Rush 2005 / News: Recent posts

Okay, sorry that progress has been slow lately.

There's a new option to handle problems with sound on Linux. Basically, run the program as 'rush2005 --nosound'. Hopefully the problems can be figured out but for now this should keep it from crashing...

The second Linux release is awaiting for your download, now featuring sounds and better graphics

Four more teams and some more code cleanup.

Teams are now selected from a menu, and there are four available (Atlanta was added). Ongoing code cleanup. A Dreamcast version may be coming soon.

A bunch of small changes. Results.html design is pretty much complete now. Pittsburgh has replaced Philadelphia (just as a test, data for Philly is still there).

Ongoing code cleanup and tweaking.

Mostly this is just a graphics, screens and sound upgrade.

Ok, this is the first Linux release of this project, featuring easy building through autoconf/automake.

The play selection screen has been revamped, and the first down line is a traditional 10 yards now, instead of 20. Hopefully I can improve the computer AI a little and push it back to the Blitz-style 20 again.

There's also a new function in gametk that flushes events that build up. If anybody has noticed that sometimes the computer jumps the gun on your selections (reading a keypress too early or whatnot), let me know, and I'll spread that function around. This is a fix applied to 0.3.4 in the 'aendeuryu' dev section which won't be considered part of the default branch history.

Okay, we've hit 0.3.0. The FG crash bug is still there, and therefore so is the bounty. Hopefully it'll work itself out in the code rewriting that's going to happen soon. But anyhoo.

Basically, the game is playable from start to finish. Fumbles and Interceptions are in the game, although there is at the moment no way for the defence to return them (that should work itself out later on...).

Next up is an improved play selection screen. It should work alright, although it might require a new dependancy -- don't worry, the game will ship with it.

Version 0.2.7 was released with a major crash bug on FG attempts. It is a randomly occuring bug and as such may still be in later versions of this game. I have been unable to replicate the crash under simulated conditions, and am at a loss to figure out what's causing it.

So, here's the deal. This is a free project and I can't afford to pay anybody anything, but I can do this: an upcoming feature of this game is that there will be a sports article describing the results of games played, who played well, who played poorly, etc. This will be in web form and will serve as a web-browsing portal to the game's statistics. The first person to find the cause of and send me a fix for this bug will have the sports writer for the game named after them, and their name will appear in the byline for every article written.... read more

Fumbles and Interceptions added. There's no chance for a return on defensive turnovers... maybe that'll be added later. For right now, though, the game is pretty much gameplay-feature complete, and will be moving to first beta stage shortly.

* Gameplay lasts a full 4 quarters, with overtime.
* field goals are a little more interesting (although there is the odd crashbug involving them that I haven't figure out yet)
* More options on defence for choosing players

In the initial polishing stage of the way kicks are handled. Hopefully this will be finished by the end of the week. If that's the case, interceptions and fumbles might only be a week away, and if THAT'S the case, the game will be pretty much gameplay feature-complete! Woo-hoo! And then I can begin bugfixing... (d'oh!)

Okay, once I can access SourceForge's ftp servers, Rush2004-0.2.4 is going to be out.

Seeing as how this is the second time ftp has been futzed in the last few weeks (either for me or SF, who knows...) I'm looking into a Berlios account, so uploads will go to a couple of places. If they prove to be a bit more reliable, I may change to them as my primary host.

This version has kickoffs.

By the way, there's a job posting regarding the need for a Linux porter. Apparently some users have been having difficulty installing the thing and I don't have access to a Linux box so I can't tidy up the makefile appropriately.

If anybody's interested, let me know.

A quick note on releases. The numbering system is going to follow the plan as outlined on the project homepage. If there's a letter following the final number, it's because there's some important bugfixes or maybe an extraneous feature.

In this case, it's an extraneous feature. After you've played a game, check out Results.html in the game directory. This might not work on all systems, though.

This version includes punting, and for the first time, the team on the defending end of the ball is trying to score. This means that defenders need to switch to blocking for their returner, and players on offence need to try to tackle him. This is going to affect stats, tackle checks, basically a bunch of stuff.

So, if anybody wants to try this out and get back to me on any weirdness that happens during punt returns, I'd appreciate it. In the meantime I'll keep moving ahead.

Okay, sourceforge's upload servers are wonky right now, so the latest snapshot/build/whatever is available off the main page.

http://rush2005.sourceforge.net/

I'm going to spend a little while playtesting this as is and compiling bugs and issues that I want to address as they crop up

Okay, development might be slow for a little bit because I'll need to build Indianapolis's offence, Philadelphia's defence, and basically fix a lot of the stuff that I've hardcoded into the game.

Right now, though, you can basically play either the Philly offence or the Indy defence, and play continues until a touchdown, a safety, or your 4 downs run out.

Most of the coding happening right now is to make sure it's scalable, so there won't be much in the way of feature increases for a little bit. Hopefully, though, by the end of January, we'll be at 0.2.0, or maybe beyond if punting/kicking is implemented without too much trouble.... read more