Well, well, well... Part 11 huh? I don't think I've done 11 installments of anything in my life! The closest I got was a mutli-book series titled, “NickelNDime is a Space Knight and he's Going to Chop up the Bad Guys!” but if I'm being honest, large parts of it I took from the Star Wars saga. In this installment I added Dying, Signs, Mouse Menus, and Enemy Movement.

Dying

It's part of every game, but nobody wants to talk about it. Some people focus on the finality of it, while others will look back to happier times they had with their character. Me, well I just click on, “New Game” and play again. I'm not some weirdo for god's sake.

If truth be told, up until this point, my character couldn't die, and it really bothered me. It felt like the game was broken, incomplete, or glitched out.

This wasn't such a hard task to code because if you recall, I've already coded the enemies dying, so most of the code had already been written. So I created a new sprite with two images. The first, the main character getting knocked back, and the second the main character lying on the floor.

This is Chester flying through the air...

...and this is him dead.

Next I created a new object and titled it, oDPlayer. A lot of the variables I just cut and pasted from the original oDead which was the enemy's death sequence, with some minor differences. When the character dies, I wanted the game to slow down, the character to get knocked back, and the screen to shake. To accomplish this, I changed the grv(gravity) to .2 to make the character lighter. For the screen shake, I used the SceenShake function again. To slow the game down, I used a built in function called game_set_speed. This function in GameMakerStudio 2 allows the programmer to change the game speed when certain events happen.

Create Event

The next bit of code I entered was in the step event, and used a new event called Alarm. In the vertical collision, when the character finally touches the ground the alarm[0] gets set to 60. This in turn triggers the alarm event. The alarm event then sets the game back to 60 fps and uses the Slide Transition to restart the level.

Step Event

Alarm[0] Event

With the death sequence created, I added a collision event so when an enemy hit the character, the death sequence would initiate. I created a collision event and entered this code:

What this states is when the character collides with the enemy, destroy the gun, and change the instance from oPlayer to oPDead. This starts the death sequence.

When all that code gets put together, we have this:

Building Signposts

Have you ever been playing a game, and in the game you walk up to a sign, click on it, and a box appears above the character to display what was on the sign? This was a lot harder and more complex than I realized! This lesson I had to go over a couple of times before I was able to follow the logic of what was actually going on.

First I coded a new object, oText and made a create event:

• spd stands for speed or the rate the characters are drawn. 1 would equal 1 character per frame.
• letters stands for how many letters are currently being drawn
• text stands for the actual text to be drawn. \n signals line change.
• length takes the entire size of text. This includes all characters and spaces.
• text_current is a blank text box to be updated as it's being drawn on the screen.
• w is the width of the text
• h is the hieght of the text
• border is the border

Next I created a step event for oText:

So this code makes the text appear as if it's being typed out when the player clicks on the sign. On every frame, spd gets added to letters. text_current copies what is in text so it will gradually type out the characters. After it's typed out, a destroy routine clears the text, and the text box.

Next I had to create a draw event to actually draw what all the previous code was doing. I created a draw event and entered the following:

This code will create a black text box with white lettering. With the lettering I created a script like so:

This way the //draw text routine can pull from this script rather than programming all of it in the sub-routine. A coder could do it that way, but this is an easier way to organize all of it.

Now that the code for the text was created, I still needed to make a sprite and object that we could attach this code to. I created a new sprite and tried my darndest to make it look like a street sign.

It's probably best if I don't disclose how much time this took me to create.

Next, I created an object called oSign and imported this sprite. Here is the code for oSign:

This code states when the character is close to the sign and right clicks the mouse button, the oText code will initiate. At last I could finally place my sign in the room. What's great about the way all this was coded, is that each instance of the sign can have it's own individual message! That makes it a lot more easier if I would like to put multiple signs in the game.

When it's put all together, it looks something like this:

Mouse Menus

If we backtrack a little, you'll recall I made a menu screen in one of the previous installments. Before adding the mouse feature, a player would have to use the arrow keys to select one of the options of the menu.

First I went to the create event in oMenu and added a new variable:

Next I went to the Step event of the oMenu to enter code so that when the mouse hovers over an option, the option will highlight:

This code is entered in with the keyboard menu selections so now both the keyboard and mouse can be used to select the menu options. Now when I fire up the game I can use the mouse to select an option on the menu screen!

