A blast-all-these-nerds game.
Get rid of these annoying nerds. Shoot them, gun them, electrify them,
explode them!
No one must escape!
The game was originally developed for the Amiga (see History
below) and I freely adapted it to the BeOS, as a short coding joke for
Paris' Be GeekFest, Feb'97
with the much needed help of Pulco
and SpH.
Now rewritten entirely from scratch for Windows .Net 1.1 and Managed
DirectX, it includes the same cute little graphics as the BeOS
version and the same vocal sound effects to provide countless hours of
fun.
In May 2004, I also ported the game to Pocket PC. More information on
the Pocket PC section below.
In March 2007, I also ported the game to Java 1.4 and Java 5.
More information on the Java section below.
(click on picture for enlarged view)
What is Nerdkill?
Nerdkill is a simple game whose main purpose is to help you remove
stress and enjoy life better.
The game displays a bunch of little annoying moving nerds and a diverse collection
of weapons. Select a weapon and aim at one of those little nerds and enjoy --
that's all it takes :-)
Sure, it doesn't take much to amuse me -- what about you?
The game is implemented using C#,Windows
.Net 1.1 and Managed DirectX.
Sources are included in the binary package. The whole
thing uses an Open Source license.
Notes
Notes for the Windows desktop version (for Pocket PC, see below):
Should run correctly on any recent hardware with 2D support. No fancy 3D
required :)
On an older ATI Mach64 w/ Win98, sprites
may have a black contour instead of being transparent. I guess the card doesn't
do source overlay.
History
Nerdkill 1.0.0 BeOS was
released around 1997/1998.
I first saw Nerdkill on a roommate's Amiga 4000 back in '93 or '94 at the university.
The game was developed by
(http://girvnet.org.uk).
As an early BeOS adopter,
I wanted something fun to do and so I started writing a clone several years
later using whatever I had in mind that I saw back on the Amiga. The first version
was coded in little more than a night or two, right before the
Paris' Be GeekFest, Feb'97.
Two friends, Pulco
and SpH helped with the graphics and the sound "effects". At the time
I was able to run an original Nerdkill.lha on an Amiga emulator, but for no
more than a few seconds. We added a couple of improvements on the original version
and never tried to write a perfect clone -- just something fun to watch and
play. Later, we had some ideas about a 3D version and some improvements but
we never followed through -- also I believe it would have removed the simplicity
of the original version.
Several years later on another continent, I was in need of some C#
coding practice. Once again Nerdkill was the ideal candidate. The game is simplistic
enough in that it doesn't interfere with the coding practice and it's fun enough
to allow completion of the project before my mind flies somewhere else ;-).
Nerdkill is free software, it can be used at absolutely no cost.
It comes "as-is". No guarantee, support, maintenance or installation
help is implied.
You are free to add any feature that you think is missing, or change the
source code or the look to match your own needs. I'm interested in learning
about any feature you add, yet I make no promise I'll actually reuse your
code. If you redistribute your own version, please use the same license and
make it easy to differentiate your sources from mine.
I love positive feedback and positive criticism. An extended to-do list
of things I'd like to see in the software at some point is included in the
source archive. Of course there is no written schedule for this, it all depends
on my free time and my creativity. If you need something that is not on this
list, please ask gently.
Your respect will earn you mine.
Pocket PC
In
early 2004, Code Project ran a coding
contest which goal was to write "something interesting" using
the .Net Compact Framework. That motivated me to do something I though was interesting:
explore the capabilities of .Net Compact Framework 1.1 to host a 100% managed
game; Nerdkill C# was the perfect choice.
Nerdkill C# had mostly been started as a way to explore the Direct X Managed
API. I also experimented with a modular
platform that would be easy to adapt to other games or other host implementations.
Both these goals were met successfully.
Nerdkill Pocket was thus started with these two goals in mind: first examine
how portable the modular
platform was and what work it would involve to "port" it to the
Pocket PC and second examine how capable .Net Compact Framework 1.1 really is.
Could a 2D Sprite-based game really be written in 100% managed code?
In March 2007, I ported the game to Java. This took only a handful of days, since the engine
was initally designed to be easily portable. Converting C# to Java is also a mostly
straighforward operation.
Download links are available in below.
The best way to play Nerdkill Java is to simply use the Webstart link. This is an
on-line installer that will seamlessly install Nerdkill Java on your computer and run it.
This works out of the box on Windows and MacOS.
For Linux, if you have Java installed, you can download the JAR file and execute it from
the command line.
Note that I may adapt the game to phone later using J2ME.
Version 1.0 of Nerdkill C# completed and
ready to download.
November 3, 2003
Created this web page to advertise and distribute
the project.
September 22, 2003
First real design & implementation in
C#.
December 31, 2002
Not much really -- just "Oh let's
use C# and DirectX".
But shortly after the champagne inhibited any will to code and the idea
sunk like lead in the sea.
Important: .Net Framework 1.1 and DirectX 9 Managed
are required to run this program!
If you do not have .Net Framework 1.1 nor the DirectX 9 End-User Runtime,
download the latest version from the Microsoft
Windows Update.
If you have DirectX 9, you must install DX9 Managed before running Nerdkill.
The installer (.msi) package can be found in the complete DX9 download;
it is included here for your convenience (this version may be obsolete):
Important: .Net Compact Framework 1.1 is required to
run this program!
Instructions for CAB files: unzip the archive, copy the CAB
file to your Pocket PC using ActiveSync and then execute it using the File
Explorer. This will install .Net Compact Framework 1.1 as needed as well
as the Nerdkill Pocket executable. Use the File Explorer to start Nerdkill
(you can add a link to the Start Menu or the Program files if you want.)
Nerdkill Java
Nerdkill Java
v1.0 March 11, 2007
Nerdkill Java 1.0 is the most recent stable
& only revision.
