Rocket Golf for the mac is almost finished! Since It's already released on the iPhone and the major gameplay bugs are already squashed, I'm putting up a public beta for about a week.

Check it out at http://nuclearnova.com/rocketgolfbeta.zip

Please post all concerns here. Sorry, no serial number yet, I'm sending that to anyone who was previously signed up for the GL Golf Beta program.

http://nuclearnova.com/rocketgolf.php

Thanks Jake, it's a fun game, plays nicely and will take some mastering. Only thing I would mention as a tester is that the main menu (Quit, About, don't know what it's supposed to be called) is titled "Rocket Golf Golf" rather than just "Rocket Golf" as I would expect. MacOS 10.5.8, Intel iMac. Other than that, all works as I would expect.

Jake, I'm sorry to say that Rocket Golf is behaving just like the first versions of GL Golf 2.24. It quits when launched. Of course my OS is 12.4, the same OS that gave GL Golf 2.24 fits.
--d@ve

Works great in Snow Leopard Jake.

Love the game, very fun!.

Here are my observations

High scores do not work.
What is the point of showing the golf ball in the power bar?
It woudl be nice if the right and left edges had a black border too.
A pitching wedge would be more appropriate given how the ball physics work.
Please add Sparkle auto-update.
All the buttons look ugly, try rounding or giving some color to a few.
Add a course chooser dropdown like GL Golf (the two buttons are not clear), having one bold and not the other, says nothing. There are some new UI controls for that in recent OS X versions though (if you want a "pill" | choose button(s))
The space shuttle image is unecessary
Please remove the transparency from the ball holder in the icon
Add red X button to close main window.
Changing the font to something nicer (even Helvetica) and font anti-aliasing would go a looong way to making hte UI better.
Course has empty space "Course :", should be Course:
No need for Edit menu?
The water should move, vertical water walls should be water-falls. It would be nice if the ball "passed" through the water but was affected significantly by it (i.e, making it go down much faster).
It would also be nice to have user-built maps for Rocket Golf, X-Moto is a similar style and has thousands of them.
Make it clear that up/down are for zooming. Panning around would be nice too (since the info box hides some of the course)

Anyhow, I could keep giving feedback and feedback on UI and game problems for both GL Golf and Rocket, I could even restyle the NIB/XIB.

I like what you have done, giving a free license to beta testers. I would love getting subscription pack updates for testing/feedback, etc of GL Golf :-D.

I have one or two pertinent additions to that which, heretofore, I hardly understand a word.

The information box in the left hand corner, which seems to me to be mostly irrelevant, HIDES the T-off ball most of the time. (Whether transparent or translucent, it is annoyingly there.)

Just because in real golf I never see what I'm hitting, here it could be helpful.

Also the "minimize/zoom' feature seems a bit askew - the zoom is redundant; the minimize does not go back far enough to show the entire distance to the hole at the end.

When and where, if ever, is wind a factor - ergo "no wind" seems to be a ridiculous piece of non-information.

ngb

Dave, unfortunately Rocket Golf requires 10.5 to play, I think thats causing the issues.

sanmarcos - Thanks for all the suggestions! I copied most of them down onto my 1.x too do list. Due to college starting up next week I probably won't get to many right away, but you know I'll be pumping out updates once every other month or so!

Neil - I'll look into the hidden shot, and I've noted your suggestions too.

Thanks guys!

Also, sanmarcos, did you test Rocket Classic or Dilemma Heights? I see lots of scores on Rocket but no new ones on Dilemma

What is the point of showing the golf ball in the power bar? - To tell whos up on multiplayer games
No need for Edit menu? - Copy/Paste are useful sometimes

I have now tested Dilemma, during my first round I suffered a crash as the ball dropped in the hole on 12, have sent you the output. Couldn't recreate it and successfully posted a score second time.

I also noticed a minor bug when hitting a mulligan out of sand - the arrow indicating previous shot does not take account of the fact that you can't use full power. Have sent a screen shot.

A

Rocket Golf Beta version 2 is now up at http://nuclearnova.com/rocketgolfbeta.zip . Many fixes still to come, most are likely waiting for 1.01 so I can get version 1.0 out before my college classes start up next week.

A round and confirmation would be greatly appreciated, I ran through a few today and hope to run through more tomorrow so I can release next week.