Enemy Movements

I have a confession about the enemies I originally coded, ready? They are not very bright. There I said it. The reason I said this is because when I coded their movement, it was very basic. An enemy will go in one direction until it hits a wall, then it will go the other way. This is all fine and well, but they will roll off ledges. If you haven't noticed yet, in my game all the building tops have walls built up so the enemies don't run off the ledge!

I needed to change this, so the first step I did was open the variable box of oEnemy and add two new variables:

The two new variables were afraidofheights, and grounded. These are known as, “Boolean” variables. That means the variables can either be, “True” or “False.” I set afraidofheights to, “True” and grounded to, “False.”

Next I opened the Step event in oEnemy and entered this:

It states that if the enemy gets to a ledge, reverse the direction. Now when an enemy gets to a ledge, it will do this:

Well, that pretty much covers everything I did. I'll see you guys in the next installment!

NickelNDime Out!

Twitter

Cinnamon

YouTube

Subscribe to Coil so you can read below this line. It's so cool, you don't even know! Or better yet, become a writer on Coil's platform!

Cover image used with permission from High on Spay Paint.

Imagine you were a soldier sent into battle, with no weapon, or armor. Also, instead of attacking the enemy, you had to try and save them. Would you go into battle? I for one, would not. I would take the cowards approach and run the other way.

I like to see myself as a Kramer, but in reality I'm a George.

Source

My wife on the other hand, would run into battle, because she is a warrior.

I've written about my wife before. For those of you who don't know she is a nurse. Currently she is a hospice nurse, which means she helps people who are transitioning from living, to not living. Sometimes she goes to the patient's home, other times it's assisted living centers, and sometimes even the hospitals. Where ever the assignment or patient is, that's where she goes, and she doesn't complain, she just acts, because that's what a real warrior does.

She is not alone. Right now as many in the US peer from the safety of their homes, nurses and medical professionals in general are racing toward the raging infernal with cups of water to throw on the flames so it does not engulf us all. They do this, because true warriors put their own safety aside for the good of the humanity.

Years from now when this has finally passed, humanity will look back at the pandemic of 2020 much like how we currently look back at the Spanish Influenza. They will read about the total dead, and try to visualize what that must have felt like, never fully grasping the severity of it. They will read about the leaders who rose to the challenge, and the leaders that dropped the ball. Perhaps they'll read about the person who eventually came up with the cure.

What they won't read about is the nurses who cared for the infected with little or no protection for themselves. At best, nurses might become a footnote in some history book that students will gloss over. That's okay, true warriors don't seek immortality. The grandchildren of the people they saved is the legacy they will leave.

As an adult I've never really gotten the whole “Super Hero” genre. The only reason that I've come up with as to why people like them so much is maybe they see them as a metaphor on how society views the world's problems. Some epic problem that only a select few can fight with their special abilities. Well, right now this is what a superhero looks like:

The director of this scene went all out on the CGI. Breathtaking!

Source

Nurses are superheroes with super powers. Their super power at the moment is the ability to give the sickest among us strength and hope as they fight this disease.

Every morning, my wife leaves for work and I plead for her not to go. My reasons are very selfish. I can't imagine a life with her not in it. I present my reasons for her not going in a calm and rational matter:

Source

She reminds me that we are being as safe as we can, and that she is being as safe as she can when she goes out. Having said that, she still might contract it, but that's part of the job. She then calms my anxiety and fears so I can care for our two young sons.

My sons are handsome little devils. I'm pretty sure they got their nose and cheek bones from me, but they got their heart from their mother.

That's good, because she's got the heart of a warrior.

Just like all nurses.

Take it easy, but take it.

NickelNDime out!

Twitter

Cinnamon

YouTube

Become a subscriber of Coil so you can read below this line. It's so cool, you don't even know! Or better yet, become a writer on Coil's platform!

Yep, it's a blog about the best show in the world, “Always Sunny In Philadelphia.” You might think I'm a little late to the party seeing as the show has been on for 14 seasons, but you would be wrong. Aren't you glad that I'm here to point that out? That fact that it has been on for 14 seasons and not grown stale is a testament to how great the writing, acting, and character development really is. At the beginning of every new season I get this sinking feeling that this will be the season where they jump the shark.

What does that mean?

For those that don't know, jumping the shark is a term used for shows that have been on for a long period of time start to write more and more outlandish plots to keep the viewers entertained. It originated from a show called, “Happy Days,” which was a show about american teens growing up in the 50's. After so many seasons the writers ran out of ideas so they literally wrote an episode about one of the characters ski jumping over a shark.

I'm surprised the term became “Jumping the shark”, and not, “Skiing while wearing a leather vest.”

