Allegro is an all-purpose multi-platform C programming library developed by several contributors from all over the world. Its main aim is to make game/demo/graphics/sound/input programming much easier. It has a wide range of features (2D graphics, 3D graphics, 3D maths, fixed-point maths, sound, user-input (keyboard, joystick, mouse), interrupts, and the whole kaboodle). This makes Allegro ideal for game-programming, but Allegro can also be used for any other type of app you may think of. In short, it is the best thing since curried sliced-bread.

Allegro has a homepage at: http://alleg.sourceforge.net/

We have provided some screens shots of our programs in action. Whenever you see the '*PICTURES*' label or icon, you can follow its link. You will be taken to the part of the screenshots page with the program who'se picture picture-link you just followed.

Or alternatively, you can follow this link and go up to the page with all the pictures.

Whenever a title is a link, it means that you can download the program. Following the link will lead you to the part of the downloads page where you can chose which version of the program you want, and which location you want to download the program from. Chose the location that's nearest to you. If you cannot connect, or its busy, then try another location.

Or alternatively, you can follow this link and go down to the page with all the downloads.

Allegro^Pak

Source-code distribuion: Version: 1.0 beta 1a    Date: 1997

Allegro^Pak is a collection of extra C functions for use with the Allegro library. In other words, it is an add-on Package for Allegro. Most of the package involves Z-buffering, but there are also some general-purpose 3D and non-3D functions. The main features of this package are Z-buffered versions of all of Allegro's polygon-rendering modes (including two new ones which are affine and perspective-correct texture-mapping that is both masked and lit) and z-buffered sprites (both flat ones and ones with depth-maps).

The code and its demos have the following low-level features:

• Z-buffering added to all of Allegro's polygon drawing modes
• The inclusion of polygon rendering modes: POLYTYPE_ATEX_MASK_LIT and POLYTYPE_PTEX_MASK_LIT (z-buffered only)
• 3D sprites (both with and without depth-maps). These sprites can be zoomed, rotated, drawn translucent or lit (you can even z-zoom and transparent z-blit the 3D sprite in one command).

• Light-sourced gouraud shaded objects (with vertex-normals) drawn with Allegro's polygon drawer (this is done in one of the demos).
• Real-time (almost) light-sourced texture-mapped Z-buffered sphere rendering.
• Fog Shading (this is done in one of the demos).
• Full viewing-volume (fustrum) 3D polygon clipping (clips polygons to the X=Z, X=-Z, Y=Z, Y=-Z and near Z=K planes)
• Miscellaneous 3D Functions (mostly for converting between Cartesian and Polar coordinates in 3D space).
• RGB <-> HSV functions that actually work, as well as RGB <-> HLS functions.

Allegro^Pak has its own homepage at http://software.wackonet.net/allegro/AllegroPak.html

Pre-compiled versions of the Allegro^Pak demos are also available.

Allegro^Pak Demos

Platform: Version: SPH_DEMO:1.11a 3DSPDEMO:1.01b    Date: 1997

The AllegroPak demos are compiled PC-DOS executable versions of the two demos that come with Allegro^Pak.

SPH_DEMO.EXE demonstrates lit Z-buffered texture-mapped 3D spheres and contains three parts. In the first part, there are four Z-buffered gouraud-shaded pyramids with a hole in them (the hole is defined by the transparent colour on the texture). The second part demonstrates a good use of the HSL colourspace to add a rainbow to a single light-sourced pyramid rendered using light-mapped paletted gouraud-shaded rendering. The different lightness levels have been given a hue. You can change the saturation and the 'hue-twist'. The third part is where it gets interesting. It is real-time light-sourced Z-buffered spherical rotated texture mapping using real spheres (as opposed to spherical polygon-meshes). How the spheres are rendered, and where the light comes from can be controlled. The light-source can either be a point which the user can move around, or an infinitely-far light which the user can rotate.

3DSPDEMO.EXE demonstrates a 3D environment with Z-buffered translucent 3D sprites both with and without depth-maps and fog-shading in 8-bit colour.

Skin-mapping demo #1

Platform: Version: 1.0    Date: 1997

This demo is a demonstration of the technique of skin-mapping in two dimensions.

