The translated, PDF-ized version of our presentation that we held about optimizing Tennix is now online for your viewing pleasure: Optimizing Tennix (January 2009)
Codenamed "Deine Eltern sind auf einem Tennixturnier", this new release of Tennix brings you a new menu system, easter eggs and the optimizations we have done in the Effprog course. As a result, gameplay should be better as well. Here's a rough list of changes since Tennix 0.6.1:
Tennix (the original game, not this SDL port) is five years old today (this SDL port is 403 days old, btw). I've written a short history about how tennix came into being and how the SDL port has been started. You can still download the original Tennix DOS game (which works well in DOSBox from its webpage. Happy Birthday, Tennix!
I just spotted this video on YouTube, and think I might link it from here, because it really shows the gameplay (of version 0.5.0) and how the whole game looks and feels like:
The 0.6.1 release of Tennix is now available for Nokia Internet Tablets (OS2008-based, i.e. N800 and N810). This release includes special Maemo support (see the latest Git commit for the source) that makes Tennix more usable on the Internet Tablet. Also, in this version, we finally have support for audio playback (Maemo's SDL does not include Ogg Vorbis support, so we use .wav) and complete support for all hardware keys, including the D-Pad. Click on the lower right icon with the Internet Tablet on this page to go to the Maemo Port download page.
This is not the result of a bi-daily hackanfall, but rather a bugfix release due to some minor installation issue that happens on Debian and Ubuntu systems with pbuilder. If you are using the 0.6.0 version, you're fine and there are no changes to the game itself, so you won't need to re-download 0.6.1. If you are a package maintainer or have problems installing Tennix on your Unix-like system, please download Tennix 0.6.1 from this page.
Three months after the big 0.5.0 release of Tennix, we are proud to announce the immediate availability of yet another great Tennix release: 0.6.0 has arrived, and features amongst other things new mouse support, faster graphics, support for Maemo's touchscreen and performance upgrades.
You can download the source tarball from the project website already or wait until binary packages become available.
The first release of Tennix for Nokia Internet Tablets (OS2008) is here. You can download it by clicking on the button on the bottom right of the Tennix website. This release features some advanced support for the Internet Tablets, such as Touchpad support. The changes needed to get it going are already in our Git repository, so the normal Tennix will probably also benefit from the Maemo changes (i.e. mouse support).
Discussion takes place in the Tennix-Maemo-Discuss forum over at the Maemo Garage. Enjoy!
I'm currently experimenting with porting Tennix to the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. I still have to work out the sound (I think the N800's libsdl-mixer doesn't include Ogg support), the input method (as you see in the video, there is a preliminary touchpad support) and performance. Here's a video:
Andrea Colangelo writes:
I am happy to inform you that Tennix has just landed on
Debian! It is in NEW, now, it needs a few days to appear.
I want to thank Andrea for taking the time to package Tennix for Debian and Debian-based systems, which also cleared up some copyright questions and added the manpage to the current code. All in all, this means easy installation from within Debian and Debian-based systems. Thanks, Andrea!
This new release brings some improvements for the Win32 build, including a startup dialog box from which fullscreen mode can be toggled. Another nice feature is the addition of optional joystick support, which has to be enabled on the command line.
Apart from the addition of joystick support, keyboard controls have also improved: Player 1 can now play using the arrow keys and the Space key. If you are using an Apple MacBook in Linux and want to tilt your notebook to move the racket, just load the applesmc kernel module and enable it as joystick. You can tilt your notebook to move the racket, and press the left control key to swing.
After nearly two months, a new Tennix release is here for your pleasure. And of course, we've improved the cool computer AI so the single player game mode will be even more challenging. Thanks to icelus on the Linux Game Tome for taking the time to review Tennix and give some hints and suggestions.
Apart from the improved AI, this release adds support for in-game pausing. Press the "p" button on your keyboard to pause/unpause.
Teo Ramírez from Spain just informed me that he has converted our Debian package of Tennix to a Slax module. Slax is a small Linux distribution that can be run from CD or USB stick. I haven't tried it myself, but some of you might be delighted to know that you can now carry Tennix on your Linux USB stick. Of course, you could always have a Windows version of Tennix on your normal USB stick, too :)
If you want to try out Tennix on Slax, go here: Tennix! Slax module
We've prepared a new Tennix release for you. This new release includes support for scoring a complete match of tennis, so you can finally play a complete match either against the computer or against a friend.
Other minor annoyances have been fixed to make the gameplay more realistic and a build-related bug has been dealt with. This release also adds the first cut of court textures support with the options being grass, clay or hard court. You can switch between the different court types by pressing "C" while playing.
It has been a good week for Tennix so far, and today we'll just push out another release, because I had a creative afternoon and evening with completely new, redesigned SVG graphics for Tennix. In addition to the new artwork, I've also added a referee to the in-game scenario.
I'm happy to announce that I've created a Debian package of Tennix which is now available on our downloads page. If you're using Debian GNU/Linux, you can download and install the provided package from this page.
A Ubuntu package should be available on getdeb.net soon.
A very interesting week brings us a new release five days after the last Tennix release. This new version brings in (faded) line drawing, improvements to the font system and data embedded in the tennix binary.
Seven weeks since the last Tennix! release, I am proud to announce the immediate availability of version 0.3.3. This version presents the new, funky dynamic text engine which will provide us with nice text effects!
Rejoice! A new Tennix version has been released, including support for doing ball service, an improved AI for more challenging gameplay and fading between games to add for more smooth gameplay transitions.
Tennix now has its own website where we can publish news items, more downloads and better documentation. The website will soon be published on icculus.org thanks to Ryan.
I've just released Tennix 0.3.1 out into the wild. This release includes some gameplay fixes and AI player support, so it is now for the first time possible to play a tennis match against the computer instead of only being able to play a two-player game.
The source package, a Windows binary package and a MacOS X application package are available for download now.
Tennix 0.3.0 is now available for download from this page.
You can now download a tarball of tennix svn-r20, the current development snapshot of Tennix. This version is the first public release of the SDL port and features improved graphics, more tennix-like gameplay and performance fixes.
This is a port of the original Tennix! from 2003 to the Simple DirectMedia Layer. This makes it possible to run and improve Tennix! on Linux, Windows, MacOS X and presumably all operating systems that support the SDL libraries.