All shows that are on for multiple years inevitably run the risk of jumping the shark. “The Simpsons” had it's jumping the shark moment when they did the episode where Principal Skinner wasn't really Principle Skinner. Yet somehow, “Always Sunny” has managed to keep it fresh and more importantly, keep it hilarious.

What's the show about?

The show centers around 5 friends who own a bar that are so narcissistic and self absorbed, that they don't even realize how awful they really are. It is because of their undesirable qualities, that these 5 people are more or less stuck with each other. That description may be a little over simplified, but trust me when I say I could write page after page on what, “Always Sunny” is about.

What makes it so funny?

What makes ASIP so funny is the characters and the actors who play them. The writing of these characters: Mac, Charlie, Dennis, Dee, and Frank, is second to none! Each character was written to have odd quirks about them that create such an interesting dynamic when they interact with each other. On top of that, the writing will go after any sensitive topic, no matter how touchy it is. The writing is done in such a perfect presentation it's like holding a mirror up to society and saying, “This is how ridiculous you are being.”

What makes this show so great?

Consistency over such a long period! The show has ran for 14 seasons, and after binge watching the last season I have concluded, that it's still got it! This this is not just my opinion, just look at what it's overall rating on IMDB is:

Source

and Rotten Tomatoes:

Source

To me, getting this many people in this day and age to agree that something is good let alone great, is a feat in and of itself. I know just trying to get my wife and I to agree on what to have for dinner can be a challenge...

When Grace reads this, I'm gonna be in the doghouse... I regret nothing!

Even if you think you might not like this type of humor, give it a chance. you might be pleasantly surprised.

Till next time,

Take it easy, but take it!

NickelNDime out!

Twitter

Cinnamon

YouTube

Become a subscriber of Coil so you can read below this line. It's so cool, you don't even know! Or better yet, become a writer on Coil's platform!

I have been gaming out like a madman during this self quarantine, you know, making the best use of all this time, and it got me thinking. What were the most important games to me when I was growing up? Now, I've played a lot of games in my time. In fact, I'm playing one right now as I write this. Impressed, aren't you? Each one of my selections had to have some kind of impact on me, in some way, to make the list.

Ladder (1982)

Developed by Yahoo Publishing

This made the list because it was the first PC game I can remember ever playing. My family's first home computer was a “Kaypro II” that my father purchased in 1983. Just to give you an idea of how cutting edge it was at the time, here are the specs:

Kaypro II

• Released 1982
• Priced at US $1595
• It weighed 26lbs or 11.7934 kgs for easy mobility
• CPU was 2.5 MHz
• RAM 64k
• The display was a 9” green screen of magical wizardry

This is what the ol' gal looked like:

“Pffft... kids today with their CGA and VGA monitors. When I was a kid we had one color, spinach green!” – NickelNDime, trying his best to relate to the younger generations.

Source

I also recall that we were not allowed to touch the sides of the computer when it was on because it would get terribly hot. My father used to joke that if the stove ever went out, he'd be able to cook an egg on the top surface of it.

There was nothing really to the game itself. It was almost an identical copy of, “DONKEY KONG.” except way scaled down to run on this machine. The main character was represented as a lower case, “p” when moving right, and a lower case, “q” when moving left. The lower case “o” represented barrels that the player had to jump over. Here's a video I found of the game in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLWWjkzQtJs

I can still recall many nights my three brothers and I huddled around this machine. Our eyes locked on this 9” green screen as if it was a ginormous drive-in movie screen. I also remember having the fear that if I was ever left alone with the computer, it would suck me in like the computer from the movie TRON:

I was just as rational back then as I am today.

Source

My brother Chris was aware of this fear, and would exploit this fear so he could have more turns on “Ladder” than me... what a jerk.

King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne (1985)

Developed by Sierra Publishing

Wait, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, “How did a six year old NickelNDime follow the story line if he had never played the first 'King's Quest?'” Well if you must know, I was a really mature for a six year old. By this time, my parents had invested in a real PC for the family... a XEROX home computer!

For those of you who don't know, the “King's Quest's” series was one of the first problem solving/puzzle type games. The player had to move from scene to scene and interact with the world. The player would type commands such as, “Look around” or, “Pick up sword.”

Source

This game forced a six year old NickelNDime how to read and write well above the average six year old. I would watch my brothers play the game and memorize how to spell the words they typed. When I was left alone with the game, I spent countless hours trying to type in the commands to get the character to do what I wanted him to do. As a perk, I was exposed to a lot of programming humor which was littered throughout the game. The version we had was on three, 5-¼” floppy disks. I remember this because Disk 2 of our copy was damaged so we'd have to put it in just right for it to work...

