HPLX.NET Programming Projects

These projects are what I am currently involved in related to the 200LX. If anybody has any help or ideas to offer, please LET ME KNOW so that they can get done and out there faster. Note that I plan to release these as freeware.

Current Projects:

• Shopping List.  A program to assist you with shopping at the grocery store. Just a really quick idea. No details yet.
• Graphical Atlas.  An atlas program that not only uses the list of built-in cities, but also can use custom cities.  More graphically oriented than the built in World Time, this one will have a scrolling series of maps, based on a world view, continent view, country view, or local view.  Two map types, political and physical, are available, and detailed info on all political units and physical locations should be provided.
       Progress meter: 1%
       Involves: Scrolling graphics engine; data gathering; equation solving
       Approx. Complete Date: About the same time the sun becomes a red giant.
• E-Book system.  Something like VR, only with a proprietary compressed and indexed format for text files.  Designed for reading large works on your 200LX.  The goal is to enable people to read and publish fully formatted, fully indexed literary works on the 200LX.
        Progess Meter: 3%
        Involves: Data Compression; Indexing; Interface
        Approx. Time to Completion: unknown
• Journal Writing Program. I keep wanting to start keeping a daily record of my life-- it would be handy to be able to look back and see exactly what date I sent in a rebate coupon, for example, or last changed my oil. Or, years from now, I could look back and see exactly when I first met somebody, or how I felt on a particular day. ("Saturday, June 14: Today was not a good day.  My 200LX exploded.")  Unfortunately, issues about privacy make me unwilling to write all this stuff down, particularly personal information, in a normal paper journal. I could use the built-in software on the 200LX, or any old DOS word processor, but I want something with better searching capabilities, something designed from the ground up for the task at hand. So I'm trying to figure out how to do it. If anybody has any experience building a word processor or text editor, I'd appreciate any advice.
        Progress Meter: 0%
        Involves: Data Entry Windows; Compression; Encryption; Interface
        Approx. Time to Completion: unknown
• Games. I have a game in mind that would be a sequel to Rogue, the little ASCII-character game that you can get on S.U.P.E.R. that works quite nicely on the 200LX. This version would be larger, with more rooms and more things to find. There would be an improved status window, and there would be a text-line interface for doing things as well. A text-adventure style interpreter would be added for doing some puzzle-solving. That's all very nice, but as anybody who's ever played Rogue knows, the most aggravating part about the game is never knowing whether or not the next encounter with a monster is going to kill you. There's no skill involved-- it's too random. So, Rogue II (as I tentatively call it) would include a graphical fighting scene where you could actually use some of your own arcade skill to determine the outcome of the fight. This program will obviously require a lot of time and effort. Nick D. was working on a smooth-scrolling graphical RPG engine before the HPLX mailing list went down in late March 1997, but has since stopped.  I guess that means reinventing the wheel.  :-( [On the other hand, you might like ZZT, a fantastic non-random Rogue-like game which while having no graphical fighting scenes, is far better than Rogue and has incredible object-oriented techniques and a world editor that makes it absolutely fabulous. There are hundreds of third-party worlds to choose from if you have no creativity yourself as well. Basically, go get it right now and forget about Rogue II. -- Ian Butler] [Or maybe not. ZZT, though playable on the palmtop, is nevertheless hardly as much fun as Rogue, and is a lot harder to see. Rogue II will beat ZZT into the ground. -- David]
        Progress Meter: 0%
        Involves: Graphics; Simulated AI; Keyboard Interface; File Storage
        Approx. Time to Completion: unknown

That's all I have on the burner at the moment. Remember, please let me know if you want to help.

Copyright 1999, David Sargeant.
Last Updated 5-11-1999
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