Work in Progress: SDL Mille - Mille Bornes for webOS

[dallashigh]

I am proud to introduce the third beta of SDL Mille!

About
SDL Mille is a clone of Mille Bornes written purely in C++. It depends only on SDL and standard C/C++ libraries, and does not require any platform- or compiler-specific code. Therefore, it runs unmodified on Windows, Mac, Linux, and of course the Palm Pre.

Mille Bornes is a French card game that is not very popular in the US, but is more well-known in parts of Europe. The players race against each other by playing mileage cards. The goal of the game is to finish the race before your opponent, racking up bonus points by playing strategically. "Mille Bornes" is French, and roughly translates to "A thousand miles." Clones are available on Windows, WinMo, and iOS as "Right of Way" and on Palm OS as "Rally 1000".

SDL Mille is licensed under version 3 of the GPL. The source is available from the WebOS Internals git repository. I hope that this contribution will help other developers create card games in SDL. Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

How to Play
These are instructions on how to use this specific clone of the game. General Mille Bornes rules will come here in the future.

When you start the game, you will have a tray at the bottom of the screen, which contains your hand, the discard pile, and the draw pile. The discard pile is in the top-left corner of the tray, and starts out as an empty border. The draw pile is in the bottom-left corner, and displays the number of cards that remain. Cards are drawn automatically.


To make a play or discard, first select the card by tapping it once. A white orb will appear on the card, indicating that it has been selected.


To play the selected card, tap it a second time or tap on a tableau. To discard the selected card, tap the discard pile.


You can also make your move by dragging a card and dropping it on one of the tableaus or the discard pile.

You can find a quick review of the controls by tapping on the Learn button in the main menu.

Download
This is beta software. I assume no responsibility for any effects caused, directly or indirectly, by this software. The beta3 IPK can be downloaded from this link, and installed with WebOS Quick Install. It is also available via Preware.

Screenshots



Supporting Development
If you are interested in contributing to my coffee fund, you may do so on this page.

[licotto]

THANK YOU! I love this game!!!

[major payne]

I will be ALL over this game I have loved this game since the fist day i played it over 25 years ago

[JohnnyPre]

artist.

[dallashigh]

Well, the response hasn't exactly been overwhelming, but I expected this because Mille Bornes is such an obscure game.

Progress has been much slower than I would have liked. The last few weeks of school were pretty hectic, and I haven't had much free time since finals with family in town. I do, however, foresee a working alpha release in the first week or two of June.

I have decided to license SDL Mille under version 3 of the GPL. It will create a little extra headache for me, but I simply haven't found any other license that suits my desires in this case. The source will be posted to the WebOS Internals git repository shortly before the first alpha release.

SDL Mille will always be open-source, and available without charge through Preware. I may also release it through the official App Catalog as payware, if Palm ever stops requiring a PayPal account.

I have created a page for SDL Mille on my wiki.

[MiguelATF]

MILLE BORNES is one of the best, coolest and most addictive card games - and computer games - ever made. If someone - YOU???!!!! - can create a good working version that runs on the PRE....you will have not only my eternal thanks.....but also those of many new addicts....oops, I mean, Mille Bornes players!

For those who don't know - it combines classic elements from Old School Grand Prix Car Racing - with GT aka Gran Turismo - with cool card/gameplay possibilities - and it's insanely fun and....yes.....addictive.

Please do it!

MILLE MERCIS! (A thousand thanks!)

-Miguel

[davidtm]

Yes, kudos!! My wife introduced me to this game, and it is indeed fun. (Need a hack for extra Coups-ferraz!! - or however it's spelled)

[horatio8]

I play Mille Bornes frequently with my daughter. It's a great game and I would be willing to pay for your version. Thanks.

[jp99]

This is a great game - just found this thread. I hope you can finish the coding and release it - you can help reintroduce a classic game to a new generation

[dallashigh]

An update for everyone: I'm finally to the point where I feel like this is ready for some public testing. The alpha release of SDL Mille will occur on Monday, June 14. There are some more details at my wiki.

[Audemars02]

I would love to help out testing this app...i have been waiting for a webOS version of this game. I loved "rally 500" on PalmOS and have missed it on webOS!

[dallashigh]

I've managed to get everything done in time for today's feature freeze. For the next two days, I'll be doing a code audit. That involves a review of the code to make sure I don't embarrass myself too badly when I publish the source Rod (rwhitby) of WebOS Internals has graciously created this repository for the source.

Just so expectations aren't too high, please remember that this is an alpha. This means that there may be bugs, including bugs that cause the game to operate outside of the standard rules. I haven't experienced any, but other testers may. In addition, the following limitations currently exist:

• Cannot extend trip
• Game ends after one hand
• Game cannot be reset; it must be exited and relaunched to start a new game
• No sound
• No animations
• No options

Thank you all for your encouragement and support. Thank you, Rod, for encouraging my development, and in particular for supporting open-source webOS projects.

Here is a screenshot of the game running under Windows. If you follow the link below the image on your Pre, and then zoom to fill the screen, you can get a fair idea of how it will look on your device.



Direct link to image

[dallashigh]

The source was posted Monday, and I've made the necessary tweaks to get it up and running on the Pre. The game can get laggy at times, but this is just an alpha and there is definitely room for speed improvements. I just have one graphic to finish, then I'll work on getting the build script set up. We should be up and running on schedule, if not a little early!

[deek05]

Best game ever! sweet!

[zParticle]

Hourra! I was just in this thread thinking about what games webOS really needed, and then realized how much I'd played Rally 1000, a Mille Bornes adaptation on PalmOS. A simple game, but probably my #1 timewaster.

So yeah, I'm definitely intrigued! Let me know if I can assist with any playtesting or logistics stuff.

Roulez!

[dallashigh]

Well, it doesn't look like we're going to make it into Preware today, but the first post has been updated with a download link for the alpha IPK. We should be in the testing feed within a few days.

[zParticle]

I'm loving this so far! Great interface and card design!

The computer cheats though... totally blew through my posted speed limit.

EDIT: Nope, my mistake. Just got confused by the end-of-limit icon. So far so good!

[dallashigh]

Originally Posted by zParticle

I'm loving this so far! Great interface and card design!

The computer cheats though... totally blew through my posted speed limit.

EDIT: Nope, my mistake. Just got confused by the end-of-limit icon. So far so good!

Thanks for the feedback! Glad to hear you got it sorted out. I was hoping for more than one alpha tester, though I'll get crackin on pushing this out to the Preware feed so more people can get their hands on it.

[michael05]

I've always loved Mille Bornes and played Rally 1000 all the time on my old Treo. A while back I saw a note that someone was working on it and just happened to search again today to find that your alpha version is released. I normally prefer to load all non catalog software by PreWare (feels safer). But in this case I'll have to make an exception! I must have Mille Bornes! Thanks so much for your work. I'll definitely be helping to test it for you.

[michael05]

OK, this is an alpha so when I installed and tried it out, I wasn't expecting a whole lot. And at first I was a bit overwelmed by the loud colors and the fact that I didn't know all of the cards (new graphics for me at least). Made it real hard to play at first. But I stuck with it till I figured the cards out and I've even got used to the loud colors. Now I'm really enjoying it.

I have to say that for an alpha release, I really like what you have done so far. I think I even like the loud colors now (really keeps you aware of the status of each player). Perhaps a bit of graphical polish to put a border on the areas or something might snaz up the display. But I'm sure it'll go through some changes before this app is done.

I know this is an alpha and it will be a while before this app is done. But if you have a priority list, the two biggest annoyances for me are that you have to restart the app for each new game and that there's no score sheet that shows how your cards add up after each game.

But all in all, very cool. I'm not sure how to donate, but I'm ready to do so and will see if I can figure it out. Want to keep you motivated to finish things thing as soon as possible.