...that's what she said.

Here's a clip of someone doing a play through:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jjUaeG9YTw

Sid Meier's Pirates! (1987)

Developed by Micro Prose

Source

Sid Meier is best known for his Civilization series, which I've also enjoyed immensely. But he also made a ton of other really exceptional games that were so out of the norm for their time. “Pirates” was one of those games. In the game, the player played an escaped captive who becomes a pirate in the Caribbean. The player could chose from the time periods of 16th, 17th, or 18 centuries.

A player would sail from town to town accepting quests from local mayors. Along the way, the player would have to manage a crew, supplies, and multiple ships as they sailed the open seas. The combat was split into ship warfare until the player crashed into the enemy ship. Then it would be a swashbuckling sword fight scene. If the player won, he'd choose what to plunder. If they lost, they would be taken prisoner.

Source

Source

Such a ground breaking game of its time. Here it is in action!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL68uw_RQow

Star Wars: X-Wing(1993)

Developed by Lucas Arts

Source

This game brought my love of flight simulators with my love for “Star Wars” together. The player had their choice to pilot an X-Wing, A-Wing, and Y-Wing spacecraft from the “Star Wars” universe. The player would combat against Tie-Fighters, Tie-Bombers, Star Destroyer, and even get to do the epic Death Star trench run!

The Pilot would not only have to control the flying and shooting, but there was also navigation, targeting, and power management. My brother and I would take turns being the pilot, while the other would be co-pilot. Yep, we were pretty, pretty, pretty cool.

Source

Source

Why nobody has bought the license and done a reboot to this game is beyond me. Here's a live look at this classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea_e0qiZz7c&t=

Master of Magic(1995)

Developed by Micro Prose

I have always enjoyed turn based strategy games growing up, such as the Civilization series, but I had to go with this one to make the cut. In fact, it was almost exactly like the first Civilization game except for two main differences. First, it was fantasy based, so the player picked a sorcerer and a type of magic. The second difference was that each battle became its own chess match of sorts. So, it became a game within a game.

The game would start off with letting a player choose the type of leader, followed by choosing the race the leader would lead. For example, a player could choose a Nature sorcerer as the leader, and choose the High Elves as their race. The player would then start with one settler and a fighter unit. It is up to the player to decide what spells to research, and how to delegate resources. There are two ways to claim victory. One, kill all other opponents. The second is to research and cast the Spell of Mastery.

Overview

Source

Managing cities

Source

Combat

Source

Heroes could level

Source

This was such an in-depth type of game which I absolutely love. There's a newer game out titled “Age of Wonders” which is very similar to this game. The creator of that game said his main inspiration for it was, “Master of Magic.”

Here it is in all of it's glory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igv95F3eQbQ

Well, that's my list! What did you think? If you're a gamer, and enjoy the retro type games, hopefully you'll try one that I've written about.

Until next time.

Take it easy, but take it,

NickelNDIme out!

Twitter

Cinnamon

YouTube

Become a subscriber of Coil so you can read below this line. It's so cool, you don't even know! Or better yet, become a writer on Coil's platform!

Historians don't know for sure if Marie Antoinette actually said the famous words,“Let them eat cake!” The words were supposedly spoken as a response to her advisers who just informed her that the people had no bread to eat. While the words or conversation may or may not have happened, I believe this story captured her general sentiment towards the people. When I first learned about this in school as a child I thought that Marie Antoinette was cruel and enjoyed watching the common man suffer. That was until I grew up and realized just how out of touch the ultra elite or the proverbial top 1% is, or was. When her advisers came to tell her that her people were starving, her response was probably meant more like, “Well, tell them to eat! That's what I do when I'm hungry.” That's because in her reality, starving for her meant having to wait for her servants to prepare her meal.

Most of us have had a friend during our childhood whose parents were very well off. That friend probably had all the latest gaming consoles, a brand new sports car, designer clothes, and so on. It probably irritated you that they didn't have to save or work for any of those items, and probably didn't value their possessions as much as you valued your Atari 2400, or used Pontiac, or hand me down thrift store clothes. Maybe they weren't spoiled kids, and maybe they were nice. They just didn't understand the worth or value of what they had. I want you to think about that family or kid you knew growing up, and realize that what they had is nothing compared to the ultra elite, or the top 1%.

