"Mom, Mr. Murray asked me if I can go to his house to play a PC game he made" "Mr. Murray who?" "You know mom, that guy down the road that power washes old computers and puts them in a black crate all day long..."
Is that the guy who buys hundreds of bottles of peroxide and cling film? I thought we were supposed to be notified when someone like that moves into the neighbourhood...
It's heartwarming to see everyone there folding boxes and putting labels on disks for the project. It speaks very well of you as a person. You're very lucky to have such a great family and friends. The amount of work and effort you put in the project is admirable. Most people would have bailed on the project and either refund everyone or end up scamming them. The inmense amount of fans that you have, is well-deserved. I wish nothing but the best for you and everyone around you.
I love how your game has some of the garage tech startup Like some discs have slightly different code because of mid production change The boxes are hand folded, ect. I love it so much
4:08 Oh hey, that guy looks familiar! ;) I haven't finished watching the documentary, but I'm stoked to watch it all the way through. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to do music on the game, it was a pleasure to work on it and it's great to see so many people enjoy the game and the documentary!
That's absolutely great work you did, I admire your skill and dedication! Imagine if that would have been released back when these machines were fresh, it would have blown everything out of the water.
I like that David went the extra mile to have a boxed game when he could have simply offered it all for digital download or simply mailed a floppy in a disk mailer envelope. I’ve been no stranger to “stuffin’ parties” to mail stuff out. This video brought back many fond memories of those days 25 years ago.
I love that your wife is so willing to help you with all this and give up her house space for your project! She is so supportive of you and that is awesome!
"your wife is so willing to help you with all this and give up her house space for your project" Ywah, it's HER house, it's not like he lives there or pays for the house and the bills.
Before watching you I had absolutely no interest about anything that has to do with this channel. I've been watching every video the past year and have learned so much. Thanks for the content. I find this stuff fascinating now
I am absolutely amazed how you can have an indie developer creating a game based on technology 30+ years old, and *STILL* you have these incredibly talented, creative people coming out of the woodworks to *MOD* the game. Guys figuring out how to support different modes; someone porting it to Sega Genesis!?! Community gaming and support is one of the best things to happen to the gaming industry, I gotta tell ya!
If you open source it, and release a shareware version, I could easily see a doom-like situation happening where people try to run it on everything possible, especially with it being designed for low power systems. Heck, it's already started with the genesis port. I hope you do that at some point.
"...and it's going to be a long one so you might as well settle in." Actually, for all your unease at stating that, it satisfied me that I am about to watch something crafted with care and full of detail.
21:33 You may or may not realize it (you probably do), but this is where you have done things very, *very* right. Getting a fresh pair of eyes on your game can show you so much you never would have seen otherwise. Every game is better for outside testing. It really is *that important*.
He's actually made an analogy of this once It went something like this: You design a robot capable of making literally any drink imaginable and they go in a bar. Then, the first person walks in, and asks where the restroom is. universe end
This is an excellent educational video/advice for my students who are studying IT. They get to see /hear first hand with non -industry jargon - what is involved and needs to be considered when producing software. Hat off to you for all your hard work, and clearly documenting it for others to see/admire and learn from :)
im very curious on what license he'll release it at, best case would be a truly free license like GPL v3, but it'd be understandable that he'd want to choose something more restrictive maybe no license (all rights are reserved) making it effectively read-only but then it wouldn't really be open source
@@EnderCrypt I'd imagine that he'd use a license that would prevent commercial usage of the compiled code since he's already selling that himself, and maybe even allow those willing to purchase the ability to do so.
@@VioletGiraffe You know, it's hard to do so, when those "books" keept judging you all the time. Ironically, they sported this kind of rebellious/punk/"gone away from home" look, yet they were always about what garbage is cool currently, and everything else sucked as sin in their eyes. So yes, I am very much judging by these looks.
There's really only so few people I've ever truly admired in my life - you, David are now one of them! Absolutely incredible work! You sir, are an inspiration!!
As we build things, we learn better communication. Good communication is an EXTREMELY difficult skill and you always improve it no matter how good you may be or how many years you have worked in a particular field. Great video demonstrating some of the real issues in development. Not just the technical hurdles.
As somewhat of an old timer, I have a few tips: 1. Monochrome CGA should work with the composite output, where it simply turns off the chroma subcarrier, leaving the monochrome equivalent of the 16 colors. 2. Those boxes must have been badly prepared at the factory, if they had done the profile pressing of folds, assembly should have been 2 to 4 times faster. 3. You should have looked around for a used floppy duplication machine, they run at normal speed but can be fed a stack of 25 to 100 blanks, then grind away while you pack boxes nearby (they do get stuck occasionally, so running unattended for days doesn't really work). Finding a 5¼" copier in working condition may be too hard though. Also such copying jobs wear out drives, so use the least rare DSDD drives. Note that all the later PC floppy controllers can still handle DSDD drives.
Congrats on making and releasing a full PC game with support for so many graphics modes. And to manufacture and ship the products sure take a lot of time too. Thank you for showing the whole process as its valuable information for anyone considering starting their own Kickstarter. I hope your game keeps selling on in the years ahead.
Two observations. 1) This is completely awesome - congratulations. 2) Your wife must really, and I mean *REALLY*, love you. She's also awesome. So pleased to see this ship and fascinating to hear about the development and production process, along with all the challenges you faced. Great job!
For those who are interested in the Genesis port, I'll be posting updates and insights on the development process part at www.patreon.com/shiru8bit (you don't need to register in order to see them).
Even though I don't own any DOS machines, I still love watching the development progress of Planet X3. Your dedication is simply amazing! Also, congratulations for completing the Kickstarter project to finish! You managed to complete it and deliver it fully, something that most projects couldn't do. Will you open up another Kickstarter campaign in the future?
@@megaglowz8540 Heck, if you have an x86 PC. you very likely have a DOS machine, even if it's not running DOS right now. But you could easily stick FreeDOS on a USB stick, boot from that and be in business.
Love how computer game creation is such a fusion of techno nerdery and artistry - retro game of this caliber brought all such elements to bear for a truly special outcome
When I was a kid, my parents wanted to repaint our house and we were poor, so they had a "blowtorch party" where they invited people over to strip off the old paint with blowtorches. Imagine a bunch of young adults drinking beer and wielding blowtorches. It's a miracle they didn't burn our house down!
