A little while into first year we were introduced to AdaGraph, which provided such functions as draw_line and draw_rectangle. I believe AdaGraph is very good as a teaching tool, but also that it is probably the most annoying, primitive and slow graphics system one could ever hope never to use.
I set my sights on conquering (that is, implementing) Pacman. AdaGraph wasn't really so bad - at least it forced me to think about ways to speed up
rendering. I think I probably stretched it to the limit with
Impworld's dungeon-drawing system though. What the heck
is a TRIANGLE_ERROR, exactly?
[Ada95] Impworld - a Dungeon-Exploration Game
Year: 2001
Using primitive commands from AdaGraph a group of us
managed to implement a demo of a controllable dot. I wanted
to do something a little bigger than that demo. I
worked out how to implement an imitation of the Lost Woods
sections from Zelda. The resulting 'Impworld' also tried to
draw a sprite with slightly more animation than the previous
high (a single circle). It has much scope for
improvement, like the addition of objects, foes, locked
doors, and any number of things. It uses only line
primitives and rectangle-fills - meaning that the main
character's animation took so long I almost lost my mind.
Sprite drawing... how little people appreciate it!
