flash movie info

As per Adam's instructions, I have already e-mailed him with my Flash animation as an attachment. We tried to figure out how to post it here on lab on Tuesday, and couldn't get it to work.

reflective essay #4

Years ago, when I was a much younger man, I studied TaeKwondo, in Eugene. I attended a dojang for several years, and, later, partly due to time and money constraints while a student, I dropped out of the dojang, but ended up joining a University of Oregon TaeKwonDo club started by a Korean student. Most of the time we practiced in a gym in Gerlinger Hall. Gerlinger Hall (if it’s still standing) is a turn-of-the-century building built partly of bricks, but a lot of its construction is also wood. A lot of martial arts practice is comprised of repetitive drills, to create ‘muscle memory’ so that you can do techniques without having to think about them much if you need to react quickly. In the styles I have been exposed to, these drills tend to be fairly formalized, and their relevance is not always immediately apparent to the beginner, but they help to develop the skills to lead up to actual controlled sparring. Repetitive drills can also be surprisingly meditative, as long as they don’t hurt too much. I tended to have a harder time relaxing and enjoying myself when punching an old-style ‘makiwara’ (rope-wrapped punching post). Anyway, one of my most pleasant, sensual memories is of doing drills, moving across the wooden floor, in Gerlinger Hall. My favorite form of this drill was, in response to a ‘numbers’ command, moving first forward across the floor, and then backwards, from ‘front stance’ to front stance, changing the lead foot, and doing a strong-side ‘reverse-punch’ into the air at the end of the movement, while executing a ‘kiai’ (shout). This may sound strange, but being young and fit, and moving in unison with rows of others, concentrating on keeping the knees bent and hips low while moving, finally ‘hitting the mark’ in unison with everyone else, while trying to keep the punch relaxed-but-fast-and-strong-at-the-last-moment, with everything coming together at the end, was extremely enjoyable. There were a couple of things that really makes this memory endure for me. The first was the feel of the floor. Two dozen bodies or so moving in unison, and planting 75% of their weight on their front feet at the same time (feeling the soles of your bare feet, and toes, against the polished wood), made that floor ‘give’ in a way that felt incredibly interactive. The floor was working out with us. The second really good part of the experience was the massed ‘kiai’. I have always enjoyed the sensation of power that shouting out a good kiai gives, and when everyone shouted at the same time in that large wooden room, the sound seemed to just swirl around for a moment or two before bouncing back to us in an echo.
Years ago, I used to play a little pinball. I was never any good at it, but it was fun. Finding a good pinball arcade, and walking into it, was magical. There was the anticipation of walking in and past all the machines, and the people playing them, and trying to find a machine that was available, and that you were willing to dump a ridiculous amount of quarters into. There was dinging going off everywhere. Just listening to it created an anticipatory pleasure. There was the settling in on the machine, then putting a few quarters on the glass top, then getting into a good strong stance (similar to the front stance). I usually had my left foot forward, and the right leg back. Putting in the first quarter, and hearing the start-up sounds. I always tested the flippers first, before I launched the first ball. Like I say, I really wasn’t very good at it, but I would snap my middle fingers against the flipper buttons so convulsively, that the next morning it frequently felt like I had bilateral tendonitis. I wasn’t very good at relaxing while playing pinball. I didn’t get very excited by the bumpers, but flashing colored lights were good, and all of the sounds, and I loved gates that spun around a lot when I hit them fast. Some machines were better than others when it came to giving you the opportunity to ‘trap’ the ball at the base of the paddle, and take a moment to collect your thoughts, and let it roll slowly down the paddle, towards the tip of the paddle. Those were the only games I had any chance of winning. I think it was ‘Space Station’ that I did the best on. ‘Space Station’ did not have nearly as much stuff going on in terms of bells and whistles, but it had some, and it was visually clearer. I didn’t like the ‘golf holes’ that ended up shooting the ball back at you so fast, that it was very easy to miss. I also tended to panic and swear loudly when playing games that released 3 balls at the same time. Responsibly mentoring one ball was a heavy burden; 3 balls was too much responsibility. A golden pinball memory: The ‘Captain Fantastic’ in a tavern in Berne, Switzerland in October of 1976 that gave me free replays no matter what I did! Manna from heaven! (Oh my god, I’ve been here for 3 hours and I really need to use the restroom, but this opportunity may never come in my life again…Could I get deported if I get caught not reporting this?).
I went through a period of baking bread, several years ago. The footwork of kneading dough, for me, was similar to pinball. It was necessary in kneading to be able to rock back and forth, using your body weight to compress the dough. While slighty shifting back, one slightly rotates the dough counterclockwise, then repeats the cycle. Its very primal, and you feel that dough moving underneath your hands, and it starts out soft, and sticky, and as you gradually sprinkle more and more flour onto it, it gets to the point where you no longer are acquiring a film of dough on your palms. By this time, the dough is getting firmer and more elastic, and is starting to ‘push back’. It’s very repetitive, and also somewhat meditative. You let the dough rise, and then you get to dump it out, punch it down, and knead it again. When you pull it out of the oven, and you see how much it has grown, and the ‘brownness’ of the top, and you smell that incredible smell, you know you have accomplished something.
As regards some of the reflective essay questions; doing a martial art, for me, is almost entirely a ‘conscious’ experience. Pinball is definitely a mix. There is a certain amount of physicality and focus, but one is taking in a lot of the sounds without really paying conscious attention to it (at least for me). Breadmaking is also both. Kneading is very conscious, but the smells, I would say unconscious. I’m not sure how I would relate this to playing a game. I would think that sounds especially, would be a way to complicate the players performance. The introduction of unexpected sirens and flashing lights are a good way to distract the player ("Why is that happening? What did I do?"). Also, a dull, throbbing, droning noise, could be subtly speeded up to stimulate heartbeat (I’m sure this works), with a sudden volume increase at an unexpected point.