@@tommylakindasorta3068 That actually sounds like an awesome party theme. Having fun with friends and getting work done as well. Were you one of those young adults?
Ad-Lib sounds bangin' good. Holy cow! 🐮 So good infact, I would like to hear a modern radio hit composed for the Ad-Lib. Props to Noah, he did a great job.
Emmanuel Florac Also trying to do everything by themselves. There are associations that provide jobs for disabled people that could have done the folding and labeling in a couple days, helping the community in the process and removing the stress out.
Also, sending defective boxes like that is pretty crappy of them. I hope he contacted the company about it and got a partial refund for those. It just goes to show that it's better to use a slightly costlier, but more reliable vendor.
Gotta have those game testers. It's a very common "problem" that devs get so used to playing what they've created that they run through the whole thing in a much too streamlined way. Not sure why I'm writing this since you've already figured that out but OH WELL.
Everything about this video is fantastic. So much effort and dedication to turn this project into a reality. I especially love all the details in the box and manual. 10/10 as always.
That's how you show them true compassion. Hopefully you will be rewarded throughourly with friendly support and fame. But when counting the hours you, your wife and all your friends put in it really shows this wasn't about money at all.
@@mkaali The man-hours spent on each person's physical copy was far lower than what their time is worth. He should have increased the amount required to be paid to get it.
It's interesting to see the difficulties with all the packaging process, it's not something we really think about. It also explains why my box was slighty crooked even though is was really well packaged for shipping and why the sticker on my 3.5" version is not exactly centered, I didn't realised it was all done by hand. (Apparently, I have the second edition with the fancy transition effect. Huh, neat!)
There's a lot of older vids before X2 and X3 came out where David says something like "And its a pity this computer isn't fast enough or doesn't have basic so I can't put Tetris on it" Which got a few "BUT YOU CANT PROGRAM YOURE NOT A PROGRAMMER" comments I got such joy when David completely destroyed that argument
SNES rom hacking, especially Super Mario World has seen a _huge_ boom lately. There has been some incredible code written in ASM for the game by the rom hacking community. I’m so happy to see it still going strong.
@@oscillatine Indeed but these days it isn't. we're in a world where people refer to jQuery - not JS, but jQuery - as a bonafide programming language. Putting together a fully fledged web server using a giant Python framework is possible using 5 lines of Python code, while the majority of these programmers aren't even aware of the difference between memory and storage let alone how that memory might be considered in relation to the "program" they're writing. This is also a very high level of skill for assembly programming. BASIC and COBOL and FORTRAN programming were also very common in the 80s and a lot easier than Assembly.
Nah, Windows 3 was part of the late dos era. just skip to Windows 95 and/or Mac OS 8 please. Then just make Planet X5 a Dreamcast exclusive lol. That's assuming he'd even want to make 4 after all the shit that happened to him.
That high-res art used for the manual looks incredible! And would make a good style for a planet x4 if it were to run on a 486 or better computer, of course producing something that high fidelity would be such a major pain in the ass and essentially require you to print the game on CDs
That cover art is absolutely awesome. I love the colors they used, and the art itself looks so good. It is amazing to see different people come out of nowhere and add so much to this project. Also, the little differences between the shipped versions adds character to the game, it reminds me of Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, which I believe also has 4 different versions throughout production, with the early versions being more rare and valuable. I just hope BBC doesn't bust you because you actually called it a Tardis and not a british telephone box.
Jestem pod wielkim wrażeniem Pana pracy nad grą i wkładem własnym by przywracać sprzęt PC i wszystko co się z nim wiąże szerszej publiczności . Jestem wielkim fanem i kibicem Pana produkcji na UA-cam sprzętu z naszej młodości . Serdecznie pozdrawiam z Poland .
Interesting issue. David lives in NTSC-NA, Japan has NTSC-J, and Mega Drive displays PAL/SECAM. I'm assuming that if released, it would be only for the Genesis, with either ROM dumps or instructions and links for conversion kits so people in other regions can enjoy it. Otherwise creating separate cartridges opens a whole new can of worms, unless that's officially handed off to someone else.
@@Christopher-N Well, I would be playing in my Re-release MegaDrive 2017 from TecToy in Brazil. I believe it can run any cartridge, so playing a Genesis NTSC version wouldn't be a problem.
you can speedup the drawing of transparent objects, when you runlength-coding the tiles. simply encode the transparent und non-transparent parts. and when you decode the transparent part, you draw the background-tile. and when you decode the untransparent part you draw the foreground-tile. you need only one routine and without overdraw. for example 0,0,1,2,1,4,3,0 0,1,2,0,0,0,2,1 0,0,3,0,2,2,1,0 0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0 so if you begin with transparent pixel (0 for transparent) ... 2 (transparent pixels),5 (non transparent pixels),1,2,1,4,3 ,1 (transparent pixel) 1 (transparent pixel), 2 (non transparent pixels),1,2, 3 (transparent pixel), 2 (non transparent pixels),2,1 and so on ...
Making the game OpenSource sounds like a great idea! Seeing how quickly some people added more modes and ported the game, there's so much more potential for additional changes and having it as a learning base.
I DON'T EVEN HAVE A DOS PC BUT,I PURCHASED THIS COZ I LIKE THIS MANS WORK AND HIS DEDICATION TOWARDS PLANETX3 AND PLUS I LOVE HIS CHANNEL AND HIS VIDEOS.....KEEP UP DAVID,FOR THIS WORK AND ALL THE BEST FOR FUTURE PROJECTS..:]
A game can't really be modded without some semblance of mod support already existing. Although I'm sure the community could add mod support to the game with it hypothetically being open source.
@@dhkatz_ That first mod would be the mod-loader, basically. Minecraft doesn't technically have native mod-support, either, and that didn't stop folks. I suspect modded! X3 is going to take advantage of higher end hardware then the oringal design.
David, you are an amazing individual to have successfully coordinated this project to completion despite all the challenges it faced. It speaks volumes not only of your technical and project management prowess, but also your character. You stuck by your commitments and ended up delivering a truly amazing game. You have both my congratulations and thanks in equal measure.