That's what makes this administration or current President so unequipped to lead us through this crisis. This person has had a golden spoon in his mouth since day one. He's never had to face reality, instead, he's had a bunch of 'yes men' since the time he was in diapers. He's never listened to experts because he's never had to listen to experts. That is why this situation is so terrifying. This kind of leadership feeds right into the anti-intelligence movement. One of my favorite quotes on the anti-intelligence movement is from Isaac Asimov which goes:

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge'.”

-Isaac Asimov

This quote rings truer today then when Asimov said it. The current Commander in Chief doesn't trust the science community on a litany of issues that the scientific community has stated pose an existential crisis to the human race. We can see the effects of not listening to the scientists in real time if we need to. Just two weeks ago the President told the public that this outbreak was nothing and the 15 or so cases of Covid-19 would soon be 0 despite his top advisers telling him the exact opposite.

This is why anti-intellectualism is so dangerous. When leaders say whatever is politically expedient, especially in times of crisis, bad things are going to happen. This administration knew about this problem months ago and did nothing. This administration cut the budget to the division of the CDC that handles pandemics by a huge portion. Well, now we have a pandemic on our hands, and the leader of the free word is still trying to gaslight the public.

Here's the thing: you can't gaslight a virus. It doesn't care about political spin. Covid-19 is going to do what the scientists have predicted it's going to do. If you want to know what America is going to look like, just look at Italy and China and realize that we're only about 10 to 20 days from the state of those countries, or worse. This outbreak could have been controlled, and it could have been handled a lot better. The damage done in the USA is going to be more severe because of the inaction of this administration. That's why I named the article what I did. It wasn't that I think Trump wants us to get sick or enjoys the suffering of others. It's probably because when his advisers went to him and told him people were getting sick he probably responded, “Well, tell them not to get sick.” To grow as a human emotionally requires self reflection. By his own words he has told us he really doesn't have any interest in doing that:

I don’t like to analyze myself because I might not like what I see”

-Donald Trump

There are two other aspects which will make this scenario particularly worse in the US. One, we still don't have a national health system. This will mean infected people who don't have medical insurance will avoid seeking treatment for fear of racking up copious amounts of medical bills. Two, there is a huge portion of Americans that don't have the option to wait it out. Most Americans do not have 500 dollars in cash in case of an emergency. This means people who work in the service industry are going to get sick and still go to work because they have no other option. This puts us all at risk.

Knowing all of this, the Senate just vetoed an emergency bill to relieve people who need this help. Keep in mind that they passed a tax bill that benefited the 1% and drove the nation deeper into a massive deficit. Ted Cruz self quarantined himself because he was in contact with someone who had the Covid-19 virus. Ted makes 174k a year, which breaks down to $669 a day. He then had the nerve to vote 'No' on an emergency relief package for people that do not have the resources to stay home.

Please don't accept this from our law makers. Demand that they take action. Or don't, and hope that they will do the right thing, because they've done a cracker jack job thus far...

I see this whole situation like a Tsunami at the beach. Imagine all the people on the beach represent countries. While other people are fleeing the beach and searching for cover, America is still trying to build a sandcastle as the giant wave is about to smash down on us.

The crazy thing about all of this is, I HOPE I'M WRONG! I really do. I hope in 30 to 60 days, you come back to this article and say, “NickelNDime you jumped the shark there didn't you?”

The crazy thing is, I don't think I am.

Brace for impact, and be as safe as you can.

NickelNDime Out.

Twitter

Cinnamon

YouTube

“We've got three gigs in one day?” I asked surprised. I couldn't believe what Keelan was telling me. This was great news. Typically bars and pubs paid really well to play on St. Patrick's Day, and when Keelan had told me he booked three, I couldn't but help but think about how much money we were going to make.

“I really should see a doctor when my eyes start doing this.”

Source

“How did you manage this?” I asked.

“Easy,” Keelan answered then continued, “Two are at O'Callohan's. We play at 1:00, then come back at 7:00.”

I realized he hadn't mentioned the third bar so I prompted him. “And the third...”

“It pays really well.” Keelan responded. He was dodging the question. I gave him one of my no nonsense looks before he finally uttered, “It's at the Bench.”

“Not the Bench...” The words fell involuntary out of my mouth. “What time is that one?” I asked begrudgingly.

“That one starts at 11:00 at night. It might be a little rowdy.”

“Ya think?” I asked sarcastically. The Bench was one of, if not the worst, bars in the area. It was the type of place that all the annoying drunks who were banned from all other bars were still welcomed with open arms.

“I don't know, Keelan...” I started to trail off.