reflective essay #3

This assignment being a ‘theoretical’ role, and not necessarily one for which I am qualified in the real world, I think it would be fascinating (and probably extremely stressful) to be a designer. In a perfect world, it would be fun to dictate the research to be done on the game, the level of (in my case) realism to be achieved for the graphic artists, and some of the 360 degree point-of-view I would want to be accomplished. I have mentioned before the level of detail in the game ‘F-16 Fighting Falcon’, which apparently is now owned by Aerosoft. I have seen an interior pan of the cockpit in a recent version, and it almost looks like actual film footage. It would be nice to be able have that same degree of realism in other flight simulators, but with a first-person point-of-view of the player’s arm/hand actually resting on the controls. This requires getting people to get photos of the intended plane cockpit, as well as tracking down pilots who flew them, and finding out how they positioned their hands and feet during flight, as well as interviewing them to find out the sounds, and smells, and general feel of flying. How much vibration was present flying different current and historical planes, and how is that affected by firing wing guns/nose cannons, and shooting missiles? Get the graphic artists to come up with ways to portray that, and have the programmers program that in. How many rounds did each gun carry, what was the ‘cyclical rate of fire’, and how many (literally) seconds of gun use does that translate into? How hard was it to accurately drop a bomb from your fighter on an enemy ship/shore gun was it, and in practical terms, how did the average success rate change with how low your plane was? What atmospheric/sunlight conditions change the pilots’ view through the canopy? Artists/programmers, get to work! The Lockheed P38 was the only fighter with ‘counter-rotating’ propellers. Other planes tended to ‘drift’ (that’s not the correct aeronautical term). That should be programmed into the game. An historically-based game should also be educational, even if that isn’t necessarily what the buyer is initially considering. I want to see some very detailed concept sketches and prototype screen-captures! How do programmers program haze, and briefly blinding sunlight? Wow, I’m glad I’m only giving orders. No, I never got the memo about already being over twice the budget. Sorry, my bad. Seriously, there is a great deal of work involved in a near photo-realistic view out of the front of the Aerosoft F-16 cockpit, and the perspective when you are looking to both the right and left side views of the cockpit interior. How do you depict getting shot down by someone? In a WWII plane, would it be a sequence of large holes in your canopy in extremely rapid sequence, with various cockpit-related things ‘blowing up’ around you, and your vision rapidly fading to black? I suppose this would involve numerous discussions with the artists, and then the programmers. A realistically-challenging aircraft carrier takeoff-and-landing, with the possibility of imminent demise if the flier handles it poorly, would cost more, but might spur more interest in the game. How does one handle the programming of random events? On every xth mission in the Pacific theater of war, there will be a x% possibility of an enemy fighter descending upon you unseen, and either killing you (the pilot) or putting some holes in your wing/flap/engine, which will decrease the functionality of your plane by x%, depending upon the severity of the random event generated by the game. There should also be some programming for your engine getting hit, and more-and-more oil spreading over your frontal windshield, the longer it takes you to land somewhere. That means the game has to able to simulate being able to open the canopy, and look out frontally, on both sides. I think that something of a random event probability will spur player interest by keeping the game from being too predictable, especially for skilled game-players. One thing I’m not too fond of is extraneous music. I would rather have hours-and-hours of randomly generated sparse dialogue from one’s fellow pilots. I realize that this would raise the voice actor costs somewhat, as well as the writing costs. Once you had played the game 5000 times however, you would know your fellow pilots fairly well – almost as if they were family. Music, I think, gets overly familiar and boring fairly soon, but I think that one can more easily accept the omnipresent normal noises. It would be fun to have an extremely graphic-realistic game as depicted above, with different plane configurations, including planes with a rear-gunner, who would have a completely different view, if one were in a multiplayer game with other enemy planes. There could be a mission for a photo-reconnaissance-equipped P38 (no guns, but fast, but you had better get close enough to get the pictures the mission requires), or a duel between a Hellcat, and a Mitsubishi ‘Zero’. These scenarios would have a much lower ‘random-ambushed’ programming factor, although occasionally a gun/guns might jam. Bailing out should be an option (more research into what these pilots were supposed to do once they hit the water is called for). I tend to be ridiculously demanding regarding my expectations of the graphic quality of games that I will even look at. Graphic art realism is probably expensive. Research to make sure that something is accurate is probably expensive. Including random-event generators into many stages of the game is probably expensive. At first I was shocked at the costs mentioned in the Wikipedia article, but after reflection, I can understand it. Making a high-quality video game is very analogous to making a modern motion picture.