That visualization of the transparent vs non transparent tiles is REALLY cool - you forget that repainting the screen is a doubly nested for loop and every cycle in that inner loop counts in a real time strategy game. It’s impressive that it works as well as it does on an 8086.
'Twas indeed a great visualization. The trick - as someone else pointed out in the comments-sorry I've since refreshed and lost the original-is to use Run-Length Encoding for the partially-transparent tiles. Essentially: (skip N pixels, copy N pixels, skip N pixels, copy N pixels, …) So you end up skipping over transparent pixels, and just copying the opaque ones. (For some of the tile shapes shown in the video, this would end up faster, not slower. The opaque spans are copied at full speed, and the transparent spans have almost zero cost.)
I got to know about Noah through Woody's Piano Shack discord and his passion for Retro music equipment is at another level. It's great to see his work in a real game that makes use of real retro hardware. Also, great video. It didn't feel as long as you advertised in the beginning.
@@greenbanana311 Fortunately no. Best thing about the internet is that you can be anything you want to be without much resistance. In real life, stuff's a bit more difficult.
I remember discussing this sort of thing when I took "System Analysis and Design": that we tend to become blind to certain bugs because we know not to do things in a certain way.
When I was working in printing company, one person was printing stuff for a day, other one (or the same one later) was cutting it out for, let's say, 1-2 days* and at least a few had to fold it for a week. That's why such companies don't want to fold it - client won't pay 5x or 10x more for already folded stuff. I hope you enjoyed the folding. Such fun and inspiring job, hehehe. Been there ;) * it's like a big press and you need to cut each one separately. Or sometimes 2 at once, but still. It both makes cuts and these inner "pre-folds" to make folding easier.
I only just stumbled upon your channel a couple weeks ago, and now have stumbled upon this whole development series. This video is absolutely amazing! I love seeing all the gritty details of development both from a software side and the actual practical printing and boxes. This is fast becoming one of my favorite channels. Keep it up!
I love listening to you explaining how these old machines work, and I feel like I'm constantly learning new things about the computers I've been using since my childhood. Two thirds of the stuff you say in your videos still goes way over my head, but that's down from 80% two months ago. ;) I love it! Thank you for all the great content.
He considered it, consistency and quality control were of paramount concern. Remember the boxes splitting? He was concerned about those boxes getting out so he, his family and others folded and folded and folded. David, the dude can fold a box like fast! No matter what I did he was faster. I tried believe me to beat him. No luck. I had tons of respect for David and his family before all of this, but after folding I don't know how many boxes and seeing first hand the enormous effort he and his entire family put into this. Trust me it's hard to imagine even after this documentary. Day and night this went on for months just to ensure we received a quality product. Quality control. If a disk label was not put on properly, he pealed it off and put a new one on. That's why I stopped putting labels on. I'm an expert sticker applicator so I was like yeah let me at it, but I had trouble with those 720 disk labels. They were a really tight fit and I felt bad just making more work for David so I gave up! LOL Seriously quality quality quality = The Murray's
@@willierants5880 The only other thing that could have been done would be to subcontract the assembly to China/Taiwan, There must be label aplicators that accept Floppy sizes and auto run them but I would guess a minium order would be 5000 units. Much easier when a company is producing multiple items as the machinery can be employed over a long run of similar things. I would have thought for disk duplication that someone would have a 720 or 360 disc drive stack 8 bay or similar in their collection ! But part of the learning and fun must have been the computer get-togethers a bit like the old computer clubs of the years past.
I would LOOOOVVVVEEEEEEE seeing this open sourced Writing old DOS games is a pain in the butt and I'm quite sure a lot of people would benefit from the work you have put in on this project!
Such a great story, I think If we all knew you had so many production issues, you would have had all you fans over at your house folding and sticking and copying. Love how your wife has been so supportive :)
I watched the whole film without being distracted and with my mouth open ... so exciting! You have wonderful friends and in particular a wife. Obviously, for her it was also a huge load and stress ... not to mention the fact that the whole house was littered with boxes! In her place, I would be furious =). Take care of your wife and love her! Well, at the end of the film, when you said that you want to make the game code open and help people develop their abilities, as well as remembering your previous videos, I was completely convinced that you are a GREAT MAN !!! On such as you, the whole planet rests! Inspires. Do not stop! =))) Thank you so much for the video and success in the further development of Planet X3 !!!
RE: UK returns. You legally declared the cost of the goods. It was over £18 and customs blocked the delivery and asked the recipient for import duty plus VAT and then Royal Mail wanted £8 for posting an incomplete card through the door asking for the full amount. So 1-40 people said f'that and allowed the 21 days to elapse which triggered the auto return to you. These people then just downloaded the game and maybe wrote there own disk and label. The cost of ship from the US is prohibitive. Next time! bulk ship to an UK friend as a 'gift' or as low duty as you can; in separate crates and locally print the postage labels. Asked them to post on using Hermes. I just Kickstarted the game for download. I haven't played it yet. I wonder how many others did the same. I haven't even played Elite Dangerous yet!
18 pounds tax-free customs limit? Holy cow, that is the lowest I've seen to date, ridiculous. Doesn't US still impose no customs import tax upon private citizens despite all the recent movement to uplift domestic manufacturing?
adapting VGA graphics to 16, 32 and 64 colors and different graphics modes is quite easy, if the original images are in known formats you can pre-load video mode color palettes in Photoshop, adjust color indexes and then adapt the graphics with nice dithering etc. no reason to redraw them. :) I wished I had more time to get involved. I think it's amazing what you are doing for the retro computing scene David. The source code would be great addition for people to getting started with retro-PC assembly programming (I would love to see more of these projects). It would be kind of fun to convert it to the Amiga machines as well. :) But would require a lot work, main benefit would be sampled modules for the music.
Found your channel through the video about your backup power systems, I have very little knowledge about computers let alone older tech but this is awesome that people are making new games for these systems.
"Mom, Mr. Murray asked me if I can go to his house to play a PC game he made"
"Mr. Murray who?"
"You know mom, that guy down the road that power washes old computers and puts them in a black crate all day long..."