Fixes -
- [+] Fix unlimited muligan bugs
- [+] Fixed Doubling frame rate by not submitting a score
- [+] resume game with 2+ players no longer crashes
- [+] fix displaying hole 19 after finish
- [+] resume game information/button fixed
- [+] Zoom further out
- [+] change buttons style
- [+] Info box in front of ball more transparent
- [+] Mulligan in sand shows correct power arrow
- [+] Fix flag pole being transparent
- [+] Make aiming arrow visible when aimed through terrain

Rocket Golf Beta version 2 is now up at http://nuclearnova.com/rocketgolfbeta.zip CRASH REPORT:


Date/Time: 2009-09-06 18:01:50.090 -0600
OS Version: 10.4.11 (Build 8S2167)
Report Version: 4

Command: Rocket Golf
Path: /Users/pat/Desktop/DOWNLOADS ON HOLD/Rocket Golf 1.0 2/Rocket Golf.app/Contents/MacOS/Rocket Golf
Parent: WindowServer [57]

Version: 1.00 (1.00)

PID: 229
Thread: Unknown

Link (dyld) error:

Symbol not found: _NSInternalInconsistencyException
Referenced from: /Users/pat/Desktop/DOWNLOADS ON HOLD/Rocket Golf 1.0 2/Rocket Golf.app/Contents/MacOS/Rocket Golf
Expected in: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/A/CoreFoundation

Model: iMac5,1, BootROM IM51.0090.B09, 2 processors, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.16 GHz, 1 GB
Graphics: ATI Radeon X1600, ATY,RadeonX1600, PCIe, 128 MB
Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM0, 512 MB, DDR2 SDRAM, 667 MHz
Memory Module: BANK 1/DIMM1, 512 MB, DDR2 SDRAM, 667 MHz
AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x87), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (4.170.46.9)
Bluetooth: Version 1.9.5f4, 2 service, 0 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Built-in Ethernet, Ethernet, en0
Serial ATA Device: WDC WD2500JS-40TGB0, 232.89 GB
Parallel ATA Device: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-85J
SCSI Device: SCSI Target Device @ 0
SCSI Device: SCSI Target Device @ 0
USB Device: Built-in iSight, Micron, Up to 480 Mb/sec, 500 mA
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, Apple, Inc., Up to 12 Mb/sec, 500 mA
USB Device: IR Receiver, Apple Computer, Inc., Up to 12 Mb/sec, 500 mA
USB Device: Hub in Apple Pro Keyboard, Mitsumi Electric, Up to 12 Mb/sec, 500 mA
USB Device: Apple Optical USB Mouse, Mitsumi Electric, Up to 1.5 Mb/sec, 100 mA
USB Device: Apple Pro Keyboard, Mitsumi Electric, Up to 12 Mb/sec, 250 mA



walter

Sorry Jake. I just realized that RG requires OS 10.5

Walter

Thanks for the crash report. I'm not sure why the operating system even lets you open it if you don't have 10.5, it seems like it would tell you that instead of just crashing the program.

Will RG become available at a later date for 10.4.11 Mac's ?

Unfortunately I doubt it will be, Rocket Golf uses some 10.5+ specific code and I'm not exactly sure how to reprogram those parts using older technology.

If you have an intel system I highly recommend 10.6, and if you have PPC 10.5 is definitely worth it if you can find it at a good price now that snow leopard is only $29.

Thanks for the info.

I fully understand why you will not program the Rocket for Tiger. I'm one of those guys that still work with OS 9 (the original and not the classic) and I went screaming/kicking to go for Panther and then Tiger.

I do want to go for Leo but I am told that I should install Leo as a standalone on a different drive rather then updating from Tiger. Makes sense since I know there are several midi/audio sequencer programmes I own/use that will not launch in Leo and I don't have enough $$$$ to purchase Leo versions.

I remember switching from OS 9 to OS 10.1, then back to OS 9 , and then finally back to 10.2 because I felt it was finally stable/fast enough to make the jump.

Software updates can be a pain sometimes, it seems like every major version of OS X breaks some feature in GL Golf and other programs I use.

Well i'm with the SnowLeopard because it was super bargain at 30 bucks for a complete OS X from SteveJOBS .

The game is wierd and for that reason alone i'm enjoying it.

i think it needs some "artificial" players playing along side or interfering with the game.

Perhaps the "music" from GL Golf 226 could be ported over

.

Yeah $30 is great, no reason no to upgrade at that price.

I'm glad you are enjoying the game. Liquid Defense has a very high learning curve and for that reason and other ones I'm not sure of, it has sold absolutely terrible. I wish I could make it more mainstream after working full-time an entire summer on it, but I learned my lesson about what types of games are good to make for large market shareware.

Music... hum, you'd have to mute liquid defense and play GL Golf in the background I think