code for programmatic collage - week #3

package
{
import flash.display.MovieClip;

public class Main extends MovieClip //class signature
{

public function Main() //function signature
{
// constructor code
var go1 = "Which world?";
var go2 = "It's all relative, isn't it?";

trace("Hello World"); //prints "Hello World" to Output
trace(go1); //prints var go1 to Output
trace(go2); //prints var go2 to Output
// Herein ends the printing part of this...

var ourThing:MovieClip;
//declaration - the colon says,"It MUST be a MovieClip"
var ourThing1:MovieClip;
//declaration - the colon says,"It MUST be a MovieClip"
var ourThing2:MovieClip;
//declaration - the colon says,"It MUST be a MovieClip"
var ourThing3:MovieClip;
//declaration - the colon says,"It MUST be a MovieClip"
var ourThing4:MovieClip;
//declaration - the colon says, "It MUST be a MovieClip"

ourThing = new Duster; // instantiation
// the 'linkage' name of one of my library 'MovieClips'
ourThing1 = new Boots_HeavyDuty1; // instantiation
ourThing2 = new BlueHashMarks; //instantiation
ourThing3 = new TwentyTwoCartridge; //instantiation
ourThing4 = new TwentyTwoCartridge; //instantiation

addChild(ourThing); //add to stage
addChild(ourThing1); //add to stage
addChild(ourThing2); //add to stage
addChild(ourThing3); //add to stage
addChild(ourThing4); //add to stage

ourThing.x = 350;
//this moves symbol/MovieClip further to the right
ourThing.y = stage.stageHeight/2;
//this moves symbol/MovieClip down from the top

ourThing.alpha = .5;
//this reduces the opacity of the lines

ourThing.scaleX = .5;
//this reduces the 'width' of the symbol/MovieClip

ourThing.rotation = 45;
//this gives the symbol/MovieClip a 45degree rotation to the right

ourThing1.x = 250;
//this moves symbol/MovieClip further to the right
ourThing1.y = 100;
//this moves symbol/MovieClip down from the top