You're winner for today !
Awesome comment
Is that the guy who buys hundreds of bottles of peroxide and cling film?
I thought we were supposed to be notified when someone like that moves into the neighbourhood...
Why does anybody take this so seriusly🤔
Btw... You mind folding some boxes
Sounds like Planet X-4 is going to have rented office space and employees...
Congratulations on founding a retro Game Dev Studio !
Woo-hoo! Null-modem head-to-head!
Planet X 4 is gonna be Epic Exclusive.
@@RMJ1984 LOL never ψ(｀∇´)ψ
Maybe even some automated machines, such as a disk copier that loads and labels disks automatically, and a box making machine.
@@user2C47 He must have learned at this point that cheaper is not always the best ;) wink wink
The music composer seems like he was transported here from the early 80's
He's bill gates on the pirates of silicon valley movie
Mr. Potatohead....Mr. Potatohead! Backdoors are NOT secrets!
@@mike4330 YEA BUT UR GIVING AWAY ALL OUR BEST TRICKS!!!
@@lopescorte104 I WAS THINKING THAT VERY THING!!! I was thinking Wozniak tho...
@@lopescorte104 Not the same Noah afaik :)
It's heartwarming to see everyone there folding boxes and putting labels on disks for the project. It speaks very well of you as a person. You're very lucky to have such a great family and friends. The amount of work and effort you put in the project is admirable. Most people would have bailed on the project and either refund everyone or end up scamming them. The inmense amount of fans that you have, is well-deserved. I wish nothing but the best for you and everyone around you.
He could have livestreamed those parties there and I bet there would be tons of people throwing donations his way
I love how your game has some of the garage tech startup
Like some discs have slightly different code because of mid production change
The boxes are hand folded, ect.
I love it so much
I concur, I love this channel and the community here. Just wow.
4:08 Oh hey, that guy looks familiar! ;)
I haven't finished watching the documentary, but I'm stoked to watch it all the way through. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to do music on the game, it was a pleasure to work on it and it's great to see so many people enjoy the game and the documentary!
That's absolutely great work you did, I admire your skill and dedication!
Imagine if that would have been released back when these machines were fresh, it would have blown everything out of the water.
That's you, great job on the audio dude 🖖
I think you did great work with the Tandy sound, but that might be chiptune bias.
Very well done
Speedy DTM I appreciate the energy and optimism of Noah being invited in the project for making the soundtrack. Sometimes less is more.
Congratulations! You have been upgraded. You are now the 16 bit guy!!
Then he undergoes cellular division and becomes... dun dun dun... the 8-bit guy and his evil twin: the 1 byte guy.
and onces he makes mac classic version he'll be the 32bit guy
at 4:09 I was like: "why is this woman screaming at me"
@@calvinrempel8600 XD XD XD
@@stewiegriffin6503 😮woman yelling
Your wife is an absolute legend.
I hope you bought her something nice!
Three cheers for Mrs. 8-bit guy
I came to the comments to say the same! Thanks for fostering and supporting such an interestingly eccentric dream.
She had that look on her face: "David, just wait until I get around to kicking your ass!"
"Your wife is an absolute legend.
" Yeah, she helped even though she never gets any money from his work. Oh, wait...
I like that David went the extra mile to have a boxed game when he could have simply offered it all for digital download or simply mailed a floppy in a disk mailer envelope.
I’ve been no stranger to “stuffin’ parties” to mail stuff out. This video brought back many fond memories of those days 25 years ago.
Wish I lived in his area. I'd be happy to sit there stuffing boxes.
Oh my God that dude with the graphics mode modifications what the hell
He's a trooper!
Some techies are squirrels: if there's a disused attic, they need to change that.
That dude must be involved in the Linux world in any way, god damn...
I love that your wife is so willing to help you with all this and give up her house space for your project! She is so supportive of you and that is awesome!
Well that’s what they call love my friend, and marriage itself is a partnership
I’m sure she looked the other way when he started getting some checks
"your wife is so willing to help you with all this and give up her house space for your project" Ywah, it's HER house, it's not like he lives there or pays for the house and the bills.
That's a keeper.
she married this huge nerd so not surprising
Sound guy looking like he was an original ID Software employee.
Ha, good one
He's the illegitimate lovechild of John Romero and Bobby Prince.
Not enough hair
Ha! I couldn't quite put my finger on it but this is spot on. High praise indeed.
Now looks like a woman. Transexual
Before watching you I had absolutely no interest about anything that has to do with this channel. I've been watching every video the past year and have learned so much. Thanks for the content. I find this stuff fascinating now
I second this comment ;)
Mate if I knew he made this stuff earlier I would have never stopped watching this channel, who's up to make a modern port?
Brian Northridge same
I watch this channel a lot and I don't play vintage computer games, but I might just buy that Vinyl record as a gesture for support.
I am absolutely amazed how you can have an indie developer creating a game based on technology 30+ years old, and *STILL* you have these incredibly talented, creative people coming out of the woodworks to *MOD* the game. Guys figuring out how to support different modes; someone porting it to Sega Genesis!?! Community gaming and support is one of the best things to happen to the gaming industry, I gotta tell ya!
I'm surprised it's not available on the Gameboy Advanced yet.
@@ikannunaplays Wouldn’t that be fun.
27:12 I love that "I Only Give Positive Feedback" shirt that William is wearing. I'm a sucker for shirts with schematics lol.
42 minutes of modern-retro game development porn. Thank you , thank you , thank you.
@@paulreid7370 nah, I hate jazz
This bytes me in real good
If you open source it, and release a shareware version, I could easily see a doom-like situation happening where people try to run it on everything possible, especially with it being designed for low power systems. Heck, it's already started with the genesis port.
I hope you do that at some point.
But can it run planet x3
I want an Android port hahaha
-MVG would port it-
@@sobreinquisidor There is a port of DOSBox for Android.
@@dustinm2717 you have just spawned the successor to the "can it run crysis" meme
Holy crap 42 minutes. This is a blessing like Clint’s 40 minute dot matrix printing.
I loved that dot matrix printing video. Brought back many happy memories. LOL
good times
I watched that entire dot matrix printing video from beginning to end.