Skin-mapping is a way of generating a character from a skeleton and a set of mesh of points. If you just use a mesh of points, you would have to make a seperate mesh (or hierarchy of sub-meshes) for each possible orientation of the character's limbs. Skin-mapping greatly reduces the ammount of memory needed for a character by just recording how near skin-points are to a bone, and when the bones bend, the skin near a joint moves appropriately. It would then be possible to animate a character using the same skin-mesh throughout.

A 3D version will appear one of these days.

Atari 8-bit colours program

Platform: Version: 13/6/97    Date: 1997

This program attempts to generate the 256 colours that the Atari 8-bit computers (400/800/XL/XE) could display using an algorithm instead of a look-up table.

Unfortunately, the colours do not come out right, and they look too clean to be the colours of the Atari Rainbow. This may be because the HLS colourspace is being used when the YIQ or YUV colourspace should be used. Perhaps a future version of this program will work with the YIQ or YUV colourspace.

This program is in its infancy, and has been worked on at various times whenever we didn't have much else to do or as an excuse to procrastinate. Someday, It will implement more functionality, so the user actually has some control on how the colours are converted.

If you have comments or suggestions, then let us know.

Atari 8-bit font

Format: PCX image     Version: 1.0 beta 1    Date: 1996

This is the system font used by the Atari 8-bit series of computers. You may want to use this with your programs to give them that retro feeling, or if you're just notalgic about the Atari 8-bits.

At the moment, this font only includes characters 32-127 of the Atari ASCII set (the ATASCII set). We would have to find out if it was possible to use Allegro's font handling system and textout() function to handle charachers from 0-31 and 128-255 (which are just characters 0-127 inverted, although this could be done by using a background colour and an invisible foreground colour).

Here are a few more things Wacko Software have been doing with Allegro that are mentioned on the main Wacko Software homepage.

Video Games I Alpha 3a

Play 3 classic games on the same computer simultaneously. The PC-DOS version was programmed in C using DJGPP and Allegro. This does not include the sourcecode, but it may be included someday. This is only an Alpha release, meaning that many things are not complete. We would in the mean time like as much feedback as possible, please.

ChromaPlas 0.95

ChromaPlas is a program that takes the old-skool demo plasma-effect and applies the plasma to various channels of images in different colour-spaces. The result is something psychedelic looking. ChromaPlas is available for all platforms supported by Allegro. Currently, only the PC-Windows version is a screensaver.

Web-rings and banners

Allegro webring.

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Allegro.cc Banner Network site. Please visit the site below for more software written using Allegro. Press your browser's 'refresh' button to change the site linked to.

Links

• Other Allegro Software producing entities (free or otherwise):
  • Free Lunch Design - Fun, high quality games with focus on gameplay that are free. Mostly for PC-Windows. Some come with Allegro source-code.
  • toblo.net games - Freeware and Shareware games from another dimension. Mostly for PC-Windows.
  • Bruce Perry's Bright Page Brimming with Positively Barmy Projects and Bland Prose - A collection of Freeware games. Games on the site are mostly for PC-DOS and PC-Windows (although some come in Unix and Linux flavours). Some come with Allegro source-code.
  • Reflected Games - Fun and affordable games in which the authour's values are reflected. For PC-Windows.
  • Allegro Network - Affordable hosting for the Allegro Developper.
  • Dennis Busch ~ Software - A collection of games and other fun programs written with the Allegro library. For PC-Windows.
• Programming:
  • Languages:
    • C - The C programming language.
    • C++ - The C++ programming language.
  • Compilers:
    • DJGPP - A DOS port of GCC, and an implementation of the GNU environment.
    • MinGW - Minimalistic implemtation of a GNU environment for Windows. Comes with a port of GCC.
    • CygWin - A more complete implemtation of a GNU environment for Windows. Comes with a port of GCC.
  • Programming libraries:
    • Allegro - Its the Allegro homepage.
  • Programming resources:
    • Allegro Game Development Network - Lots of Allegro programming resources.
    • Programmer's Heaven - Lots of programming resources.
    • MSDN Library - Programming guides for C/C++ and various Windows APIs.
    • libc.a reference - Standard C library reference from http://www.delorie.com/.
    • Bob's packed programming page - Various bits and bobs. Includes a page of useful code snippets.
  • Documentation:
    • GNU Manuals - Manuals for various GNU programs.
    • GCC Online documentation
  • Sillyness
    • Infrequently Asked Questions in comp.lang.c
• Online Allegro communities
  • Allegro.cc - A community of Allegro users.

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Last update: Tue 28 Jun 2011

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