ourThing2.scaleX = .85;
//this reduces the width of the symbol/MovieClip

ourThing3.x = 375;
//this moves symbol/MovieClip further to the right
ourThing3.y = 240;
//this moves symbol/MovieClip down from the top
ourThing3.rotation = 325;
//this gives the symbol/MovieClip a 325degree rotation to the right
ourThing3.scaleX = .80;
//this reduces the width of the symbol/MovieClip
ourThing3.scaleY = .80;
//this reduces the width of the symbol/MovieClip

ourThing4.x = 365;
//this moves symbol/MovieClip further to the right
ourThing4.y = 260;
//this moves symbol/MovieClip down from the top
ourThing4.rotation = 35;
//this gives the symbol/MovieClip a 35degree rotation to the right
ourThing4.scaleX = .60;
//this reduces the width of the symbol/MovieClip
ourThing4.scaleY = .60;
//this reduces the width of the symbol/MovieClip


} // Function Main

} // Class Main

}

This code worked when I copied; hopefully the attempt to make it all fit legibly in the somewhat narrow 'new blog post window space' did not mess things up.

Essay #2

I’m not sure that I have much of a sense of game design at this point! I have not played many video games in the past. I remember the sense of admiration I had at first encountering an arcade version of Pong in the U of O student union, years ago. Good lord, Pong! I was dumbfounded at the thought that ‘some sort of programming’ could simulate a paddle hitting a tennis ball, and that depending on which part of the paddle it hit, and how fast you were moving the paddle by twisting the knob, you could actually influence the angle at which the ball was returned to the implacable computer opponent. And - just think of it! - this computer could replicate the ball bouncing off of a wall! Pinball machines were on their way out, sad to say. I didn’t spend much time with them, because I wasn’t very good, but I loved pinball machines. The sounds, colored lights, bumpers, and graphics tended to suck me right in. Video arcade games were the new kids on the block, and I wasn’t very happy about it. I still love the graphics on pinball machines, especially the older ones, from before the 80’s, and even further back. I played ‘Asteroids’ a few times, but I never got into Donkey Kong, or Mario Bros. In the 90’s, I did have a home version of ‘F-16: Fighting Falcon’. I was not good at that one either (and usually set the preferences to ‘unable to register damage on my plane’), but I was amazed at the amount of information that the creators programmed into it. The ‘view options’ included zooming in on, or around (360 degrees, outside), the object that your nose radar was locked onto, zooming in on, or around (360 degrees, outside), the missile flight path that you had just launched, and zooming in on, or around (360 degrees, outside), your plane. Any of these views would show the clouds and/or landscape changing, while you were rotating the view. You could also shoot down your own planes or rescue helicopters (resulting in a court-martial), shoot down civilian airliners and strafe beachfront resorts while you were supposed to be practicing inert-bomb-dropping runs in Hawaii, and raise merry havoc on the specialized mission involving a nuclear bomb, by dropping it on your own airstrip just after taking off. This, needless to say, also resulted in a court-martial. You could take off, bail out, and let your multi-million dollar jet simply tumble from the sky, to the chagrin of involuntary taxpayers back home. The inclusion of all this completely unnecessary data left me in absolute awe of the game’s programmers. I never played Myst, either, but remember being impressed with what little I had seen of the graphics, and concept.
I always wondered about the limitation of the single screen. Are there any games out there right now that work with multiple screens? I have always thought that it would be fun to have a large full-cockpit-sized flight simulator of some WWII fighter with flat cockpit windshield panel segments, in which each panel would be a separate display, which would be linked together to a decent CPU, to simulate the experience of flying a WWII fighter, with high-resolution graphics. Vibrations, noise, cockpit movement, oil smells, and very loud sounds of the engine, and .50 wing guns, would be jolly good fun. You could even include a pressure suit to simulate hard turns, as long as there would be programming parameters to not overly tax anyone’s weak heart. Realistic simulations of carrier takeoff and landing would be a very interesting experience, too.
There was another home computer game I played for a little while called ‘U-boat’. The goal was to relentlessly pursue and sink allied ships, civilian or otherwise. I could handle it, because it was relatively slow-moving, but the concept itself was admittedly a little morose. The graphics weren’t bad. I have tended to have some judgment issues with the sanguinary nature of ‘first-person shooter’ games, and yet the two games I have just mentioned were basically just that. I am guessing the reason that I played them is because there are tangible results to the players’ actions, and perhaps that is why I never played ‘Donkey Kong’ or ‘Mario Brothers. I never really ‘got’ them (though perhaps I would have if I had played them), and I was turned off by the simple graphics. Why did I like the graphics of Pinball, but not Donkey Kong? I’m not sure I can answer that. I was pretty impressed with the graphics of F-16 at the time, and not so long ago I looked up a more recent version, and the screenshots were even better. Having never played Super Mario Brothers, I can’t really relate it very well to the creator’s childhood explorations, but I applaud the fact that he was able to continue his childhood sense of creativity. I can appreciate the challenge of designing a game for the general public that will have some challenge, but not too much. There are those who will pick up on important concepts immediately, and those that will not. Sufficiently engaging the interest of both groups would not always be easy.