“Greeeetings!”
Or Tom Scott and Matt Gray printing UA-cam Live Chat and shredding it.
Any plans for a GoG release? They actually have a whole category of games running on DOSBox
I second that, GoG is a very good digital distribution platform for that kind of games. I would love to see it there.
I second that.
sasilik no you 3rd that and i 4rth that
@@lemonboy9yearsago760 I 5rd that
Justin Davis ok now lets talk about who is gonna be the. 6ndrdnd
"...and it's going to be a long one so you might as well settle in."
Actually, for all your unease at stating that, it satisfied me that I am about to watch something crafted with care and full of detail.
21:33 You may or may not realize it (you probably do), but this is where you have done things very, *very* right.
Getting a fresh pair of eyes on your game can show you so much you never would have seen otherwise. Every game is better for outside testing. It really is *that important*.
He's actually made an analogy of this once
It went something like this:
You design a robot capable of making literally any drink imaginable and they go in a bar.
Then, the first person walks in, and asks where the restroom is.
universe end
This is an excellent educational video/advice for my students who are studying IT. They get to see /hear first hand with non -industry jargon - what is involved and needs to be considered when producing software.
Hat off to you for all your hard work, and clearly documenting it for others to see/admire and learn from :)
Props for wanting to release the source code. That'll surely help a lot of people in future.
im very curious on what license he'll release it at, best case would be a truly free license like GPL v3, but it'd be understandable that he'd want to choose something more restrictive
maybe no license (all rights are reserved) making it effectively read-only but then it wouldn't really be open source
Hope they would do this via Git plus on GitHub for cloud
@@EnderCrypt
I'd imagine that he'd use a license that would prevent commercial usage of the compiled code since he's already selling that himself, and maybe even allow those willing to purchase the ability to do so.
@@AgrimarYT
You buy The game here The source code
Imagine getting a port to the NES, SNES, TG-16, and the Master system! That would be cool!
"one of the kids"
Holy cow, that hair! XD
Weird. He looks like he would just make fun of those "old boring computers" and "grampa's boring old game".
@@arvizturotukorfurogep6235, didn't mama tell you anything about judging a book by the cover?
@@VioletGiraffe You know, it's hard to do so, when those "books" keept judging you all the time. Ironically, they sported this kind of rebellious/punk/"gone away from home" look, yet they were always about what garbage is cool currently, and everything else sucked as sin in their eyes. So yes, I am very much judging by these looks.
@@arvizturotukorfurogep6235 lol ok boomer
@@zackiechan2601 *_B o o m e r w i l l l i v e_*
There's really only so few people I've ever truly admired in my life - you, David are now one of them!
Absolutely incredible work! You sir, are an inspiration!!
As we build things, we learn better communication. Good communication is an EXTREMELY difficult skill and you always improve it no matter how good you may be or how many years you have worked in a particular field. Great video demonstrating some of the real issues in development. Not just the technical hurdles.
Fantastic to see a legend in the comments section! :)
As somewhat of an old timer, I have a few tips:
1. Monochrome CGA should work with the composite output, where it simply turns off the chroma subcarrier, leaving the monochrome equivalent of the 16 colors.
2. Those boxes must have been badly prepared at the factory, if they had done the profile pressing of folds, assembly should have been 2 to 4 times faster.
3. You should have looked around for a used floppy duplication machine, they run at normal speed but can be fed a stack of 25 to 100 blanks, then grind away while you pack boxes nearby (they do get stuck occasionally, so running unattended for days doesn't really work). Finding a 5¼" copier in working condition may be too hard though. Also such copying jobs wear out drives, so use the least rare DSDD drives. Note that all the later PC floppy controllers can still handle DSDD drives.
Aaahh, another 8 Bit Guy video!!
The 8-Bit Guy: ".. It's gonna be a loong one!!"
Me: Looks at the 42 minute time line
*yay*
Congrats on making and releasing a full PC game with support for so many graphics modes. And to manufacture and ship the products sure take a lot of time too. Thank you for showing the whole process as its valuable information for anyone considering starting their own Kickstarter. I hope your game keeps selling on in the years ahead.
Two observations. 1) This is completely awesome - congratulations. 2) Your wife must really, and I mean *REALLY*, love you. She's also awesome. So pleased to see this ship and fascinating to hear about the development and production process, along with all the challenges you faced. Great job!
Keep us in the loop when the Genesis version releases! I'll definitely buy that!
i wish i could port it to the NES or SNES
Waiting for that too!
For those who are interested in the Genesis port, I'll be posting updates and insights on the development process part at www.patreon.com/shiru8bit (you don't need to register in order to see them).
@@mctv6486 I don't think NES will be possible, SNES may also be a bit more difficult.
@@macoud12 NES is possible. SNES would be a bit more difficult than either of these just because of the lack of good dev tools.
Noah did a fantastic job with the music. Sounds great!
Local Kamikaze it feels like i am a kid again, discovering games off of demo discs in the long summer nights.
Even though I don't own any DOS machines, I still love watching the development progress of Planet X3. Your dedication is simply amazing!
Also, congratulations for completing the Kickstarter project to finish! You managed to complete it and deliver it fully, something that most projects couldn't do.
Will you open up another Kickstarter campaign in the future?
Comment from 9 hours ago on a vid published 17 minuts ago 🤔
@WATCHING THE WATCHERS Patreon?
there are always emulators :)
One word: DosBox.
@@megaglowz8540 Heck, if you have an x86 PC. you very likely have a DOS machine, even if it's not running DOS right now.
But you could easily stick FreeDOS on a USB stick, boot from that and be in business.
I watched this video from start to end without noticing it's 42 minutes long. Amazing project!
Love how computer game creation is such a fusion of techno nerdery and artistry - retro game of this caliber brought all such elements to bear for a truly special outcome
Calls it a party. Is actually running a sweatshop 😂
When I was a kid, my parents wanted to repaint our house and we were poor, so they had a "blowtorch party" where they invited people over to strip off the old paint with blowtorches. Imagine a bunch of young adults drinking beer and wielding blowtorches. It's a miracle they didn't burn our house down!
