Pandora I Want To Try And Make A Game For Pandora!

[EvanB]

Hello everyone I am new here and Kudos to everyone who is making the Pandora happen. Is it Pandora or Open Pandora?

Anyways I am new here and have been following this for about two months and finally decided to join the forums here. Well I would love to learn how to make a game for Pandora but I guess since it isn't out I can't do anything right now. But If I can where could I learn how to do so. I dont even care if its a game all it has to be is a simple Hello World game!

EvanB

 

[Cervante]

Learn to use linux first.

 

[EvanB]

I dont have Linux though, I have Windows XP (SP2)

EvanB

 

[Snu]

I dont have Linux though, I have Windows XP (SP2)

put in a second harddrive, install (k)ubuntu on it and dual boot, its pretty easy to do, and you can find some tutorials on google by searching something like: dual boot ubuntu xp
its certainly possible to program pandora games in windows, but honestly its going to be much easier on linux.

you might want to try out learning SDL, which is an extensive library geared towards making 2d games, and will no doubt be ported to the pandora. also, if you want to do 3d you might look at the 3d engines thread and look around at different engines.

 

[moshansky]

If you want to try developing on Windows, try using WXDEV-CPP (it's free and works ok for windows apps) Then look for tutorials dealing with C/C++, which is a superset(original C with additional commands/operations/etc). Try to only learn C/C++ code, and not operating system dependent code. That should get you started in programming with C, then hopefully sooner rather than later you can start programming under Linux.

 

[rokdcasbah]

personally i think you should just get started in windows, rather than trying to learn programming in the midst of feeling around a new OS.

you will probably need to know how to get around a unix-style filesystem and bash prompt in order to load and save files on the pandora. this is not hard, you can quickly learn it if and when you need it. so linux is of course not a bad thing to be familiar with. just don't bite off more than you can chew...take it from someone who does that almost daily...

pandora will definitely support c and c++. it will almost certainly support python, java, ruby, and some others. i say "almost certainly" because it's not up to me, but java python & ruby usually are invited to the party.

my advice, is to do what you said, start at "hello world", maybe using python. i believe python comes with an ide called "idle", but there are others. you can worry about dealing with everything else later. first you need to learn to think like a programmer, which has nothing to do with platform. the platform-specific stuff you can probably bug people on irc for

 

[SharQueDo]

Try MinGW with MSYS if you're on Windows. I use it too, and it works almost just as good than compiling on a Linux OS. For basic stuff I just run MinGW gcc from the cmdline (makefile), for more relatively advanced stuff (autotools, ./configure, make, make install) I use MSYS with it.

 

[scarath]

put in a second harddrive, install (k)ubuntu on it and dual boot

Why kubuntu? has that got some magical abilities when it comes to dev'ing?

 

[SharQueDo]

It's just Ubuntu with KDE. Although KDE does have some nice tools for text editing and project management and stuff (iirc).

 

[scarath]

It's just Ubuntu with KDE. Although KDE does have some nice tools for text editing and project management and stuff (iirc).

I know I have used kubuntu and ubuntu, I was trying to make a point that 1 distro isnt much better than the next and recommending only 1 is a little unfair.

 

[flatmush]

The best linux-like programming system for windows is either cygwin (lots of hassle) or Code::Blocks.
Code::Blocks uses gcc for windows (MingGW) and has almost the same libraries as most linux systems.

Linux is actually a lot easier to program on, but if like me you prefer windows for everything else then Code::Blocks is a good replacement.

 

[EvanB]

Thanks for all the great responses! I do have programming experience in Visual Basic but that is so simple.

After I get the programs how do I map move left to the left button on Pandora because I though that you can only make computer games with Python.

 

[juanvvc]

In Gp2x, Pygame+Python uses the first joystick to map controls. I imagine that it will be something similar in Pandora. If you do not have joysticks for your PC, you can make a program where 'left' means the 'left button of the first joystick OR the left button of the keyboard'

Another fine, introductory language to write games is Fenix. It deserves a couple of tries.

 

[Holokauston]

It's just Ubuntu with KDE. Although KDE does have some nice tools for text editing and project management and stuff (iirc).

I know I have used kubuntu and ubuntu, I was trying to make a point that 1 distro isnt much better than the next and recommending only 1 is a little unfair.


So you shouldn't recommend one you think is good because it's unfair?
You won't recommend Pandora to anyone since that would be unfair to PSP and DS etc?

I recommend Ubuntu all the time to people, since I feel it's easy to learn but still makes it possible to go more in depth if you know what you are doing, I don't recommend RedHat since I don't like their "standards" etc is that unfair?
No, it's a recommendation based on personal opinion and experience and he never said that it was better than anything else

 

[EvanB]

In Gp2x, Pygame+Python uses the first joystick to map controls. I imagine that it will be something similar in Pandora. If you do not have joysticks for your PC, you can make a program where 'left' means the 'left button of the first joystick OR the left button of the keyboard'

Another fine, introductory language to write games is Fenix. It deserves a couple of tries.

Oh thanks that was puzzling me for a while!

 

[Snu]

I know I have used kubuntu and ubuntu, I was trying to make a point that 1 distro isnt much better than the next and recommending only 1 is a little unfair.

So you shouldn't recommend one you think is good because it's unfair?
You won't recommend Pandora to anyone since that would be unfair to PSP and DS etc?

I recommend Ubuntu all the time to people, since I feel it's easy to learn but still makes it possible to go more in depth if you know what you are doing, I don't recommend RedHat since I don't like their "standards" etc is that unfair?
No, it's a recommendation based on personal opinion and experience and he never said that it was better than anything else


i figured for a new linux user ubuntu or a variant would be the best bet for ease of use. also note, the k in parenthesis is meant as an optional addition, in other words it could be ubuntu or kubuntu. personally, i much prefer kde to gnome - gnome is just getting too 'dumbed-down' for my tastes, and kde seems to have better program support.
some distros are certainly better than others, and depending on the person their opinions on which is best will differ. for instance, i originally chose debian due to the philosophy behind it, then changed to ubuntu due to its improved usability, and i already mentioned my preference for kde.
regardless, i fail to see whats 'unfair' about reccomending what i feel is the best distro. you are free to reccomend one as well, if you feel that it would be better suited to his needs.
also note that this reccomendation was in response to 'learn to use linux' not 'learn to program'.

 

[EvanB]

I just want to learn how to make a simple "Hello World" game! Nothing More.

 

[SharQueDo]

I just want to learn how to make a simple "Hello World" game! Nothing More.

FYI, "Hello World!" isn't a game. A game is based on interaction and decisions by the player, usually companioned with somewhat (AI) randomness to (mostly) determine replay value.

And further more, if you like using Windows, why not use MinGW and MSYS? No need to install a Linux distro just to dev. If you decide to use one I recommend a Debian distro (like Ubuntu).

 

[Holokauston]

I just want to learn how to make a simple "Hello World" game! Nothing More.

As SharQueDo that's not a game but I think I understand what you mean, you want something simple just to see how it works etc, this is the best way to go when learning

Depending on what language you want to use, everyone feels differently about that, some think learning python first is the best way to go, I for one think that it depends on what you want to do in the end, while C++ is a little messy to learn as a first language I admit, once you get a grip on it you can do pretty much anything

GameDev.net has a few good tutorials on "easy" games to get started wiith

 

[yaustar]

Honestly, I don't understand why everyone is suggesting to use Linux, you can just use SDL with C or C++ on Windows and apart from a couple of minor changes, it should be fine for the Pandora.

However, I do strongly suggest that C or C++ shouldn't be your first language. I would looking at Python which should hopefully be ported to the Pandora.