Collage #5

Collage #4

Collage #3

2nd Collage

1st Collage

Reflective essay on 'games'

I’m not a big game player, but there was something about Monopoly, while growing up, that seemed like a ‘grown-up’ game. It was, to a certain extent, a serious game, when I was in my late teens/early 20s, and footloose and fancy free. It required commitment. If you started in the evening with your buddies, you were going to be in it for the long haul. There was something wonderful about being a cash-poor student in reality, and being able to take in hundreds of dollars with a single move, that contributed an element of vicarious fantasy. Strategy was a bit iffy. I think that the general consensus was that you bought everything you landed on, until you ran out of capital, and until you passed ‘go’ again. That precluded feeling guilty if you didn’t buy a property the first chance you had, and felt naïve later that you didn’t. The late-night games usually dragged on so long that you got sleep-deprived enough, that you just didn’t care what happened anymore. I am even more enamored today with the insanely-democratic concept of the ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card. You could just have that puppy sitting there for when you needed it, and if you were trying to avoid moving towards some rather threatening hotels, you didn’t even have to use it. Being incarcerated produced no potential of physical assault or bad odors, and you didn’t have to use it if you didn’t want to, which felt wonderfully indulgent. These days you have to be related to a high-ranking official, or very rich, or be a significant campaign donor, to be able to pull off that kind of move.
In grade school, I liked ‘4-Square’. I was not one of the athletic clique, all through school. I didn’t really hit my stride until my early 20’s, when I started taking martial arts, and dance classes, and finally started to attain some sort of physical grace. Sports in grade school was a little taste of ‘the lord of the flies’ for me. I wore coke-bottle glasses, and was above-average geeky. Good at spelling, sucky at baseball. I was in Pee-Wee baseball, and was usually a right-fielder, where, I have no doubt, it was felt I would do the least damage to the team’s total score. Depth perception was a problem, as were fly balls. Basketball was even more tortuous. Dribbling, nyet. Hitting the basketball rim, without shot completion, was a major accomplishment. On the playground, Tetherball was a soul-crusher. Watching somebody making well-timed jumps, snapping that ball around-and-around, just above my reach, would have been enough to send me to the existentialist literature, but the library at Adams Elementary School didn’t carry books by Hubert Selby, Jr. 4-Square I could handle. It was physical, but not too physical. The distances were close. The ball itself was lovingly ‘giving’ in its relative firmness. When somebody ‘above’ you was ‘taken out’, you got to advance a square. I was on a fairly equal physical parity with the female students of my class. No bloody noses from merciless targeting such as occurred in its nihilistic gladiatorial cousin, Dodgeball.

3 more symbols

I will refine some of these symbols later.

At least one knife is needed, and several are better, preferably in different configurations. This wretched drawing is supposed to represent one of the more traditional fixed-blade designs, the Finnish Pukko, used by the Lapplanders. From preparing food, to cutting material, to shaping wood, to preparing tinder, to de-branching small limbs when needed, the knife is one of humankind's oldest and most useful tools. Fixed-blade designs are the strongest, though some modern locking folding-blade designs are quite strong, also. A 'bolo', 'kukhri', or lightweight hatchet, would also be useful for chopping purposes. Something smaller, with a thinner, more delicate blade, would also be useful for filetting fish, or removing a splinter.