@@tommylakindasorta3068 That actually sounds like an awesome party theme. Having fun with friends and getting work done as well. Were you one of those young adults?
@@cortos_9733 No, I was only 7 or 8 years old. They didn't trust me with the blowtorch.
I seriously think the next game should be a golf spinoff, Planet X: Fore!
William Matheson *groan* go home dad, you're drunk
LOL
A Real Time Stroke game
And also a Snooker/Pool spinoff
As a musician, and a graphic designer the music and art for this game is fire. Great work on everything!
Ad-Lib sounds bangin' good. Holy cow! 🐮
So good infact, I would like to hear a modern radio hit composed for the Ad-Lib. Props to Noah, he did a great job.
Thanks for you and your wife and everyone's help making this project happen!
So buying the cheaper boxes was really a bad move and cost you much more in the end in additional work...
In my experiece, cheaper never is :(
Emmanuel Florac
Also trying to do everything by themselves. There are associations that provide jobs for disabled people that could have done the folding and labeling in a couple days, helping the community in the process and removing the stress out.
Also, sending defective boxes like that is pretty crappy of them. I hope he contacted the company about it and got a partial refund for those. It just goes to show that it's better to use a slightly costlier, but more reliable vendor.
paying cheap makes you paying twice!
True, but then where would he have kept that many pre-folded boxes?
This episode was just incredible. Hyped for the Sega Genesis version!!
Same here.
Genesis plays what ninten-dont.
You guys worked really hard on this and it clearly paid off.
Good job!
12:28 wow those iso planet x3 tiles are the coolest thing!
Gotta have those game testers. It's a very common "problem" that devs get so used to playing what they've created that they run through the whole thing in a much too streamlined way.
Not sure why I'm writing this since you've already figured that out but OH WELL.
I just want to let you know that I really respect your work ethic. You made a super quality product, and it shows. Thanks so much!
you got the best intro music of all retro/80s/nostalgia channels
It's way too loud though,esp. with headphones :-/
The 8 bit unboxing one bumps
I love seeing life brethed into old systems with new games & hardware! Congrats on making 2 great games & I hope you make more!
Everything about this video is fantastic. So much effort and dedication to turn this project into a reality. I especially love all the details in the box and manual. 10/10 as always.
I remember it like yesterday when floppies could still be bought in store. We're getting old lol
Seems like you undercharged the people who had pledged for your kickstarter
That's how you show them true compassion. Hopefully you will be rewarded throughourly with friendly support and fame. But when counting the hours you, your wife and all your friends put in it really shows this wasn't about money at all.
How?
@@mkaali The man-hours spent on each person's physical copy was far lower than what their time is worth. He should have increased the amount required to be paid to get it.
It's interesting to see the difficulties with all the packaging process, it's not something we really think about. It also explains why my box was slighty crooked even though is was really well packaged for shipping and why the sticker on my 3.5" version is not exactly centered, I didn't realised it was all done by hand.
(Apparently, I have the second edition with the fancy transition effect. Huh, neat!)
We need a retro publishing company that does all the disk duplication, boxing and shipping.
I've seen of one that makes custom NES Game Paks.
Limited Run?
they also did that for Celeste and Cuphead, two great indie games.
Ya pulled it off, David. Congrats! Here's to hope that I too finish my game project, FOR ONCE. lol
I really like how forthcoming you are about the development process. The final product seems to reflect the effort put into it. Good work!
Me: Time to go to bed!
8-Bit Guy: New video
Me: Time to go to bed + 42 minutes
Eh... These comments are still going?
You produced a hearty belly laugh squire! Nay have a seen a comment such as thine!
i must say, i didn't know you were such a good coder. all in asm? that's elite man. good work
There's a lot of older vids before X2 and X3 came out where David says something like
"And its a pity this computer isn't fast enough or doesn't have basic so I can't put Tetris on it"
Which got a few "BUT YOU CANT PROGRAM YOURE NOT A PROGRAMMER" comments
I got such joy when David completely destroyed that argument
Elite?! More like a person that has 30+ years IT experience. I always coded my early commodore machines in asm.
Coding in asm was common in 1980's.
SNES rom hacking, especially Super Mario World has seen a _huge_ boom lately. There has been some incredible code written in ASM for the game by the rom hacking community. I’m so happy to see it still going strong.
@@oscillatine Indeed but these days it isn't. we're in a world where people refer to jQuery - not JS, but jQuery - as a bonafide programming language. Putting together a fully fledged web server using a giant Python framework is possible using 5 lines of Python code, while the majority of these programmers aren't even aware of the difference between memory and storage let alone how that memory might be considered in relation to the "program" they're writing. This is also a very high level of skill for assembly programming. BASIC and COBOL and FORTRAN programming were also very common in the 80s and a lot easier than Assembly.
Now waiting for Planet X4 for Windows 3, manufactured in millions on real factory ;D
And then Planet X5 for Windows 95. Lol
Nah, Windows 3 was part of the late dos era. just skip to Windows 95 and/or Mac OS 8 please. Then just make Planet X5 a Dreamcast exclusive lol. That's assuming he'd even want to make 4 after all the shit that happened to him.
some day in the future, Planet X9, running on Unreal 4
I'm placing my money on Planet V for Windows Vista
and mac system 7-9
What I found most interesting is the huge amount of work just to copy and box the product. This is something many people ignore.
Your devotion to this project is very admirable. Great work! :D
That high-res art used for the manual looks incredible! And would make a good style for a planet x4 if it were to run on a 486 or better computer, of course producing something that high fidelity would be such a major pain in the ass and essentially require you to print the game on CDs
That cover art is absolutely awesome. I love the colors they used, and the art itself looks so good. It is amazing to see different people come out of nowhere and add so much to this project. Also, the little differences between the shipped versions adds character to the game, it reminds me of Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, which I believe also has 4 different versions throughout production, with the early versions being more rare and valuable. I just hope BBC doesn't bust you because you actually called it a Tardis and not a british telephone box.
I ordered a boxed copy, and I'm super excited for it to arrive!
Your dedication is amazing. It's a trait not everyone has.
