Welcome to my little place on the web.

I'm a software developer and occasionally when time allows, I like to blog about my various coding project here. I also like to tinker with home automation, retro gaming and more.

I have also shared some of my software, which I hope may be of use to others. It's on my software page.

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Big update to Dave Dangerous

Dave Dangerous was my first full Android game, and with that it had a few areas that had room for improvement. The biggest one would be that it did not use hardware rendering, so could struggle on low end devices. Not anymore! I have ported the game across to the libGDX. This is a cross platform framework that I used for Spikes Galore. This will also mean that porting across to other platforms should be a little smoother.

There is also a number of other enhancements. This includes some updated images, better management of adverts and hints on the first few stages. If you have not already downloaded it, head over to Google Pl... read more

Multi-room Audio with ChromeCast Audio and Lepy (Poor man's Sonos)

I currently have an ageing TEAC AG-980 amplifier that has 4 zones. I have never been that happy with it. I had planned to use the serial port to control it via HouseBot home automation software, but I could never get this to work, so had to resort to IR to control that could be very temperamental at times.

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I had looked, from time to time, to see about upgrading to something better, like Sonos for example, but I cou... read more

Update to Spikes Galore

Another week, another update. This update has integrated Google Play Games services.

The Google Play Game services will allow you to unlock achievements and submit your top score to a shared leaderboard. Give it a go!

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It's available on Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nellyfish.spikesgalore or via htt... read more

Minor update to Spike Galore

Just pushed out a new update via Google Play. After some great feedback, I realised it was quite impossible. This update allows the game to start a little easier, but don't worry, if you get more then 10 it will get difficult again.

Also if you remove the ads, you get 3 extra bonus game modes!

It's available on Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nellyfish.spikesgalore or via http://nellyfish.com

... read more

Narrative screens in Dave Dangerous

I have been asked how I created the Narrative screens in Dave Dangerous. So, if you're interested, please read on.

If you have been following my blog, you would know that a few months back I created my first Android game, and my first Java project. This would not have been possible without the great tutorials over on KiloBolt.com. I would strongly recommend you have a look.

advedangerous_narrative.png

Before the first level, I wanted to create a storyline. This was ... read more

New game, Spikes Galore has been released

Meet Thingy. I'm not sure what he is, just some abstract thingy. He is the character in my new game called Spikes Galore.

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The game is available on Google Play at the moment.

It's been developed using the libGDX, which is a cross platform framework, so this should make porting the game across to iOS fairly simple. It will hopefully be in the Apple store soon. Watch this space!

... read more

Another update to Dave Dangerous

Not really anything exciting, but I have made an update to Dave Dangerous android game. It will now support Bluetooth gamepads. But the biggest part of this update is integration with Google's in-app purchase API's. When the application opens, you will now get the option to opt-out of the adverts for 60p. Will be interesting to see if this creates any revenue. Currently the application is serving thousands of adverts daily, but only makes around 20p a day !!

advedangerous_inapp.png

If you're quick, here are some promotional... read more

Trex Runner update, now supports Android TV

Over Christmas I purchased a new TV that runs Android. Just for a bit of fun, I made some minor code changes to the Trex Runner application that was released back in August. The application just uses a webview to run the javascript endless runner game in Chrome. It's not the smoothest experience, but then it is just javascript.

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You can download at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nellyfish.trex... read more

Dave Dangerous update, now supports iCade arcade cabinet

Just released a minor update to Dave Dangerous. It now supports the ION iCade arcade cabinet. There is also some minor bug fixes and image updates.

If you have not downloaded it yet, please give it a go at play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nellyfish.davedangerous

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#coding #android

New website nellyfish.com

Now that I have a few games in the Google play store, I thought it was about time that I created a website. Why the name nellyfish? Well, I was struggling to think of a simple, easy to remember name. At the time, my daughter kept drawing what looked like a jellyfish, so it stuck. Unfortunatly, jellyfish.com was unavailable, so it became nellyfish.com.

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The website is a simple one page affair. I used html5 and jquery to give a simple transition effect when the mouse moves over the images. It could take a few seconds to load the image... read more

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