most helpful for me to produce exactly what you want, my email's in my profile.
Lets see if u like what i do before we worry about costs man and i wont want much if anything at all, I'm not very materialistic tbh.
This is gonna be fun!

=)

[Adam Schmelzle]

Well I love the music in Tetris, so a russian theme may be cool. On the other hand it already has the feel of tetris, so maybe something completely different would be a better idea, to get more of a distinct feel.

The pace isn't frantic like in tetris, so I don't think we want anything that will make the player feel rushed. I'll send you the current build and you'll be able to see what I mean. I've never done this before, so I'd love to hear anything you can come up with. We could do like tetris, and have several different tracks that the user can chose between.

I've had the silly elevator music from the Wii shop channel stuck in my head for a while, so I wouldn't mind something with a synchopated rythm, that has less emphasis on the melody. I find the softer sounding background music to be easier to take for long periods of time.

I'm reading up on some general practices for mobile midi's... I'll get back with a list of requirements.

[Adam Schmelzle]

What we need...

1. SMF-0 file format
2. Hmm, I have no idea how many simultaneous voices we can expect. High-end phones seem to support 24, but I don't know about the crappy ones. We'll worry about it if we have problems.
3. General midi looks like it'll be all we can reliably do.

Don't know if this info helps much, but we'll give it a go.

I'm just excited to get any kind of music into my game, so anything you can come up with will be helpful. If the file sizes are small enough, we'll cram as many midis as you can come up with into the game.