Jestem pod wielkim wrażeniem Pana pracy nad grą i wkładem własnym by przywracać sprzęt PC i wszystko co się z nim wiąże szerszej publiczności . Jestem wielkim fanem i kibicem Pana produkcji na UA-cam sprzętu z naszej młodości . Serdecznie pozdrawiam z Poland .
The box and packaging process is absolutely fascinating. Anyone else agree?
yeah he's a box filling machine shipping packages is a lot of work man it's time consuming work
If this Sega MegaDrive version gets released in a cartridge, I'd be really happy to buy one.
Maybe a Vectrex version ?
@@tomf3150 : Did the Vectrex have the render power?
Interesting issue. David lives in NTSC-NA, Japan has NTSC-J, and Mega Drive displays PAL/SECAM. I'm assuming that if released, it would be only for the Genesis, with either ROM dumps or instructions and links for conversion kits so people in other regions can enjoy it. Otherwise creating separate cartridges opens a whole new can of worms, unless that's officially handed off to someone else.
@@Christopher-N Well, I would be playing in my Re-release MegaDrive 2017 from TecToy in Brazil. I believe it can run any cartridge, so playing a Genesis NTSC version wouldn't be a problem.
Saw the upload notification, saw a 42 minutes video from the 8-bit guy and clicked faster than light! What else could i do?
same for me, hahaha, always happy to watch his vids, so informative, well laid out, interesting!
@@nneeerrrd Lacking in social skills much?
@@Blitterbug What? It's hilarious!
@@Blitterbug playing white knight defending stupids huh? Just get lost
you can speedup the drawing of transparent objects, when you runlength-coding the tiles. simply encode the transparent und non-transparent parts. and when you decode the transparent part, you draw the background-tile. and when you decode the untransparent part you draw the foreground-tile. you need only one routine and without overdraw.
for example
0,0,1,2,1,4,3,0
0,1,2,0,0,0,2,1
0,0,3,0,2,2,1,0
0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0
so if you begin with transparent pixel (0 for transparent) ...
2 (transparent pixels),5 (non transparent pixels),1,2,1,4,3 ,1 (transparent pixel)
1 (transparent pixel), 2 (non transparent pixels),1,2, 3 (transparent pixel), 2 (non transparent pixels),2,1
and so on ...
What if the prank was telling you one was upside down?
I love the way you think.
the first thing i thought off
Making the game OpenSource sounds like a great idea! Seeing how quickly some people added more modes and ported the game, there's so much more potential for additional changes and having it as a learning base.
I DON'T EVEN HAVE A DOS PC BUT,I PURCHASED THIS COZ I LIKE THIS MANS WORK AND HIS DEDICATION TOWARDS PLANETX3 AND PLUS I LOVE HIS CHANNEL AND HIS VIDEOS.....KEEP UP DAVID,FOR THIS WORK AND ALL THE BEST FOR FUTURE PROJECTS..:]
Get it running through a DOS emulator.
@@wing0zero is there any dis emulator for pc
@@atharva_A
Search DOSBox on Google, that might work.
21:00 That S-VHS VCR and Sony Pro Trinitron combo is making me extremely jealous! Congratulations on that setup sir!
Thanks! I use it to transfer VHS to digital.
It's wonderful! What model is the VCR? Hard to make it out from just the corner... a JVC of some sort?
@@NikHYTWP jvc s-vhs with built-in TBC
Man, if you open-source it, get ready for a ton of mods.
People LOVE mods.
A game can't really be modded without some semblance of mod support already existing. Although I'm sure the community could add mod support to the game with it hypothetically being open source.
@@dhkatz_ That first mod would be the mod-loader, basically.
Minecraft doesn't technically have native mod-support, either, and that didn't stop folks.
I suspect modded! X3 is going to take advantage of higher end hardware then the oringal design.
David, you are an amazing individual to have successfully coordinated this project to completion despite all the challenges it faced. It speaks volumes not only of your technical and project management prowess, but also your character. You stuck by your commitments and ended up delivering a truly amazing game. You have both my congratulations and thanks in equal measure.
That visualization of the transparent vs non transparent tiles is REALLY cool - you forget that repainting the screen is a doubly nested for loop and every cycle in that inner loop counts in a real time strategy game.
It’s impressive that it works as well as it does on an 8086.
Also that 8086 MPH demo that won Revision 2015. Yeaaaah! I saw that!
Nice how you got an interview and help with one of the developers
'Twas indeed a great visualization.
The trick - as someone else pointed out in the comments-sorry I've since refreshed and lost the original-is to use Run-Length Encoding for the partially-transparent tiles.
Essentially: (skip N pixels, copy N pixels, skip N pixels, copy N pixels, …) So you end up skipping over transparent pixels, and just copying the opaque ones. (For some of the tile shapes shown in the video, this would end up faster, not slower. The opaque spans are copied at full speed, and the transparent spans have almost zero cost.)
I got to know about Noah through Woody's Piano Shack discord and his passion for Retro music equipment is at another level. It's great to see his work in a real game that makes use of real retro hardware. Also, great video. It didn't feel as long as you advertised in the beginning.
Are you an anime character in real life, too?
@@greenbanana311 Fortunately no. Best thing about the internet is that you can be anything you want to be without much resistance. In real life, stuff's a bit more difficult.
I have a sudden urge to bludgeon a Protoid with a vintage 1970s turntable.
Really? I mean I think I would do it with anything by Crosley personally. Nothing of value lost.
As a software quality assurance engineer, I love the QA process section. I do the same things when I test code.
I remember discussing this sort of thing when I took "System Analysis and Design": that we tend to become blind to certain bugs because we know not to do things in a certain way.
When I was working in printing company, one person was printing stuff for a day, other one (or the same one later) was cutting it out for, let's say, 1-2 days* and at least a few had to fold it for a week. That's why such companies don't want to fold it - client won't pay 5x or 10x more for already folded stuff. I hope you enjoyed the folding. Such fun and inspiring job, hehehe. Been there ;)
* it's like a big press and you need to cut each one separately. Or sometimes 2 at once, but still. It both makes cuts and these inner "pre-folds" to make folding easier.
Thank you for being willing to share your source. As someone who would like to learn how to program in assembly someday this is very good to hear.
E3:
8 bit guy: hold my beer
Great project. Won't copy you and ever do project packaging and shipping! Thank you for the games. Play the download version.