I prefer the look of the large heavy-duty leather shoulder bag for urban day trips, but it might not be most practical, in terms of weight. In terms of durability and wear resistance, it definitely beats nylon and canvas. Water-logged in a heavy rain, it definitely would not be much fun to use. The U.S. Postal Service used to issue some truly kick-a** leather shoulder bags to some of their mail carriers, many years ago, back when it was a 'neither rain, nor hail, nor sleet, nor snow...' proposition. These days, of course, if somebody parks at the curb, in front of your mailbox, you're not even getting your delivery. How times have changed.

Another flashlight. This was a tricky subject for me. Among my many eccentricities, I am part of an on-line 'village' of flashlight freaks. AA cells are the most common worldwide, and there are solar battery chargers that will charge AA 'NiMH' type rechargeable batteries, so if you can only have a couple of small flashlights, those powered by AA cells are probably the way to go (although you can get more performance from lithium-based CR123a cells). One would probably be able to get by with a very dim light 90% of the time, so a long runtime model like the 1xAA Gerber 'Infinity Ultra' would be very useful. Supposedly the 'Infinity Ultra' will last close to 100 hours on a single AA battery, although it will be very dim near the end. However, every once in a while you might need to search for something with a more focused and penetrating beam, and the extra voltage afforded by, for example, a 2xAA model from Fenix, or Quark, would be useful also. Personally, in the category of brighter 2-cell lights, I would prefer a SureFire 9P 'host' with 2xAA Energizer lithium cells inside (with a shelf life of 15-20 years), utilizing a Malkoff M30w led drop-in module (no longer made), but that's just me.

5 more symbols

Some sort of long coat is probably a good idea. No self-respecting PALUD would roll without one. Smoke grenades are useful when one is being pursued into the urban version of a box canyon, and visually obfuscating the opposition is indicated. Several colors are available. The Shemagh, or Keffiyeh is good for sunscreen, or keeping the dust out of your face. Favored by Special Ops. Plus, they just look cool. Sunglasses are a good idea, and 'shooting glasses' protect your eyes from small flying objects, as well. A stainless steel water bottle (or 20) will not only protect your water better than a canvas 'desert bag', but you can boil the whole thing when necessary.

6 more symbols

Universal handcuff key (easy to have several concealed on oneself; one never knows when one might have to uncuff oneself or others), Katadyn water filter (pricey but priceless), a sharpening jig for knives (with ceramic rods), a multi-tool (not as useful as a tool chest, but much easier to lug around), night vision goggles for nighttime observation of the local scene ('1st generation' surplus goggles are much more affordable than current 3rd generation), and soap. Post-apocalyptic personal hygiene will be problematic, but for god's sake, an occasional de-greasing is going to be necessary.

11 more symbols

GI 'P-51' can opener, duct tape, firestarter (Zippo, with or without butane insert, and/or matches), first aid kit, 2xAA flashlight (with hi/lo modes), some form of coin of the realm (preferably very small gold increments), pressurized space pen (waterproof, as well), gloves (leather AND latex/nitrile), lightweight pry bar (very useful for forced-entry foraging), nylon 'cord' (strong enough to support body weight and more), and a hat.

1st installment of 30 symbols (7)

I couldn't figure out how to arrange all 30 symbols on one Flash sheet without it being a mess, and the posting deadline is approaching, so I'm doing this in installments. Assuming that the well-appointed PALUD (Post-Apocalyptic Lone Urban Drifter) has had the time and opportunity to gather his preferred gear, here are some of his choices.

The subject of firearms could take up much time, but a 'silenced' .22 breakdown rifle is a good general-purpose tool. My crude drawing is based on the Marlin 'Papoose' model. The suppressor allows for the taking of small game in inner-city parks without calling undue attention to oneself, or can be used for the removal of annoying exposed light bulbs, when one is trying to fly under the social radar screen. .22lr ammo has very little recoil, can be very accurate, and is small and light enough to allow one to carry a decent amount, partly to use as barter if desired. A telescopic sight makes it a little easier to hit what you are aiming at.

Sturdy boots are very helpful, as are binoculars, for surveilling.

The odd-looking round thing (I know, they're all odd-looking) underneath the suppressor is a DIY alcohol stove, made from a 3-oz. catfood can.

i'm still trying to figure out Flash, so none of this is remotely to scale. The symbol for a .22 cartridge has ended up looking like a howitzer shell, next to the actual rifle.