Version history

Version 0.2.1 - 20090129 Not yet released

Known issues

Some help files still empty
Version history of 0.2 claims 0.2 is not yet published

Version 0.2 - 20090129

Total: 237MHr, This release: 32Mhr (Sa:1,su:3,tu:4,th:4:fr:4,sa:8,su:1,mo:3,we:4)

New features

Added event-selector dialog
Added empty help pages for all "screens" (and added them to TOC)
Added all event-handlers (that exist in current engine)
Added an GUI for event-handlers
Added an infrastructure for event-handlers and actions (including streaming to .gds)
Build log now records time, number of errors and number of warnings
Simplified standard Build window
Created an initial window (not realy splash) giving some hints
Integrated version history in help system
Added several help pages
Added table of contents to help system
Beefed-up the appearance of the help system

Bugs fixed

Solved: Palette needs a GameRef (and mark change)
Solved: When editing a (tile) name and then chosing File|New gives an exception

Design

Introduced THandler, as an owner of TEventBase and (array of) TActionBase
All Form units now have a name starting with U, Frame units have R, and plain units U
Have written 007TodoList.txt (ideas, todo points, etc)
Cleanup of VersionHistory

Version 0.1.4 - 20090118

Total: 205MHr, This release: 133Mhr (Fr:5+4,su:9+1,tu:4,we:4,fr:2+2,su:5,tu:3,mo:2,tu:4,we:3,th:3,fr:4+4,sa:2,mo:2,tu:3,we:3,th:3,tu:2,sa:1,mo:3,tu:4,fr:5,sa:6,su:5,tu:4,we:4,th:4,fr:3+3,su:2,tu:5,we:5,sa:5)

New features

Application icon now available as 16x16 (next to 32x32)
Added status bar to most windows
Added help system (and already 1 help page - for palette)
Added palette editor (palette also saved in .gds)
Game engine written in C (but not yet integrated with backend)
Bitmaps for tiles are now checked on width/height and color format

Known issues

Palette needs a GameRef (and mark change)
When editing a (tile) name and then chosing File|New gives an exception

Design

Have written added examples to section 6: 3 bgs with transparancy on one lcd, and 2 bgs on each lcd
Have written section 6 a study on the NDS video architecture
Have written 006BounceError.ppt (why does bouncing cause staircasing)
Have written 005PaletteConcepts.txt (what does the palette in GameDS do)
Have written 004TActionBase.txt (base class for all GameDS actions)
Have written 003EngineDesign.txt (pseudo code for game engine on NDS)
Have written 002FileArchitecture.txt (what I expect from svn)
Have written 001ReleaseSteps.txt (actions to take when releasing)

Version 0.1.3 - 20081121

Total: 72MHr, This release: 26Mhr (Fr:3+3MHr,Sa:3,Su:7,tu:2,we:5,th:3)

New features

Bitmaps can be imported and exported for tiles
Arbitrary number of tiles, actors, levels can be added. Their names can be freely edited
Supports generating code for any bitmap (no longer only the fixed ones) and several levels
Added a treeview and an edit area to main window (for the tiles, actors, levels)

Bugs fixed

Game|Build|build does not wait for build to end... might result in exception
Buttons for testing (including ugly tiles) will be removed later
New actors were called tTile - fixed
Old: memos for testing are removed

Design

Added ReleaseTodo.txt
Internationalisation can be done with ITE (Delphi, in ide or standalone), but also with GNU Gettext for Delphi and C++ Builder'
UBuild now generates c-array for all levels
UBuild now generates c-array for any bitmap (tile)
Added palette to UBuild

Version 0.1.2 - 20081114

Total: 46MHr, This release: 29Mhr (Fr:3+3,Su:6,Mo:5,Tu:3,We:4,Th:5 MHr)

New features

Added compiling level into nds game
Added streaming of Game ("save" to file on disk) including bmp resources (tiles)
Added streaming from file to memory ("load")
Added buttons and memos to do testing
Added a Level editor to TGame.
Added Some "ugly" tile graphics (brick, ball, face, grass).
Added Tiles, Actors and a Levels to TGame.