Whoa, a 40-minute episode? Better get some popcorn!
James Sayian I’m actually eating popcorn right now!
I only just stumbled upon your channel a couple weeks ago, and now have stumbled upon this whole development series. This video is absolutely amazing! I love seeing all the gritty details of development both from a software side and the actual practical printing and boxes. This is fast becoming one of my favorite channels. Keep it up!
I love listening to you explaining how these old machines work, and I feel like I'm constantly learning new things about the computers I've been using since my childhood. Two thirds of the stuff you say in your videos still goes way over my head, but that's down from 80% two months ago. ;) I love it! Thank you for all the great content.
You should have offered to send the box and labels unassembled in exchange for faster shipping.
He considered it, consistency and quality control were of paramount concern. Remember the boxes splitting? He was concerned about those boxes getting out so he, his family and others folded and folded and folded. David, the dude can fold a box like fast! No matter what I did he was faster. I tried believe me to beat him. No luck. I had tons of respect for David and his family before all of this, but after folding I don't know how many boxes and seeing first hand the enormous effort he and his entire family put into this. Trust me it's hard to imagine even after this documentary. Day and night this went on for months just to ensure we received a quality product. Quality control. If a disk label was not put on properly, he pealed it off and put a new one on. That's why I stopped putting labels on. I'm an expert sticker applicator so I was like yeah let me at it, but I had trouble with those 720 disk labels. They were a really tight fit and I felt bad just making more work for David so I gave up! LOL Seriously quality quality quality = The Murray's
@@willierants5880 The only other thing that could have been done would be to subcontract the assembly to China/Taiwan, There must be label aplicators that accept Floppy sizes and auto run them but I would guess a minium order would be 5000 units. Much easier when a company is producing multiple items as the machinery can be employed over a long run of similar things. I would have thought for disk duplication that someone would have a 720 or 360 disc drive stack 8 bay or similar in their collection ! But part of the learning and fun must have been the computer get-togethers a bit like the old computer clubs of the years past.
My label was perfect.
I'd love to be able to look at the source code and see if I can't try porting it to the Wii.
hit me up when u do
Yes I'd love that too, it's almost a dream if it happens
Dave (the trusty 8-Bit Guy), keep up the magnificent work as always! You're like a modern day developer for retro gaming systems.
I would LOOOOVVVVEEEEEEE seeing this open sourced Writing old DOS games is a pain in the butt and I'm quite sure a lot of people would benefit from the work you have put in on this project!
Such a great story, I think If we all knew you had so many production issues, you would have had all you fans over at your house folding and sticking and copying. Love how your wife has been so supportive :)
I watched the whole film without being distracted and with my mouth open ... so exciting!
You have wonderful friends and in particular a wife. Obviously, for her it was also a huge load and stress ... not to mention the fact that the whole house was littered with boxes! In her place, I would be furious =). Take care of your wife and love her!
Well, at the end of the film, when you said that you want to make the game code open and help people develop their abilities, as well as remembering your previous videos, I was completely convinced that you are a GREAT MAN !!! On such as you, the whole planet rests! Inspires. Do not stop! =)))
Thank you so much for the video and success in the further development of Planet X3 !!!
Planet X4 coming 2022 with more explosions and blast processing!
XD win3k version?
Maybe it'll ship with a cheap keyboard instrument so you can mod the melodies and music yourself
Planet X5 coming to PS4
@@hakube34 you could use DOSBOX on ps4 ..
RE: UK returns. You legally declared the cost of the goods. It was over £18 and customs blocked the delivery and asked the recipient for import duty plus VAT and then Royal Mail wanted £8 for posting an incomplete card through the door asking for the full amount. So 1-40 people said f'that and allowed the 21 days to elapse which triggered the auto return to you. These people then just downloaded the game and maybe wrote there own disk and label. The cost of ship from the US is prohibitive. Next time! bulk ship to an UK friend as a 'gift' or as low duty as you can; in separate crates and locally print the postage labels. Asked them to post on using Hermes.
I just Kickstarted the game for download. I haven't played it yet. I wonder how many others did the same. I haven't even played Elite Dangerous yet!
18 pounds tax-free customs limit? Holy cow, that is the lowest I've seen to date, ridiculous. Doesn't US still impose no customs import tax upon private citizens despite all the recent movement to uplift domestic manufacturing?
Scott Rowland Fake "Gift declaration" is actually smuggling. Don't do that.
@@VioletGiraffe LMAO that isn't even that bad, where I live it's only $2 including the shipping cost...
anyone who finishes a game is legend to me...salute!
i started with the x2 commentary, and getting here watching 3 years compressed into a couple hours has been an amazing journey.
adapting VGA graphics to 16, 32 and 64 colors and different graphics modes is quite easy, if the original images are in known formats you can pre-load video mode color palettes in Photoshop, adjust color indexes and then adapt the graphics with nice dithering etc. no reason to redraw them. :) I wished I had more time to get involved. I think it's amazing what you are doing for the retro computing scene David. The source code would be great addition for people to getting started with retro-PC assembly programming (I would love to see more of these projects). It would be kind of fun to convert it to the Amiga machines as well. :) But would require a lot work, main benefit would be sampled modules for the music.
What about using HAM for the cut scenes on the hypothetical Amiga version? Same goes for the similar modes on the ST...
I have a question, if we order the game on your website, can we also get a digital copy of the SEGA port? I'd love to play it on Mega SG.
@CyDragonGM The Mega SG is a sega genesis, it's an FPGA clone made by Analogue inc. With it I can play in 1080p for all the glorious pixels.
@CyDragonGM uhh, ok?
But the Analogue is able to play new cartridge games. Releasing the ROM might cause pirating.
If the source code releases, i'll swear someone will release an SVGA modification.
I'm waiting for some mech-style fan game to be made at this rate lol
@@NaokisRC Someone is going to do an isometric tile version using those tiles that were shown in the manual
Just ordered it and the X2 digital. Thanks for scratching an itch I wasn't aware I had.
Found your channel through the video about your backup power systems, I have very little knowledge about computers let alone older tech but this is awesome that people are making new games for these systems.