Computer Games Theory and Practice

Your blogs will be ready for you to access by end of day Thursday, Sept 7.

Here are the ROMs (Read Only Memories), you'll need for MAME32 (Multi Arcade Machine Emulator). They are zipped files. Store them UNZIPPED in the ROMs directory specified in the MAME32 options.

Download Battlezone ROM

Download Space Invaders ROM

Download Star Wars ROM

Download more ROMs for MAME

As a reminder, these are the assignments that should have been completed by 9/20/06:

- Blog summary of "Games: The Extensions of Man".
- Blog summary of your show and tell items for 09/13 and 09/20
- Blog how abstraction is used in a video game
- Blog game you propose to play as part of your mid term project

You can obtain details of all assingments by clicking on "Assignments" in the Category section of this blog.

I will most likely be going to this meeting of the International Game Developers Association. It's a great opportunity to hear from game developers in the industry.

UPCOMING IGDA SF MEETING & MIXER:
Tuesday, October 3 @ 7:30pm
Action Theater, 2nd floor of METREON
101 4th Street, San Francisco

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AUTOPSY: A Postmortem of CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder PC
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For more info, visit www.igda.org/sf

Afterwards, join our speakers at LJs (2nd Floor, Metreon) for fun, drinks, and networking.

This event is free and open to the public.

Tom Betts/[nullpointer] qqq (Quake mod)

jodi untitled game (Quake mod)

Brody Condon Adam Killer (Half-Life mod)

Start the Server
1. Log on to the Instructor's Station with username = cca, password = cca.
2. Start > Programs > America's Army Server Manager. Right click and Run As. Enter username hl, password = hl.
3. Select the desired map under Standard Server Setups and click Start Selected Server. A window will open with scrolling code. The server has started when a line of green text appears saying "Game engine initialize". This may take about 30 seconds.

Join the Game
1. Start America's Army and log on through Personnel Jacket.
2. Type ~ [tilda] to display the in-game consul.
3. At the prompt type: start 209.40.84.134:1716
4. You should now be in the game.
5. Select a team, and... be careful out there.

Your presentations are on Monday Oct 23 and Wednesday Oct 25. You will present in alphabetical order by first name.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 23
Charlie/Owen (joint project)
Flora
Francois
Joneric

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25
Keiko
Stephanie
Teeka
Tim

We will reverse this order for final project presentations at the end of the semester.

- Show and tell
- Schedule for final projects
- 3D GameStudio Tutorial #1

Second Life Artit's Residency (paid)

Anyone working with 3D GameStudio for their final projects should join the user forum and start searching for answers to any questions.

http://www.coniserver.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php

Tutorial 1

Tutorial 2

Tutorial 3

Tutorial 4

Download the Bad Guy

Revised Tutorial #4

Revised Tutorial #5

All of the script files and required images have been updated on your computers. This should avoid some of the run-time errors you've been getting.

When you open your game, go to the Project Manager and select the update tab. Select Force Updates and then OK to update the listed file.

I may be in a little late. Please carry on with the GameStudio tutorials, and if you've finished those work on your final projects.

When I get in we'll watch the Will Wright presentation on the future of game design. You won't want to miss this - he's a gaming god, or at least the god of god games.

Monday, December 4 - 3D GameStudio Tutorials and/or work on final projects. Attendance in class is optional. But you must have finished the tutorials!

Wednesday, December 6 - I will be checking that you have completed the tutorials. Most of you have done an excellent job from what I've seen! Then, we'll finally get to watch the Will Wright presentation. Attendance is required.

Monday, December 11 - Final Project presentations

Wednesday, December 13 - Final Project presentations

Students are expected to attend on both presentation days.

Computer games have now exceeded Hollywood movies in global sales. Computer games are now recognized as important cultural and artistic products. This class will look at how computer games are made, why they are made, and how students from all disciplines can interpret and respond to them. Key words include: economics, violence, politics, military, simulation, narrative, and subjectivity. We will not just theorize about games. We will play them! Each student will choose a computer game and play it in depth, relate the experience to game theory and cultural theory, and report back to the class. Students will be introduced to 3D modeling, animation, and game design using 3D GameStudio. Students will produce a final project in their medium of choice.