starting a project - freeBasic to create games for a university honours course in visual arts.

General FreeBASIC programming questions.
Post Reply
dannyjarratt
Posts: 1
Joined: May 29, 2018 11:53

starting a project - freeBasic to create games for a university honours course in visual arts.

Post by dannyjarratt »

Hi, my name is Danny Jarratt, I am currently studying Honours in Visual Arts, at UniSA (AUS). For my research, I have decided that I want to disrupt the heterosexual narratives presented in arcade games.

Starting specifically with Donkey Kong (1981), I want to replace Jumpman (proto-Mario) with a female character, to make a new story of lesbian love.

Whilst I am a digital artist, my programming skills are very limited to mostly using other programs to code for me. Such as editing maps and sprites for Pokemon. I had intended on just replacing Jumpman's sprite with a new spite. I can not find programs that are user-friendly to edit arcade games (aka non-console games). I have found hackers who have done similar things

Mike Mika - https://www.wired.com/2013/03/donkey-kong-pauline-hack/ used simple click progams to swap the roles of Jumpman and Pauline, however, he used the NES version of the game, which is squashed to fit a home TV ratio and lacks the iconic heart graphic when a level is complete. For my project this heart graphic is important.

Justin Bohemier - https://ophelius.itch.io/dk-advanced uses FreeBasic with Allegro and Fmod, to create a new version of Donkey Kong. I was thinking I could follow in his footsteps, to recreate the game of Donkey Kong with FreeBasic.

I am wondering if I could get some feedback on this idea? Does it sound achievable to recreate Donkey Kong in FreeBasic with zero programming experience? With my current schedule, I am thinking I could spend a maximum of 30 hours on this small aspect. I also have to assemble the hardware, build the arcade cabnet (complete with new art) and transform a room into an immersive environment like an arcade by October.

I use MAC, however, I have PC's I can use at the university to create this project.

Additionally if its possible can you recommend specific tutorials, since I have a strong base for what I am making. Or perhaps recommend a location I could use for commissioning someone to code for me.

Thanks for reading my VERY long message.
Danny Jarratt
(IG: @danny_jarratt)
MrSwiss
Posts: 3910
Joined: Jun 02, 2013 9:27
Location: Switzerland

Re: starting a project - freeBasic to create games for a university honours course in visual arts.

Post by MrSwiss »

Well, short and to the point: NO WAY EVER! (within given limits).

You're attempting: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE XXXL ...

(By taking your stipulated, none existing skills, time-frame etc. into consideration!)

Btw: this belongs into: Beginners (section of the forum).
badidea
Posts: 2586
Joined: May 24, 2007 22:10
Location: The Netherlands

Re: starting a project - freeBasic to create games for a university honours course in visual arts.

Post by badidea »

Hi, I agree with MrSwiss here...

If you have working source code of a Donkey Kong game (code that compiles and runs) and you only want to replace some graphics and sound, then it is doable. If you want to make actual changes to the code or start from scratch, it is not possible for a beginner with this time. Maybe if you can team up with an experienced (game) programmer (with experience of the language of choice, e.g. Freebasic) then it could be possible before October, but still more then 30 hours it you want anything decent, I think.

If you want to learn more on game programming in Freebasic anyway:
There some tutorials on the wiki (including on making a game): https://freebasic.net/wiki/wikka.php?wa ... yTutorials
And more stuff on: http://games.freebasic.net/basicgaming.php (some code may require changes to run with the latest compiler version)
MrSwiss
Posts: 3910
Joined: Jun 02, 2013 9:27
Location: Switzerland

Re: starting a project - freeBasic to create games for a university honours course in visual arts.

Post by MrSwiss »

badidea wrote:If you have working source code of a Donkey Kong game ...
Even that is of no use, because of copyright issues (it's not for private,
noncommercial purpose, which may be the only allowed purpose).
BasicCoder2
Posts: 3906
Joined: Jan 01, 2009 7:03
Location: Australia

Re: starting a project - freeBasic to create games for a university honours course in visual arts.

Post by BasicCoder2 »

dannyjarratt wrote:Does it sound achievable to recreate Donkey Kong in FreeBasic with zero programming experience?
No.

Maybe you could learn to use something simple like GameMaker and then use your own images.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucT1kGX9dcU

With regards to Donkey Kong would it even be legal? Also I am not sure how much there is copywrite on the look and feel of a game.
I once played around with Mario like games but used modified graphics and it was only for personal use.
Image
jevans4949
Posts: 1186
Joined: May 08, 2006 21:58
Location: Crewe, England

Re: starting a project - freeBasic to create games for a university honours course in visual arts.

Post by jevans4949 »

Suggest you contact Justin Bohemier via his web site and ask whether he is willing to work with you.

He may even be willing to share the source code with you, but even if he does it will be probably mean a lot of work, after a lot of learning on your part.

Only saw Donkey Kong when my kids were playing it on the Nintendo. Don't recall seeing any romantic action in it. If not, it will need far more work than just pasting in new graphics.

Edit 1: Have you thought about the Sims games, which do have romantic action? I think I was told you could have non-heterosexual relations with that anyway.

Edit 2: Have you thought about the "Scratch" programming system? Available for PC and Raspberry Pi, so probably for Apple as well. You can achieve good graphics results with limited programming. Junior school kids can use it, so how hard can it be?
Post Reply