Is porting Xargon permitted?

Discuss coding, porting and creating games
User avatar
kilodude
Classic Game Author
Posts: 54
Joined: July 19th, 2008, 6:29 pm
Contact:

Re: Is porting Xargon permitted?

Post by kilodude »

Malvineous, how is the port coming?
-Allen, Game Designer/Programmer of "Kiloblaster" and "Xargon." Game Design for "Super ZZTs: Monster Zoo" and bonus levels of "Snarf."
Malvineous
8-bit mega nerd
Posts: 292
Joined: March 17th, 2007, 6:40 pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Contact:

Re: Is porting Xargon permitted?

Post by Malvineous »

Hi Allen, unfortunately I haven't touched it since I last posted, I've been a bit distracted with the game editor I'm working on (which will also allow people to create their own Xargon levels, which is what got me looking into the Xargon source in the first place!)

When I last left it I had to hunt down the reason why the game was scrolling across the level when it was first loaded, and it sounded like there were a few memory issues that caused the Windows version to crash, which will require some more debugging. I fear that neither of these two problems will be quick to solve! But I hope to get it working properly eventually. My original intention was to make a port for the Pandora but alas I'm still waiting for mine to arrive...
ronen1kr
Less than a nibble
Posts: 2
Joined: November 2nd, 2011, 5:51 am

Re: Is porting Xargon permitted?

Post by ronen1kr »

Hi all,
I see that you are making some progress on the port, well I also did port the engine but for klloblaster
And have got pretty far, did all the graphics, the sounds and some of the music.
But was stomped by some SDL problems with sound so right now it;s on hiatus.

I've attached all my sources so it maybe of use to you or anybody else.
(It's for Symbian platform)

Hope it helps

Ronen K.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Malvineous
8-bit mega nerd
Posts: 292
Joined: March 17th, 2007, 6:40 pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Contact:

Re: Is porting Xargon permitted?

Post by Malvineous »

Interesting! Thanks for posting the code. Unfortunately I don't have anything running Symbian so I can't test it. Did you get it far enough to be playable?

You have gone down a slightly different track to what I'm aiming for - e.g. you have replaced the CMF music with MIDI, however as I want to stay true to the original I have written a CMF player so that the music sounds the same as in the original.

I can't immediately see what you have done with the graphics though - are you using the original game data files or did you convert them to .bmp?
ronen1kr
Less than a nibble
Posts: 2
Joined: November 2nd, 2011, 5:51 am

Re: Is porting Xargon permitted?

Post by ronen1kr »

The game was playable fully (Except the sound issue), everything using the original data.
Good work on the CMF I was thinking doing it after the final engine was done.

Keep us posted

Ronen.
Malvineous
8-bit mega nerd
Posts: 292
Joined: March 17th, 2007, 6:40 pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Contact:

Re: Is porting Xargon permitted?

Post by Malvineous »

Just an update - I finally figured out what was causing the weird scrolling thing when each level was loaded (another instance where an integer had to be forced to 16-bit) and now as far as I can tell the game is working entirely normally.

Unfortunately it still crashes moments into the first level under Windows, so I'm trying to figure out how to run a debugger on a Windows machine to work out what the problem is - it works perfectly under Linux.

I'll post a new .exe if I have any luck solving it. Otherwise if anyone is able to narrow down where the crash occurs let me know!
Teppic
Less than a nibble
Posts: 10
Joined: December 28th, 2011, 9:09 pm

Re: Is porting Xargon permitted?

Post by Teppic »

Crashes when you try to scroll the screen upwards, either by jumping high enough for the screen to move, or moving the camera by pressing up.
Malvineous
8-bit mega nerd
Posts: 292
Joined: March 17th, 2007, 6:40 pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Contact:

Re: Is porting Xargon permitted?

Post by Malvineous »

Any chance you can get me a backtrace? I can't get it to crash under Linux, and I don't have access to a compiler/debugger on any other platform.
Teppic
Less than a nibble
Posts: 10
Joined: December 28th, 2011, 9:09 pm

Re: Is porting Xargon permitted?

Post by Teppic »

Sorry, I don't know how to do that. I'm no programmer :)
Malvineous
8-bit mega nerd
Posts: 292
Joined: March 17th, 2007, 6:40 pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Contact:

Re: Is porting Xargon permitted?

Post by Malvineous »

What OS are you using? Did you compile it from source? If you used GCC to do so, then you can run it through GDB and then use the "bt" command after it crashes.
Videogamer555
Less than a nibble
Posts: 15
Joined: February 1st, 2010, 7:44 am

Re: Is porting Xargon permitted?

Post by Videogamer555 »

I don't see how you can port it, sorry. It says in the license that you can't make a game that resembles Xargon. Of course Xargon resembles Xargon more than ANY other game you could possibly make with it because Xargon IS Xargon. Therefore a port of Xargon is ILLEGAL. You must take the engine and use as many of YOUR OWN GRAPHICS and LEVEL DESIGNS as possible, using AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE of the original material. An ideal game (most compliant with his license) would be one that while made with his game engine, would be using COMPLETELY NEW graphics and level layouts.

Of course you can make a port of Xargon that runs native on Windows (instead of DOS) if you want to for yourself, just that you won't be allowed to distribute the source code for this port. You may ONLY distribute the source code either if it is EXACTLY AS HE RELEASED IT (after all he released it in that form so I can assume it's ok to redistribute in that same form with NO alterations whatsoever) or if you make an altered version it must be VERY DIFFERENT from the game Xargon. Making a "port" of Xargon would count as a game that "resembled" Xargon, and that would be HIGHLY ILLEGAL because it VERY OBVIOUSLY (no gray area here) violates the license he put on it.
Malvineous
8-bit mega nerd
Posts: 292
Joined: March 17th, 2007, 6:40 pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Contact:

Re: Is porting Xargon permitted?

Post by Malvineous »

Just as well I got special permission from the guy who wrote Xargon then :-)
Videogamer555
Less than a nibble
Posts: 15
Joined: February 1st, 2010, 7:44 am

Re: Is porting Xargon permitted?

Post by Videogamer555 »

Malvineous wrote:Just as well I got special permission from the guy who wrote Xargon then :-)
How did you contact him? I checked out the Wikipedia page on Xargon and it lists his name as the maker of the game but no contact info. I can't find his email address anywhere.
Malvineous
8-bit mega nerd
Posts: 292
Joined: March 17th, 2007, 6:40 pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Contact:

Re: Is porting Xargon permitted?

Post by Malvineous »

Re-read this thread from the start :-) He posts on this forum as the user "kilodude".
User avatar
DOSGuy
Website Administrator
Posts: 1063
Joined: September 2nd, 2005, 8:28 pm
Contact:

Re: Is porting Xargon permitted?

Post by DOSGuy »

As for the question of how I found his email address, I won't give that away, but I certainly didn't find it on Wikipedia!
Today entirely the maniac there is no excuse with the article.
Post Reply