Space Invaders from Scratch (opens in new tab)

(nicktasios.nl)

212 pointsGrieverheart8y ago40 comments

40 comments

30 comments · 13 top-level

dexterdog8y ago· 3 in thread

He seems to have skipped over the creation of the universe step at the beginning.

Well, we still don't know what programming language the universe runs on, so properly documenting that part would be a bit tricky.

chii8y ago

I'm fairly certain that mathematics is the language that the universe is written in...

2 more replies

GrieverheartOP8y ago

Maybe I'll write a Haskell tutorial...

nils-m-holm8y ago· 2 in thread

Writing a Space Invaders clone is such a rewarding task! :)

Here's mine (using Xlib): https://www.t3x.org/xt3x/index.html

CodeWriter238y ago

Space Invaders was something I wrote in BASIC as a side project while in high school. Then with each new language I needed to learn, I wrote Space Invaders in that language to get me up to speed quickly.

jamiek888y ago

Me too!

BBC basic, had an acorn electron at home with nearly the same BASIC installed so I could work on it outside of school but getting the timings right for both machines was hard.

Ended up with two versions selected at runtime.

Me and my best pal at school both wrote versions when we weren’t collaborating on tools to hack the Econet system!

Great times.

bigiain8y ago· 2 in thread

Heh - I remember doing this in ascii-art on an Osbourne CP/M machine, first in Basic and later in Z80 assembler. I used the wiring diagram in the owner manual (!!!) to work out how to make a joystick I could plug into the parallel port. I was maybe 13 at the time...

DEADBEEFC0FFEE8y ago

Increasing few people know what the hell your on about. Parallel port, you were lucky. 15 pin analogue for me.

mar77i8y ago

15 pin analogue? Luxury. I had to manually wire a piece of wire to a microchip to attach a joystick made of dinosaur bone.

krapp8y ago· 2 in thread

Since everyone is showing off theirs here is my half-assed attempt: https://bitbucket.org/kennethrapp/spaceinvaders

aerique8y ago

And here's mine: https://aerique.itch.io/alien-conquerors

It was written in Haxe and compiled to Flash. Doesn't really work anymore in most browsers. I should find the source and recompile as HTML5.

dirkc8y ago

I had to play until killing all the aliens at least once!

1 more reply

weeber8y ago· 2 in thread

Interresting, but the OpenGL setup is not necessary?

MikkoFinell8y ago

Why not?

grenoire8y ago

The author is handling sprite rendering entirely on the CPU, he's only using OpenGL to put a bitmap on the window. Little bit unnecessary.

3 more replies

aquova8y ago· 2 in thread

A little bit off topic, but what are the best libraries for drawing simple graphics like this? I've been looking into making a small graphics project and I'm not sure which is the best to use. It only needs to draw basic shapes like ellipses, or rectangles, or just specific pixels. I've been looking into SDL2, as that seems relatively popular and portable, but I'm curious to see if there's any other libraries that are recommended.

sfifs8y ago

While this may seem heretical to many, why not consider SVG or HTML5 canvas? Widely supported, Ultra portable and very readable code unless you are looking for stuff that needs fancy acceleration.

feiss8y ago

Html Canvas is easy and accessible for anybody, a safe choice. If you look for something native and accelerated, the best thing I found is Tigr https://bitbucket.org/rmitton/tigr/src

I really miss 486 days, when all you needed to paint pixels on screen full speed was 2 ASM instructions and writing to video memory. Full freedom and creativity without any technical barrier.

zorkw4rg8y ago· 2 in thread

now that unreadable shader trick might be neat and all, but since GLSL supports if statements why not use this and make it readable? There certainly won't be any performance issues with rendering a single triangle, but I suppose people want to feel clever?

https://rauwendaal.net/2014/06/14/rendering-a-screen-coverin...

GrieverheartOP8y ago

Hi zorkw4rg. Thanks for having a look at the tutorials. What makes the vertex shader not readable in your opinion? If you substitute the different values gl_VertexID can take (0,1,2), it's not hard to calculate the values of gl_Position.

zorkw4rg8y ago

Its certainly not hard to calculate but a if this index then this vertex coordinates, and so on, seems significantly simpler than having to calculate anything at all? It sure what be more verbose though.

scottlu28y ago· 1 in thread

A Javascript based one: https://codesandbox.io/s/2px9y0p480

ivansavz8y ago

Nice! 2k lines of js, but it's all there and quite readable.

