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Member Back to Top Post by hspfpj on Yesterday, the second class meeting took place, and here is a short update:



Of the 16 students who attended the first meeting last week, 3 have dropped out and there are now 13 students enrolled in the course. This was somehow to be expected as in the first week of the semester the students usually attend the first meetings of many of the elective courses to get an overview of what is planned and then later on decide in which courses to stay. Of the 3 students who dropped out, one decided to rather attend my Robot Programming course, and the other two quit because they either considered the workload of the course to be too high or feared that their programming abilities might not be good enough to follow the lecture. The remaining 13 students all seem to be very enthusiastic about the upcoming project and display a great deal of motivation. Most of them have already shown their motivation and their capabilities in the preceeding entry tests of the course. This time, the entry tests did not only consist of several hidden questions on the course web pages like last year, but also of a subsequent series of programming puzzles and programming tasks with increasing difficulty which proved to be a lot of fun for all those who participated. This also gave me a very good impression of the student's programming abilities. I really hope their enthusiasm will stay on the same level throught the whole course.



A lot of them have already developed the first ideas for their own Vectrex projects. The current status is reflected on the gallery page, but everything is still subject to change. There a some quite nice concept art drawings, and I am very curious about what other ideas will come up in the next days.



Cheers,

Peer



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Member Back to Top Post by VECTREXER on hspfpj said:

***

A lot of them have already developed the first ideas for their own Vectrex projects. The current status is reflected on the gallery page, but everything is still subject to change. There a some quite nice concept art drawings, and I am very curious about what other ideas will come up in the next days.



Cheers,

Peer

Yesterday***A lot of them have already developed the first ideas for their own Vectrex projects. The current status is reflected on the gallery page, but everything is still subject to change. There a some quite nice concept art drawings, and I am very curious about what other ideas will come up in the next days.Cheers,Peer



Fantastic to be informed of the course updates Thank you.



BTW, If you click the Image for the Vectrex console on the course page it still refers back to the 2018 Project Page. You may wish to update it to point to the 2018 project page.







Fantastic to be informed of the course updates Thank you.BTW, If you click the Image for the Vectrex console on the course page it still refers back to the 2018 Project Page. You may wish to update it to point to the 2018 project page.

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Member Back to Top Post by hcmffm on



Some feedback on some of the game concepts:



Super Tank

Intersting game play. To me, block graphics (obstacles) of "Super Tank" seem too complex for the Vectrex. This might be quite difficult to implement with a decent frame rate / performance.



Split personality

Game title sounds like a psychological finding ("Befund"). Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - I'm nosey what the game play will be like. The two players could differ in brightness (filled areas are impossible on the Vectrex).



Thirsty Astronaut

Funny game title and funny story. Gameplay could be a bit like Frogger or chicken run, i.e. threats coming from left and right side. Shields + Oxygen + Time + Diamonds sound like a pretty sophisticated gameplay.



Floor is lava

Game play might be a variation of last year's "Kingdoms of Heaven" - the ISO metric perspective will make this game different and special. "Lava run" might be a good title for this. Starting game development with rectangular platforms is good. Would be cool if the platforms had other varying (random or predefined) shapes which look like sheet of floating ice. Collision detection might be difficult, though.



Again, thank you, Peer, for keeping us up-to-date and good luck and fun to the 13 students!



Helmut I just clicked on 2018 project gallery and I was quite surprised to see all projects setup, already. And some of the projects have a story and/or concept papers. The concept papers are well done and quite interesting.Some feedback on some of the game concepts:Intersting game play. To me, block graphics (obstacles) of "Super Tank" seem too complex for the Vectrex. This might be quite difficult to implement with a decent frame rate / performance.Game title sounds like a psychological finding ("Befund"). Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - I'm nosey what the game play will be like. The two players could differ in brightness (filled areas are impossible on the Vectrex).Funny game title and funny story.Gameplay could be a bit like Frogger or chicken run, i.e. threats coming from left and right side. Shields + Oxygen + Time + Diamonds sound like a pretty sophisticated gameplay.Game play might be a variation of last year's "Kingdoms of Heaven" - the ISO metric perspective will make this game different and special. "Lava run" might be a good title for this. Starting game development with rectangular platforms is good. Would be cool if the platforms had other varying (random or predefined) shapes which look like sheet of floating ice. Collision detection might be difficult, though.Again, thank you, Peer, for keeping us up-to-date and good luck and fun to the 13 students!Helmut

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Member Back to Top Post by hspfpj on VECTREXER said:

Questions about the course.

What is the language is the course is presented in for the class and lab sessions?

For remote possibilities. Any chances for auditing via internet?

Questions about the course.What is the language is the course is presented in for the class and lab sessions?For remote possibilities. Any chances for auditing via internet?



The reason for this is as follows: I think that foreign language competence is very important for today's students, and English is THE most relevant international language, especially in the field of computer science. That is why I offer several of my elective courses in English. In Germany, English is taught in school, so most of the students have average English language abilities. However, attending and following an English lecture still is quite a challenge for many of them. That is why I use German to introduce them to the fundamentals of Vectrex programming, because I want to make sure that they really understand the basics and can quickly focus on their projects and on the actual C programming. All text material we are using is in English, and the students have to read English texts as homework. Whenever they send me emails, they have to write their messages in English. Thus, over the course of time, they get more and more comfortable with the language, and at some point I start to also use English in the lectures. Towards the end of the course there will probably be one or two session which will be completely in English. But all that depends a bit on how things evolve.



There is no special streaming technology in the lab, and we (i.e. Pforzheim University) have not yet adopted the virtual classroom concept. Skype sessions would surely work, but right now, the lectures are still completely in German. I will keep you posted on this.



Last year I had a brief email exchange with Sean Kelly, and I learned that he is friends with Jay Smith. One idea I cannot get out of my mind is trying to arrange a video conference with (one or some of) the original creators and programmers of the Vectrex console and of the original cartridges. I think that would be a really great and cool experience for the students to listen to contemporary witnesses and learn about the origins of the console and about how software and games were developed in those days. I have read rumors that those guys are very hard to reach. I haven't found the time to do so yet, but I would definitly like to give this a try…



Cheers,

Peer





Usually, the official language of an elective course is either German or English. For the Vectrex course I have chosen a hybrid approach. In the classroom, we are (currently) talking in German. All documents, texts and email communication are in English. The rest is in CThe reason for this is as follows: I think that foreign language competence is very important for today's students, and English is THE most relevant international language, especially in the field of computer science. That is why I offer several of my elective courses in English. In Germany, English is taught in school, so most of the students have average English language abilities. However, attending and following an English lecture still is quite a challenge for many of them. That is why I use German to introduce them to the fundamentals of Vectrex programming, because I want to make sure that they really understand the basics and can quickly focus on their projects and on the actual C programming. All text material we are using is in English, and the students have to read English texts as homework. Whenever they send me emails, they have to write their messages in English. Thus, over the course of time, they get more and more comfortable with the language, and at some point I start to also use English in the lectures. Towards the end of the course there will probably be one or two session which will be completely in English. But all that depends a bit on how things evolve.There is no special streaming technology in the lab, and we (i.e. Pforzheim University) have not yet adopted the virtual classroom concept. Skype sessions would surely work, but right now, the lectures are still completely in German. I will keep you posted on this.Last year I had a brief email exchange with Sean Kelly, and I learned that he is friends with Jay Smith. One idea I cannot get out of my mind is trying to arrange a video conference with (one or some of) the original creators and programmers of the Vectrex console and of the original cartridges. I think that would be a really great and cool experience for the students to listen to contemporary witnesses and learn about the origins of the console and about how software and games were developed in those days. I have read rumors that those guys are very hard to reach. I haven't found the time to do so yet, but I would definitly like to give this a try…Cheers,Peer