All Uzebox Games Online! (Cuzebox and Emscripten)

The Uzebox now have a fully functional emulator! Download and discuss it here.
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uze6666
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Re: All Uzebox Games Online! (Cuzebox and Emscripten)

Post by uze6666 »

Cool, I'll to see how I can install it on my server when I get a bit more time.

Btw, can you add Roguze to the list of game...can't seem to see it there.
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nicksen782
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Re: All Uzebox Games Online! (Cuzebox and Emscripten)

Post by nicksen782 »

UPDATES:

Some color changes. It's a bit darker now. Looks more simple also.
Removed the border graphics around the emulator iframe. It looked tacky the way it was.
I widened the controls area (left side) and reflowed a couple of things to fit better.
The direct link section for the server-supplied games is now working properly.

Internal stuff:
querystring: url : Used to pass a json file containing the Uzebox files that you want the emulator to download. This is GREAT for development or publishing different versions of your game.
querystring: ExternalClickPlay : If url is specified and this is true then the game will start automatically once downloaded.
querystring: externalcontrol : If set to true this will make the UI very minimal. There will be no controls. Only the emulator frame will load. You should set ExternalClickPlay to true if you use this. I use this to embed the emulator into my web development environment for easy testing.
window.postMessage can be used if the emulator is loaded from another window. This is the only way to communicate with the emulator outside of the domain origin it is loaded from. Example: My dev environment can now load games hosted on my production server and vice-versa if you have the access and the postMessage allows it.

For the JSON stuff there is the link on that tab with some example code to get you started. I use this development and for showing different versions of a game.

NEW FEATURE:
If you use the local tab to do a User Supplied Game you can load any .uze or .hex (including .bin) that you want for a game. A feature that I discovered of Google Chrome is how file uploads work. Once a file has been selected for upload JavaScript can read it. However, in Google Chrome if you change the original file (on your local computer) the uploaded file that JavaScript can see can also update. I have now added a "Re-read file(s)" button to allow the update. You only have to upload the file once and then just use the button. This is useful if you are compiling on your computer and want to use the web application's Uzebox emulator. NOTE: I tested in Internet Explorer and Firefox and does NOT work in those browsers. Additionally, I also reported this to the Chromium team as a bug. The bug has a status of "wontfix" and the comments in the report said that this behavior is by design.

URL: http://nicksen782.net/a_demos/Emscripte ... mechanger/
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: All Uzebox Games Online! (Cuzebox and Emscripten)

Post by D3thAdd3r »

Great stuff! Kudos for continuing to polish this out, it really is an awesome solution.
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Re: All Uzebox Games Online! (Cuzebox and Emscripten)

Post by Jubatian »

There is a small bug nagging me since a while, guess better mention it now that the online player is getting more and more polished.

If you change the default theme of the browser, the display will become inconsistent. In my case the default has bright text on dark background, which results in having very hard to read text all over the page (bright text on the orange fields). You should check whether your CSS fully defines everything (that is, you aren't leaving anything on default which is not always the same in all browsers).

Otherwise it looks quite nice! Maybe if possible, tweak the emulator window's code a bit to have the emulator's picture always centered (if I turn off the debug info with F3, horizontally it is centered, but vertically it aligns to top).
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nicksen782
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Re: All Uzebox Games Online! (Cuzebox and Emscripten)

Post by nicksen782 »

Not a bad idea about the vertical centering. I'll look into that.

As for colors, I am open to suggestions.

Which browser(s) are you using with it?
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Re: All Uzebox Games Online! (Cuzebox and Emscripten)

Post by Jubatian »

It is Firefox, so nothing unusual, I just have a different default theme with it to make it more pleasant to my eyes to read pages without CSS (the default white background burns my eyes). The related settings are on the Contents tab, Fonts & Colors, Advanced. You should check making adjustments there to make sure that an area of the page either looks fine with the user preferences or you override them completely (probably the bg. of the emulator window is also white by default, which just looks OK with my dark bg. you should possibly set that black in CSS too).
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Re: All Uzebox Games Online! (Cuzebox and Emscripten)

Post by L4rry »

I haven't read the entire thread so I apologize if I'm repeating some suggestions and observations here. I love the ability to play Uzebox games online. It's such a handy way to share games with friends and grow the community. So anyway, here's my suggestions:

- Debugging should be off by default. The clutter distracts from the experience.
- The default controls should be displayed prominently . A drive-by player would not have a clue what the controls are.
- Center the game play window.
- Moving the mouse to any interactive object on the screen causes music to slow down and sound weird.
- Because of the limited color palette the Uzebox has, the contrast is quite high. To allow for that, the surrounding environment should be soft and
in the background. Blended and non-intrusive. Let the game stand out.
- Allow accounts for content creators to upload and update their content. This will make your life a lot easier in the long run.

Anyway, I absolutely love this site and thanks for putting in the effort to provide it! It's awesome that I can just send a link to friends to say: 'Hey! Check this new 8-bit game I developed' :mrgreen:
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Re: All Uzebox Games Online! (Cuzebox and Emscripten)

Post by nicksen782 »

Thank you! Also be sure to check out the remote JSON feature.

These are great suggestions. I was originally hoping that I wouldn't be the sole person in charge of the Uzebox online library. I don't mind of course but it really hasn't come up. I've been thinking about re-writing some parts of the online tool a bit and I would really like to come up with a good way of allowing another admin to update the games database.

I actually had debugging on by default for me. Opps! Good catch.

I completed a simple system of on screen controls. I could put them under the emulator window when the debug mode is off. Does that sound good?

I don't think I can do much about the slow down. Especially if I try to use an external screen recorder. Perhaps Jubation could help with that? He had suggested in the past that I remove CSS rounding/hover effects. I removed some but didn't see too much of a change. Seems to really depend on your computer.

Could you please suggest a color palette to use?

Thanks!
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Re: All Uzebox Games Online! (Cuzebox and Emscripten)

Post by L4rry »

nicksen782 wrote:Could you please suggest a color palette to use?
I would recommend an off-white, similar to the 'uzebox.org' landing page or even the border color of
the forum.
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Re: All Uzebox Games Online! (Cuzebox and Emscripten)

Post by L4rry »

'pastel' is the palette I'm alluding to.
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