The gif-backed DemoMode is also very cool.

nyrulez8y ago· 1 in thread

This brings back some fond memories. I once made a 3D OpenGL clone of space invaders for a graphics course (Windows only). It made a bunch of changes and was actually playable and reasonably challenging...don't know if it even works today

http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~agupta/_projects/space_invad...

opencl8y ago

It runs fine on W10, just needs vsync forced on to play at a reasonable speed.

anoakie8y ago

I implemented Space Invaders from scratch, but in a roundabout way... By writing a well documented 8080a emulator that can play dumps of the arcade roms: https://github.com/anoakie/siemu

AnotherHustler8y ago

If you want to be OCD about it - here's how the original arcade game worked...

http://www.computerarcheology.com/Arcade/SpaceInvaders/

sehugg8y ago

Here's my version targeted for the original 8080 hardware, in C: http://8bitworkshop.com/v2.1.1/?platform=mw8080bw&file=game2...

vardump8y ago

"From scratch" made me expect something like "From NAND to Tetris".

http://www.nand2tetris.org/

Or Space Invaders not on modern hardware, or at least on an emulated 8-bit system.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

40 comments

30 comments · 13 top-level

dexterdog8y ago· 3 in thread

He seems to have skipped over the creation of the universe step at the beginning.

crooked-v8y ago

Well, we still don't know what programming language the universe runs on, so properly documenting that part would be a bit tricky.

chii8y ago

I'm fairly certain that mathematics is the language that the universe is written in...

2 more replies

GrieverheartOP8y ago

Maybe I'll write a Haskell tutorial...

nils-m-holm8y ago· 2 in thread

Writing a Space Invaders clone is such a rewarding task! :)

Here's mine (using Xlib): https://www.t3x.org/xt3x/index.html

CodeWriter238y ago

jamiek888y ago

Me too!

BBC basic, had an acorn electron at home with nearly the same BASIC installed so I could work on it outside of school but getting the timings right for both machines was hard.

Ended up with two versions selected at runtime.

Me and my best pal at school both wrote versions when we weren’t collaborating on tools to hack the Econet system!

Great times.

bigiain8y ago· 2 in thread

DEADBEEFC0FFEE8y ago

Increasing few people know what the hell your on about. Parallel port, you were lucky. 15 pin analogue for me.

mar77i8y ago

15 pin analogue? Luxury. I had to manually wire a piece of wire to a microchip to attach a joystick made of dinosaur bone.

krapp8y ago· 2 in thread

Since everyone is showing off theirs here is my half-assed attempt: https://bitbucket.org/kennethrapp/spaceinvaders

aerique8y ago

And here's mine: https://aerique.itch.io/alien-conquerors

It was written in Haxe and compiled to Flash. Doesn't really work anymore in most browsers. I should find the source and recompile as HTML5.

dirkc8y ago

I had to play until killing all the aliens at least once!

1 more reply

weeber8y ago· 2 in thread

Interresting, but the OpenGL setup is not necessary?

MikkoFinell8y ago

Why not?

grenoire8y ago

The author is handling sprite rendering entirely on the CPU, he's only using OpenGL to put a bitmap on the window. Little bit unnecessary.

3 more replies

aquova8y ago· 2 in thread

sfifs8y ago

While this may seem heretical to many, why not consider SVG or HTML5 canvas? Widely supported, Ultra portable and very readable code unless you are looking for stuff that needs fancy acceleration.

feiss8y ago

Html Canvas is easy and accessible for anybody, a safe choice. If you look for something native and accelerated, the best thing I found is Tigr https://bitbucket.org/rmitton/tigr/src

I really miss 486 days, when all you needed to paint pixels on screen full speed was 2 ASM instructions and writing to video memory. Full freedom and creativity without any technical barrier.

zorkw4rg8y ago· 2 in thread

https://rauwendaal.net/2014/06/14/rendering-a-screen-coverin...

GrieverheartOP8y ago

zorkw4rg8y ago

scottlu28y ago· 1 in thread

A Javascript based one: https://codesandbox.io/s/2px9y0p480

ivansavz8y ago

Nice! 2k lines of js, but it's all there and quite readable.

The gif-backed DemoMode is also very cool.

nyrulez8y ago· 1 in thread

http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~agupta/_projects/space_invad...

opencl8y ago

It runs fine on W10, just needs vsync forced on to play at a reasonable speed.

anoakie8y ago

I implemented Space Invaders from scratch, but in a roundabout way... By writing a well documented 8080a emulator that can play dumps of the arcade roms: https://github.com/anoakie/siemu

AnotherHustler8y ago

If you want to be OCD about it - here's how the original arcade game worked...

http://www.computerarcheology.com/Arcade/SpaceInvaders/

sehugg8y ago

Here's my version targeted for the original 8080 hardware, in C: http://8bitworkshop.com/v2.1.1/?platform=mw8080bw&file=game2...

vardump8y ago

"From scratch" made me expect something like "From NAND to Tetris".

http://www.nand2tetris.org/

Or Space Invaders not on modern hardware, or at least on an emulated 8-bit system.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse