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Windows 95/NT Game Development |
Michael P. Welch's "First"
Game Development Page
I've been writing video games since 1993. This
page was created in 1998 and I keep it around for nostalgic reasons. Come check
out www.blitwise.com to discover what
I've been up to since this page was last updated. I'm still happily coding shareware
games, and there's plenty of new things in the works.
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DX-Ball 2 v1.2 Released dxb2game12.exe - DX Ball 2 install EXE (2.07 megs)
Windows 95/98/NT 4.0
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New features include: music during game, 1-4 player support,
faster explosions, |
custom music directory, lots of
little extras, and minor bug fixes |
Additional DX-Ball 2 music pack
by "Sidewinder" available at: |
Classic |
Tribute |
Challenge |
New
DX-Ball 2 boards by Michael & Sarah Welch are
currently in development. More info soon! |
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Scorched Tanks PC
alpha progress! (see
below for more details)
|
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DX-Ball 2 was released for
Windows 95/98/NT 4.0 |
Download DX-Ball 2 today and
find out about the new Board Packs. |
Your support will make a huge
difference to the team. It's a labor of love. :) |
"Classic" DX-Ball 1.09
update released to fix a few old bugs: |
- Speed bug on some video cards
fixed. (Matrox Mystique and others) |
- Highscore end-of-game bug
fixed. |
- Some sound problems fixed |
-'Classic' DX-Ball level editor,
cheat codes, plus hints & tips are FINALLY on this
web page |

Scorched Tanks PC is now in development.
The Amiga computer's tribute to the famed Scorched Earth
artillery game is finally coming to the PC. With many years of
game development under my belt, I think it's time to bring back
the original hit. I'm an old-school programmer, so you can expect
the same retro feel that's in DX-Ball. The initial release will
be high resolution (640x480 and beyond) hand-drawn art using my
favorite paint program... Brilliance 2. You can expect a full MOD
music sound track, and all the art production will be done on
Amiga computers. I'll be reaching for the future and past at the
same time, and it's everything you'd expect from an old C64/Amiga
fan like myself. It's the artillery game I've always wanted to
play, so I know you're going to like it.
What to expect: Simple
artillery game with family and friends in mind, just like the
original. Easy to learn and play, but plenty of hooks to keep the
fanatics happy. I'll be embellishing the past, while moving
forward with 2d artillery game design. The first cut will fit on
a 1.44 meg floppy, which will force me to focus on high quality
gameplay instead of over doing the art and sound. Amazing games
were released for the Amiga 500, and it only had 512k of memory;
I want to capture that minimalist spirit that I've always admired
in classic computer games. Who needs another game with $1 million
in development, fantastic art, and horrible gameplay? I love all
the latest games being released, but I have this game idea in my
head that you just can't buy in the stores 'yet.' ;)
NEW STUFF
Alpha screenshots from January 31st, 1999: It's been a busy month, but I've finally finished
enough of the game to make it worth showing off a few demo images.
It's still pretty early in development, but there's tanks moving
around, bullets flying through the air, explosions causing havoc
with the terrain, and real-time dirt falling. Next on my plate is
filling out the panel with working displays, and then creating
the weapon scripting language. What can I say... it's starting to
look good. Remember, think retro done right! There's plenty of
time for fancy 3D graphics in the sequel. :)
STanks1.gif, STanks2.gif,
STanks3.gif, STanks4.gif
The History of Scorched Tanks
* Note: I didn't write "The Mother of All Games"
Scorched Earth. Wendell Hicken is the genius behind that classic
artillery game.
My story goes like this... I played about five games of
Scorched Earth over at a friend's house in early 1992, and it was
the first game I'd ever seen for the PC was better than anything
I knew of on my beloved Amiga. Since I was a hardcore Amiga fan,
I accepted the challenge of making an equivelant artillery game
for my favorite system. Scorched Tanks was released in Fall of
1993, and it was far more popular than I had ever imagined
possible.
The main reason Scorched Tanks was better than Scorched Earth
is that I didn't own a PC at the time. I had no way to go back
and compare my work to the original, so I created what I 'thought'
was a Scorched Earth look-a-like. But the joke was on me, and
Scorched Tanks was a lot better because of it. :) But it's not
all my doing... the initial game generated thousands of e-mails
and suggestions from Scorched Tanks fans all over the world, and
I improved the game to their liking. So in a years time, the game
evolved into something that was much greater than anything I
could develop alone.
It's been six years since the final release of my game, and
the PC shareware world still hasn't yielded anything better than
the classic Scorched Earth. It's time for a change all you
artillery fans. Stay tuned...
'Classic'
-Ctrl-F1 at the Title Screen |
- Hit the 'p' key during the
game to pause |
- F5 toggles through in-game
MIDI music |
- F6 turns off in-game music |
- The faster the ball goes, the
more points you get for bricks |
- Grab all the extra power-up
you can, they're worth points |
* Special Note to
anyone who has ever sent me DX-Ball e-mail. I've received an
incredible number of messages over the past 3 years, and it
continues to make my efforts worth while. When I first released
DX-Ball in 1996, I was getting 60+ e-mails every night! I managed
to respond to that much volume for about 6 months. After that, I
was too swamped to handle all the DX-Ball mail. To date I've
received over 10,000 emails. I've read them all, but there's no
way I could respond to everyone. Next time I'll 'believe' that I'm
releasing a game worth playing, and setup some auto-responding
software. <grin>
General Info:
Location: |
Endicott, New
York (Upstate NY - Binghamton area - USA) |
Games: |
dxb2game12.exe - DX-Ball 2 by Longbow Digital Arts (Win
95/98/NT4.0) |
Games: |
DXBall19.EXE - 'Classic' DX-Ball 1.09
install EXE (820k) - [speed/highscore/sound bugs fixed] |
Games: |
Scorched Tanks
(Amiga)  |
Tutorials: |
simple1.zip- C/C++ example of how to
draw in a window using |
|
a
CreateDIBSection class. (Win32 95/98/NT) |
Skills: |
Win32
programmer with lots of experience using Visual C++ , |
|
DirectX, and
writing 2D games. (Still working on 3D) |
Interests: Game development, Amiga
fan, MOD music, euro demos, retro gaming, emulation |
E-Mail: Michael
P. Welch
(aka:
Scorch)
Last modified: May 19th, 1999 (added links
back to blitwise.com on August 27th, 2007)