“Come on... it's only for a couple hours and they're going to give us 600 bucks.”

“600 bucks, for a couple hours?” I started doing the math in my head of all the money we'd make if we played all three gigs...

600 + 400 + 400 + tip money / splitting with Keelan = NickelNDime thinking of how he can cut Keelan out of the equation.

I sighed and looked at Keelan and answered, “I'm in.”

St. Paddy's arrived and we had planned out the day so we could play the first gig, go home, play the second, go home, and then finally play at The Bench. The first two gigs we played without a hitch. The 1:00 was very chill. Most people were having Baileys in their coffee as they ate an Irish style brunch. When we came back later in the evening it was really rowdy but nothing I didn't expect. I had been out many times for St. Paddy's day, and the crowd by then was rip roaring for us to play. They sang along with every song we played, and put a ton of money in our tip jar. When we got done they wanted us to play longer. We politely declined, packed up our gear, and left.

The Bench.

The place was exactly as I had remembered it.

First of all, a bar screams classy when it's in the middle of a strip mall. It was wedged between a fast food joint, and a nail salon. As Keelan and I carried our gear in through the door, we saw what kind of dumpster fire awaited us. This was beyond any St. Paddy's day celebration. It was a packed low brow bar, with low brow people. There were no St. Paddy's day decorations, nobody was wearing green. It was just a low end bar, packed with low end people.

The manager pushed her way through the crowd to greet us. She introduced herself and pointed to where we would be playing. We quickly carried our gear to where she pointed, set up, and then I turned to Keelan and said, “I gotta use the bathroom, I'll be right back.”

“Hurry back, I just want to get started.”

“I will.” I responded, and made my way towards the bathroom.

I use the term bathroom lightly because it was a room with just two toilets with no stalls. There was no sink, only a spot on the wall where it appeared a sink had once been. There was another guy in the bathroom with me and he clearly could see the look of confusion on my face.

“They took the stalls out.” he said matter of factly.

“But, why?”

”'Cause people kept ripping them off. Guys would get drunk, come in here and just rip the doors off. So, management just took the stalls out.”

“What if you have to go number two?” I honestly was curious.

“Ya hold it, or ya better not be too shy about doing your business!” He started laughing. Not like a simple chuckle, but rather like an eight year old would when someone passed gas in the classroom.

” Poop is funny.” Gentleman in the bathroom.

I tried to feign amusement....

Source

I nodded my head toward where there should have been a sink and asked, “What happened there?”

“Oh that...A fight broke out in the bathroom and one of the guys picked up the other guy and slammed him into the sink. The sink broke off and water was spraying everywhere.”

“Wow,” I said genuinely surprised and added, “When was that, like a week or two ago?”

“Couple years.”

I did my business and left the bathroom as fast as humanly possible.

As I made my way through the crowd I looked towards where Keelan and our gear was. He had set everything up while I was in the bathroom. He was holding his guitar and tuning it. Wow, he must really want to get started, I thought to myself. As I pushed my way towards the stage, someone called my name.

“NICK!”

I whipped my head around to see a very drunken, very haggard looking face. The man looked familiar but I couldn't recall from where. He looked like a man in his late forties, so there was no way he could have gone to school with me. I underestimated how much chain smoking and hardcore drinking can age a man. The man could see my look of trying to place his face.

“It's Vinnie! Vinnie Ashinto!”

Oh my god, I thought. This guy wasn't my age, he was actually younger than me by a couple of years. He looked like the years had not been kind to him. His face was cracking was due to years of chain smoking, and he looking like he had gained a good 100 lbs since high school. My guess it was from his strict diet of bar food and beer he had been on.

“Vinnie,” I feigned excitement and continued, “How have you been?” I asked that last sentence as more as a common courtesy, I did not expect the response he gave.

“Awful, just awful man. I just got popped with another DUI.”

“Oh... Is this your second one?”

“Nahh this is my third one. Which I'm fighting in court.”

“How can you fight a DUI?? Didn't you blow into a breathalyzer?”

“Yeah, but here's the thing. I wasn't driving a car.”

“What?” Now I was intrigued.

“You see, I bought a golf cart awhile back and had been driving it on the sidewalks. I was never on any of the roads, just the sidewalks, so I don't think they were going to make this DUI stick.”

Source

“Wow!” I replied in more of, this guy was not playing with a full deck of cards. I recently had heard of someone getting arrested driving a golf cart home from a bar. I had thought it was an urban legend or a rumor. Nope, it was Vinnie. In fairness Vinnie was never all there. In high school he had smoked marijuana behind the police station because he thought that would be the last place the cops would look.

Keelan was now looking at me from the stage and giving me an impatient look. I turned back to Vinnie and said my goodbyes.

“Vinnie, it was great catching up with you, but....” I pointed towards Keelan and continued, “I gotta get on stage.”

“No way man, you're playing?

“Yeah, and I gotta get started.”

“Awesome, I'll be listening and cheering on!”

“Cool, thanks man!”

When I finally made my way to the stage I grabbed my guitar and we started playing. The night went remarkably smooth until the last set. It was approaching 1:00am and the place was beginning to resemble some kind of Jerrry Springer episode. I could see men shoving other men, and their ladies getting in each other's faces.

“I did not order the jalapeno poppers!” – A classy patron.

source

As we finished playing Keelan leaned over to me and whispered, “Dude, let's just finish up and get outta here.” I couldn't have agreed more. We started to play the last couple tunes which tend to be more fast tempo. People were clapping their hands, banging their mugs on the table, and having a grand ol' time. As we were playing, I noticed a man push his way through the crowd. It was Vinnie, and by the looks of him, he looked extremely intoxicated. Oh no, I thought, what's he planning on doing?

I didn't have to wonder for very long because he got maybe an arms length away from us... and attempted to dance an Irish jig. Something like this.

Source

But it looked more like...

Source

I think it's important to point out that Keelan and I weren't playing an Irish folk tune that would inspire this kind of dancing. In fact, we were playing, “Take it Easy” by the Eagles. As we continued to play, Vinnie slowed down his spastic dancing. Until the point where he was just standing there kind of swaying back and forth. And then...it happened:

Source

Yep. All over himself. The wild apart about this was no one in the bar seemed to care. Everyone else just kept on clapping and singing along, but Vinnie wasn't done. As he tried to walk off the dance floor, he slipped on the puddle of his own sick, and stumbled into our PA speaker.

This is a lot more graceful than his fall.

Source

Luckily our speaker was fine, and we called it a night after that. We got paid extra because I made a fuss about our gear getting knocked over. That was the first and last time we ever played at the Bench.

I know it's been awhile since my last installment, but I have a good reason. I got tired of writing an article or blog every time I did a minor update or change. Also, I didn't want the blog to be code/lingo driven. My editor (Yes, I have an editor... who happens to be my wife) would say that it gets really boring. Like a full grown adult I took her criticism in a mature way.

“You know how to really hurt me babe.” – NickelNDime's response to his wife's very reasonable suggestions.

Source

In this installment I cover save and continue, parent and children sprites, and sounds. So, lets get to it!

Save and Continue

In my last installment, I added a menu with a continue feature. Full disclosure: the menu was not fully functional. I had to create the actual interface before I added the nuts and bolts of it, so to speak. If someone selected the continue option, it would just start a new game.

The first step that had to be created was the save feature. I wanted the game to save the progress after completing every level. I used what is called a constant to begin with:

What this line means is every time I type, “SAVEFILE” I'm telling the program to write to Save.sav. GameMaker Studio 2 does have a pre-defined location to save files, and I need to find out if I can change that.

Next, I wrote the code to save the progress:

This writes a number to a text file based on the level the player gets to. Each room in GameMaker Studio 2 is represented by a real number. If the character gets to level 2, then these lines of code will open the text file, write “2” in the Save.sav file, then close it. Now that we have the save function down, it was time to work on the load/continue function to make this whole thing work.

Now that I had a save file with information I plugged some lines of code into the routine sequence:

Case 1 now reads that if there is no save file, start the game as normal. If there is a save file, open the file, read the text, plug that number into the variable target, and plug that target into transition.

Now the game has a functioning save and load option. Granted, it's very basic, but it's a great starting point.

Child and Parent Objects

This was such a cool feature to learn about. A short explanation of child and parent objects is this: A child object can inherent the properties of a parent object with the ability to have slight differences. Why have this? Well, for example, if I had to code every enemy in the game, I would never be able to finish coding this game. With child parent objects, I can alter a child object slightly and it's like creating a whole new object.

I created an object and called it, “oEnemyBig”. I assigned the exact sprite that was assigned to “oEnemy”. Under the sprite selection there is an option to select parent. I clicked on that button and selected “oEnemy”:

Now I could change “oEnemyBig's” variables by clicking on its Variable Definitions:

I changed its size, speed, and hp to give it a slightly different feel, but I saved time by not having to code the entire object. When I run the game, now I get something like this:

Adding Sounds

This step was remarkably easy. All I had to do was write the sound effects in the code where they needed to be. For example, add a line of code in the gun object to play the gun sound effect every time the gun is fired. As easy as all this was, I still had one problem... I HAD NO SOUND EFFECTS!!! After I took a breath I discovered there are a ton of sound effect generators that are free to use. I used a program called, “Bfxr,” and it did the job just fine.

I created sounds for:

• Gun Shots
• Foot Steps
• Enemy Getting Hit
• Enemy Dying
• Jump/Landing
• Menu Selecting

One last aspect was actually using a coding technique to vary the sound a little further. Take the foot steps, for example. If I use the same sound every foot step, it would sound natural and the player would start to focus on it. To get around this I created four different foot steps, and wrote code to choose one of the foot steps at random.

So, when the character walks, the game chooses one of four different wave files!

Pretty neat, huh? I thought so. Here's everything I did in video form in case words scare you.

https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=266453226268657506

That's all the updates for this installment! Stick around for the next installment, coming soon!

Take it easy, but take it,

NickelNDime out!

Twitter

Cinnamon

YouTube

On Monday I wrote an article titled, 5 Amazing Songs That Probably Flew Under Your Radar – 3rd Installment. Shortly after, another awesome Coiler, Seth, decided to listen to the songs I suggested and write a review on them. It always feels good to the ol' self esteem when somebody not only reads something you wrote, but gives honest feed back and WRITES about you! It makes me feel absolutely appreciated. If it's one thing I know, the best place to seek validation is from strangers on the internet.

If you haven't read any of Seth's work, I would strongly recommend reading it. Not just recommend, but strongly. This is probably one of my favorite writings by him. His posts do range from creative, to non-fiction, to recreating movie deaths in his own art form. I do value his opinion, and was flattered when he did a review on my article. I thought it was only fair to return the favor, and it counts as part of the Wake Up and Blog challenge!

Tom Waits – Martha

Seth's verdict – 4/10

I was not surprised by this. People either love Tom Waits, or do not. There is no in between. Where I hear his voice being authentic and real, I can see how others would hear it as out of key, and whats the word I'm looking for... terrible.

I'd also like to point out that I don't take offense to the low rating of one of my most cherished songs. In my earlier days I might have been taken aback by Seth's low score.

Source

But after years of teaching guitar, and playing cover songs at bars, I've learned one underlying truth. Everybody has a different musical preference, and that's a good thing! Do I lecture the people who request, “Margaritaville” on why it's a terrible song and has no musical value, or just pretend I don't know it? No, because I realized long ago that the person that requested that song finds joy in it, the same way I find joy in Tom Waits.

____________________________________

Joe Purdy – Outlaw

Seth's verdict – 7/10

This makes sense. Now that Seth mentioned Adam Duritz from Counting Crows I can hear it as well. Side story: when I was just out of high school I saw the Counting Crows and Adam Duritz was giving a life radio interview in front of the stadium before the show. It was cool to watch. After the interview, Adam was signing autographs for fans. It was cut short because a guy in his mid 40's started yelling at Adam. He was yelling things like, “ADAM! DID YOU GET THE POETRY I MAILED YOU?” and, “I MAILED IT TWO YEARS AGO!!!! WHY HAVEN'T YOU RESPONDED???”

All I could think as security was dragging that man away was, Yeah, why hasn't Adam responded to the strange man's poetry?

____________________________________

Damien Jurado – Johnny Go Riding

Seth's Verdict 5/10

No surprises here. Damien is a very obscure musician, and this is one of his lesser known songs. Maybe the reason I like it so much is because of the personal connection I have with the song.

____________________________________

Belle and Sebastian – Another Sunny Day

Seth's Verdict 7/10

Now, I'm going to push back just a bit here. This song is at least an 8 if not a 9 out of 10. It has all the elements of a great pop/rock song: up tempo, great vocals, fantastic lyrics.. etc. I'm going to have to request that Seth take another listen to this one.

____________________________________

Modest Mouse – Gravity Rides Everything

Seth's Verdict 9/10

Well... duh!

PS I'm totally bringing 'duh' back. Take it or leave it!

Take it easy, but take it,

NickelNDime out!

Twitter

Cinnamon

YouTube

For subscribers, I'm now going to rate the songs Seth recommended. If you do not have a subscription, you should get one. For 5 dollars a month, you could be support a growing community of bloggers, web developers, artists, and musicians. Who knows, you could start blogging and make some fat cash yourself!