Known issues

Buttons and memos for testing (including ugly tiles) will be removed later
Old: Game|Build|build does not wait for build to end... might result in exception

Bugs fixed

Fixed: There are two slashes (//) in build instead of one (/)

Design

Moved latest devkitPro nds c-file templates to msys\home\GameDs
Added a manual.bat (to run devkitPro manually)
Added change notification mechanism
Rewrite of handling empty tiles, and actors without tiles
Added delete.bat to the delphi sources; it deletes all generated and backup file.
Move change logic, filename, open and save logic to a seperate UGame unit, which hosts the TGame class.

Version 0.1.1 - 20081103

Total: 17MHr, This release: 4Mhr (Mo:4MHr)

New features

Move building to new Game|Build menu.
Added running via's no$gba emulator (Game|Run).
7z file is now self extracting (updated the readme).
Build output is captured
Added a Help|Credits.
Created and added a logo (application, forms, about box).

Known issues

Game|Build|build does not wait for build to end... might result in exception
There are two slashes (//) in build instead of one (/)

Design

Moved launcher.bat from root to devkitPro.

See tree below for changes (in color)

      GameDS
      +- devkitPro
      |  +- launcher.bat
      |  +- launcher.log
      |  +- devkitArm
      |  |  +- [tree]
      |  +- libnds
      |  |  +- [tree]
      |  +- no$gba-w
      |  |  +- [tree]
      |  +- msys
      |     +- [tree]
      |     +- home
      |        +- gds
      |           +- source
      |           |  +- arm9_main.cpp
      |           +- Makefile
      +- GameDS.exe
      +- readme.txt
      +- VersionHistory.html

Version 0.1 - 20081102

Total: 13MHr, This release: 8Mhr (Su:8MHr)

New features

Added readme to root
Started version history html file (thsi file).
Added About box (which reads the Project | Options | version info)
Moved gds.bat to root of gDS (GameDs) package and renamed to launcher.bat.
Renamed gDS to GameDS everywhere
Added file handling framework (New, Open, Save, Save As, Exit)

Known issues

File handling is not yet working
7z is a bit of an obscure de-archiver

Bugs fixed

GameDS can now be unpacked anywhere

Design

Complete rewrite of gds.bat; it now supports devkitPro being in a directory whose full-path contains spaces. This means that GameDS can now be unpacked in "C:\Program Files" !

Added Project | Options | version info

Changed file architecture (red=added/changed):

      GameDS
      +- devkitPro
      |  +- devkitArm
      |  |  +- [tree]
      |  +- libnds
      |  |  +- [tree]
      |  +- msys
      |     +- [tree]
      |     +- home
      |        +- gds
      |           +- source
      |           |  +- arm9_main.cpp
      |           +- Makefile
      +- launcher.bat
      +- GameDS.exe
      +- readme.txt
      +- VersionHistory.html

Version 0.0 - 20081031

Total: 5MHr, This release: 5Mhr (Fr:5MHr)

New features

Have a small front-end, and used devkitPro as backend. Can compile and run on NDS
Can be installed by just unpacking anywhere (no spaces in dirname), uninstall by deleting whoe tree

Known issues

Unpacking (installing) should be done in a path without spaced

Design

Created a directory structure (red=added/changed):

      gDS
      +- devkitPro
      |  +- devkitArm
      |  |  +- [tree]
      |  +- libnds
      |  |  +- [tree]
      |  +- msys
      |     +- [tree]
      |     +- home
      |     |  +- gds
      |     |     +- source
      |     |     |  +- arm9_main.cpp
      |     |     +- Makefile
      |     +- gds.bat
      +- frontend
         +- gDS.exe

When pressing generate, gDS.exe executes a process, with cmd.exe, running gds.bat, which would pipe 'make' into msys/bin/bash.exe.

The following versions of devkitPro have been used.

[devkitProUpdate]	Build=37 URL=http://downloads.sourceforge.net/devkitpro Filename=devkitProUpdater-1.4.7.exe
[msys]	Version=1.0.11-RC2 File=msys-1.0.11-RC2.exe Size=10428
[devkitARM]	Version=23b File=devkitARM_r23b-win32.exe Size=70461
[libnds]	Version=20071023 File=libnds-20071023.tar.bz2 Size=470
[defaultarm7]	Version=20080416 File=default_arm7-20080416.tar.bz2 Size=9

Released as Programs.7z (~10M, WinZip was 25M).