v0.902 : Finally gave the Shoebox a domain name, and added vPeek and vPoke functions for future usage.[/highlight]
All previous links will still work, and nothing should be broken by the HUGE change in Shoebox, since the new domain simply links to the same files in the same folder, and all the file access is relative.
ShoeboxOfGames.com now exists!
I bought the domain a couple of days ago, but only got around to setting it up properly, late last night.
A more or less simple addition to the overall chaos of AGameAWeek.
-=-=-
Meanwhile...
I awoke around 2am with numbers and binary floating around my head.
"Why don't you make it," said my wide-awake brain, "so that you can dump a huge number of binary 1/0 flags into a single string."
Hmm.
It continued.. "Make it so you can dump 6 values into each character, and if you have a string of 100 characters, then that makes for 600 flags you can set."
I sat up, and argued with my head.
"I'm trying to sleep, here. What are you doing?" To which my head replied, "Don't worry, Jay. This is definitely going to have a point!"
So, I did as I was told. It kept me awake until about 5 in the morning, but I got a nice set of functions up and running.
If you head to the
testing area of Shoebox, you can see a string of 8 characters will easily hold 48 such binary flags. You can toggle them off and on and the string will update as expected.
So, what's the point?
With a longer string of 100 characters, I can use these values to store "Level Complete" checks.
Add a table of levels, and we've got ourselves a nice big level select environment, easily allowing you to hop between puzzles, complete them, and have them all check off as you play.
I'll probably rewrite chunks of Rush Hour to accommodate this, first, before attempting to add other sorts of puzzles into the mix.
Whether puzzles become a large part of Shoebox remains to be seen, but the door is now at least open for the possibility.
Woot!
-=-=-
Note : Yes, I'm aware that an ASCII character can hold 8 binary flags, and in fact Javascript's LocalStorage seems to deal with 16-bit characters, so I could probably have upped things quite a bit. But I've opted to stick with a simple 64-character limit, because that allows me to use my same save methods without needing to account for certain characters which may corrupt the save file!!
