T.R.Schmidt Games

Blog

  • Zerocron Beta 0.9.38 – new enemies, more money

    I added two new types of enemies, one who follow each other in a row, chasing you and another one waiting and charging at you if come near enough.

    Also I made it a whole lot easier to get credits and even reduced the weapon-prices.

  • Zerocron Beta 0.9.37 – minor bugfixes

    zerocrongifgif

    Fixed some minor bugs and restructured some code.

  • Free FRAPS Alternative: Open Broadcaster Software

    Since my PC is too slow for most game-capturing software (Core2Duo E7200/Radeon HD5700) while running Zerocron, I finally seem to have found a nice and free open source alternative: Open Broadcaster Software (OBS).

    All others I tried either were too CPU-hungry and/or had trouble recording sound.

    OBS also didn´t perform so good out of the box, I first had to tweak the settings a bit. Basically I changed the H264-encoding to “ultrafast” with medium quality, resulting in low-cpu and hdd-usage. In case you have the same problem, I thought I´d share my settings with you, relevant stuff is marked yellow. Screenshots are from OBS Version 0.657b.

    open_broadcaster_software_1 open_broadcaster_software_2 open_broadcaster_software_3 open_broadcaster_software_4 open_broadcaster_software_5

     

  • Zerocron Beta 0.9.36 – better credits, deathcount

    zerocron_836Replaced the boring credit-scroller with something more original, fixed some minor bugs and added a total death-count.

    So, additionally to maximizing your highscore you could try to keep your total death count low.

  • Zerocron Beta 0.9.32 – better audio

    zerozeroToday I tweaked Zerocrons audio-effects, it sounds more balanced now and if there´s a lot shooting and explosions simultaneously there is no more acoustic inferno. Also internally, I updated all audio-functions to Game Makers new audio-system.

  • Zerocron Beta 0.9.31 – Feedback please

    Zerocron BetaI just uploaded a new beta-version of Zerocron with improved joypad support and would be glad about some feedback.

    Does it run on your system? Are the controls working fine? Everything running smoothly?

    Go and blast some aliens for me :)!

  • Zerocron Joypad Controls Update

    Joypad-Controls are now finished, tested with two Xbox controllers. With fallback for older joypads, tested with a logitech playstation2-like-controller. Also, joystick-detection slowdownbug fixed.

    And for your amusement: I somewhen accidently incremented engine smoke size instead of decreasing it. Looks even more funky in movement.

    fun with bugs #1 fun with bugs #2 fun with bugs #3

  • Zerocron Gamepad Controls

    After some betatesting (still not much feedback, though) I´m now working on a more universal gamepad support. It seems older controllers work fine with the existing code, but not Xbox compatible ones. But the Xbox compatible functions don´t support the old joypads – so I guess I have to combine both.

  • Ikea Arcade Cocktail Table

    IMG_7466 IMG_7465I´m still working on my real arcade-cab, but at least I functionally finished my Ikea Ramvik Arcade Cocktail table. It still needs some decoration and something stylish under the glass to cover the ugly sawed edges.

    To build it was simple,  I sawed a monitor-shaped hole in it, screwed two boards below to support the monitor, placed the monitor in and connected everything.

    It is powerd by an energy-saving TFT-Display and a raspberry pi running RetroPie and generic USB-Joypads.

    The only obstacle happend all was done and I wanted to play a game, sat down on my sofa  – and then had to realize that the picture was nearly not visible due to the low viewing angle.

    I read a bit and voila – if you turn the monitor upside down it works just fine. And if you add “display_rotate=2” to RetroPie´s boot/config.txt it rotates everything accordingly.

    Very decorative :)!

  • Zerocron Beta

    Finally, I think it´s time for a closed beta of Zerocron, or else I´ll get stuck in endlessy tweaking the game.

    Known things to do:

    1. Extro is missing
    2. More music would be nice
    3. Sound effects and volume need finetuning
    4. Bosses may be to easy since my last changes
    5. Credit roll is boring and will be replaced
    6. Xbox-Controller support missing
    7. Highscore leaderboard

    Known Bugs:

    1. Joypad detections slows game down for some seconds after starting
    2. Some backgrounds have a display bug at the bottom

    As an easteregg, I wanted to include the space station of Environmental Station Alpha as a background image, but sadly got no reply by it´s author, Hempuli. So I removed it and replaced it with incredible pictures of Pluto (thank you, Nasa)!

    Since my PC is still to slow for screengrabbing-software, here a new preview, filmed with my camera: