Plan for J Lesko
by J Lesko · 09/19/2005 (3:00 am) · 7 comments
Download Control Tower SFO (905 KB)
My Dad's birthday was this past Saturday, so I decided to make a present for him as my GID (sorry, no shish kabob theme this time!) He's been a computer enthusiast since the late 70's and he often talks about a game for the TRS-80 called Air Traffic Controller (ATC). The goal is just like it sounds: navigate planes (represented by the letters of the alphabet) to and from the airports, while trying to avoid disaster and delays. All this was in real-time, and with enough planes on the board, it got intense!
There was also a descendent of it for the Commodore 64 called Kennedy Approach, which featured voice synthesis. I based the gameplay on this, since it was easy to get for the emulator, and I was lucky enough to find the manual on-line. Researching the Bay Area airports, led me to this totally rad graphic, which I based the approaches on:
Since the "psssht, roger" sounds were one of the fun parts of KA, I had to do something like it. So, I listened to the live stream of the radio chatter in the JFK control tower for about an hour to get a rough idea of what it sounds like, so I could create some chatter of my own.
By Saturday, I had a playable version of the game to give him, and he got a real kick out of it. Of course, the first thing he tried was steering the planes toward each other for a mid-air collision. =)
Actual development progress on this GID went very smoothly -- I think mostly because it was a remake, so I didn't have to spend much time experimenting with different ideas. Starting early also took some of the the pressure off, which I might try again next time. Also, as usual during GIDs, I had a personal development first: creating a non-trivial mouse interface, which I hope people can figure out. Overall, I think this is my most polished GID, yet.
Here's the final screen:
My progress is mostly chronicled in my new blog:
www.joelesko.com/blog/
My past GIDs:
GID14 - 1-2-3 Robot
GID13 - Joystick Johnny
GID12 - Blondie Goes on a Date
GID11 - A Most Dangerous Crosswalk
GID10 - Martian Meltdown
GID9 - Grand Thrift Auto
GID7 - Lord of the Gems
Joe
My Dad's birthday was this past Saturday, so I decided to make a present for him as my GID (sorry, no shish kabob theme this time!) He's been a computer enthusiast since the late 70's and he often talks about a game for the TRS-80 called Air Traffic Controller (ATC). The goal is just like it sounds: navigate planes (represented by the letters of the alphabet) to and from the airports, while trying to avoid disaster and delays. All this was in real-time, and with enough planes on the board, it got intense!
There was also a descendent of it for the Commodore 64 called Kennedy Approach, which featured voice synthesis. I based the gameplay on this, since it was easy to get for the emulator, and I was lucky enough to find the manual on-line. Researching the Bay Area airports, led me to this totally rad graphic, which I based the approaches on:
Since the "psssht, roger" sounds were one of the fun parts of KA, I had to do something like it. So, I listened to the live stream of the radio chatter in the JFK control tower for about an hour to get a rough idea of what it sounds like, so I could create some chatter of my own.
By Saturday, I had a playable version of the game to give him, and he got a real kick out of it. Of course, the first thing he tried was steering the planes toward each other for a mid-air collision. =)
Actual development progress on this GID went very smoothly -- I think mostly because it was a remake, so I didn't have to spend much time experimenting with different ideas. Starting early also took some of the the pressure off, which I might try again next time. Also, as usual during GIDs, I had a personal development first: creating a non-trivial mouse interface, which I hope people can figure out. Overall, I think this is my most polished GID, yet.
Here's the final screen:
My progress is mostly chronicled in my new blog:
www.joelesko.com/blog/
My past GIDs:
GID14 - 1-2-3 Robot
GID13 - Joystick Johnny
GID12 - Blondie Goes on a Date
GID11 - A Most Dangerous Crosswalk
GID10 - Martian Meltdown
GID9 - Grand Thrift Auto
GID7 - Lord of the Gems
Joe
About the author
#2
09/19/2005 (3:59 am)
Incidentally Joe, what kind of processing did you do on your voice to get the radio chatter sound? I'm going to have to look at something similar myself. 
#3
BTW If your dad is interested in air traffic control have a look at http://www.vatsim.net/ They have programs that can be run alongside fs2000/2004 to provide a huge multiplayer environment covering the entire planet. The main "feature" though is that many airports are manned by human air traffic controllers which really adds depth to the feeling of flying when you can speak to a real person to get landing instructions :) Anyhow, they do online training to get people profficient enough to take over airports and provide traffic control on vatsim. Might be more involved than he wants, but it is good fun once you get everything running :)
09/19/2005 (4:39 am)
I remember playing a game that I think was called "Air Traffic Control" on the C64 or was it the amiga, I can't remember now. It was suprisingly good fun to play and challenging :)BTW If your dad is interested in air traffic control have a look at http://www.vatsim.net/ They have programs that can be run alongside fs2000/2004 to provide a huge multiplayer environment covering the entire planet. The main "feature" though is that many airports are manned by human air traffic controllers which really adds depth to the feeling of flying when you can speak to a real person to get landing instructions :) Anyhow, they do online training to get people profficient enough to take over airports and provide traffic control on vatsim. Might be more involved than he wants, but it is good fun once you get everything running :)
#4
09/19/2005 (5:04 am)
Boy that brings back memeories! I really liked that game. How long did it take you to develop?
#5
And yes, things can get -really- hairy -really- quick in a busy environment! Just imagine what you do when you have 8 aircraft on approach and someone shuts down your runway with a tire failure...
09/19/2005 (7:05 am)
If you have any questions or concerns about the "reality" of your information flow between the controller and the pilot, feel free to drop me an email--I was a military pilot in a former life!And yes, things can get -really- hairy -really- quick in a busy environment! Just imagine what you do when you have 8 aircraft on approach and someone shuts down your runway with a tire failure...
#6
this is so cool! you always have great ideas for GIDs. I'm a big fan of Joystick Johnny.
09/19/2005 (8:49 am)
yeah I vaguely remember the C64 game toothis is so cool! you always have great ideas for GIDs. I'm a big fan of Joystick Johnny.
#7
@Gary: Wow, that sounds cool. I'll have to check that out.
@Chris: I used just around 24 hours allotted for the GID. If you take into account research, probably 26.
@Stephen: Cool, if I continue developing it beyond a casual game, I'll drop you a line. =)
@Joshua: Thanks. I still plan to finish Joystick Johnny! I'll post a .plan when I release a new version.
09/19/2005 (12:32 pm)
@ Phil: Thanks. I recorded my voice with Windows Sound Recorder at the default quality and used Soliton to decrease the sample rate from 22000 to 5500 (halved it twice). I then added 1% background noise. @Gary: Wow, that sounds cool. I'll have to check that out.
@Chris: I used just around 24 hours allotted for the GID. If you take into account research, probably 26.
@Stephen: Cool, if I continue developing it beyond a casual game, I'll drop you a line. =)
@Joshua: Thanks. I still plan to finish Joystick Johnny! I'll post a .plan when I release a new version.
Torque 3D Owner Phil Carlisle
I remember playing a PC air traffic control program a while back.. those things can get REALLY intense.
We had a student this year who wrote something similar to this in order to study people's physical condition under stress (he did some "events" which made the planes start piling into each other and such.
Good stuff!