David Taylor - Revision history

Cholmondely: /* Elite stuff */ Added more

2021-10-17T09:51:15Z

‎Elite stuff: Added more

Cholmondely: Added summary at top

2021-05-05T10:46:51Z

Added summary at top

Cholmondely: /* Elite stuff */ Link

2021-01-31T18:22:42Z

‎Elite stuff: Link

Cholmondely: /* Elite stuff */ Added another Link

2020-12-18T10:46:28Z

‎Elite stuff: Added another Link

Cholmondely: Links!

2020-12-17T21:18:45Z

Links!

Debresser: Category:Developers

2016-01-18T19:05:49Z

Category:Developers

Svengali: fight dead-end pages

2013-05-19T11:50:43Z

fight dead-end pages

SandJ: Removed broken links to BB.

2012-02-24T20:10:40Z

Removed broken links to BB.

220.245.178.141: /* Elite Bio */

2006-03-16T06:18:28Z

‎Elite Bio

220.245.178.141: David Taylor's bio

2006-03-16T06:16:14Z

David Taylor's bio

New page

== Elite Bio ==
I first encountered Elite on the Commodore-64, playing before and after school every day. Elite and Frontier on the Commodore Amiga followed, but Amiga Elite was too ugly, and Frontier didn't seem to be much fun. My highest ranking was Deadly on the Commodore-64 version, and one of the family dogs of the time was named after that commander.

Like all Elite fans, I've been searching ever since for a game to recreate the fun of the original Elite. "Why don't they just make one with good graphics and some expandability built in? What is David Braben thinking?" I kept asking. I tried Freelancer, X2, EV Nova, and anything else with spaceships and trading. Meh.

One day in late 2004 I stumbled across Oolite on the net. And almost wept when it was clear it only worked on Macs! I hovered around the forums with everyone else, waiting for a PC port, until six months later I could stand it no longer and decided I had to learn Objective-C and GNUstep and get the thing done. It wasn't much fun, but here is the result!

As I was posting the story of my first frustrated attempts to get the game going on Windows or Linux, winston (aka Dylan Smith) showed he was also working on it [http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=632][http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=657]. I got v1.30 going to ensure Oolite could run under GNUstep and Dylan worked on cleaning up a later code snapshot, which I could also run. Once it was clear we were not wasting our time, it was also clear that GNUstep AppKit wasn't up to the job (particularly on Windows) so I bit the bullet and rewrote the sound and graphics code using SDL which allowed a start on the Windows version. Dylan did get sound working earlier using some other library, but I couldn't understand the API and SDL looked a lot easier...

I took about six months off Oolite development, recovering from the mental scars left by GNUstep. It was left in the hands of Giles, Dylan, and later on Nic and Spooky, who have made it the multi-platform wonder it is today.

I live with my wife and 2 young children in a mid-sized country town called Orange about 300kms west of Sydney, Australia.

== Non Elite interests ==

* Steam trains and steam ships (I spent a couple of years shovelling coal on the weekends on a steam yacht on Sydney harbour).
* Model railways (armchair modeller, mostly)
* Motorcycles. I have a 1996 GSX-R 750.

[[Category:Factual]]

@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 *'''dajt''' on the Oolite BB
 *[http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1936 Achievement!]
 *[[Monument]] OXP - which sometimes adds a monument to famous Commanders close to the Sun at the Lave system.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 == Elite Bio ==
 I first encountered [[Classic Elite|Elite]] on the Commodore-64, playing before and after school every day. Elite and [[Frontier]] on the Commodore Amiga followed, but Amiga Elite was too ugly, and [[Frontier]] didn't seem to be much fun. My highest ranking was Deadly on the Commodore-64 version, and one of the family dogs of the time was named after that commander.
@@ Line 22: / Line 24: @@
 *'''dajt''' on the Oolite BB
 *[http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1936 Achievement!]
-*Wrote the [[Monument]] OXP which sometimes adds a monument to famous Commanders close to the Sun at the Lave system only.
+*[[Monument]] OXP - which sometimes adds a monument to famous Commanders close to the Sun at the Lave system.
 [[Category:Developers]]

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 *'''dajt''' on the Oolite BB
 *[http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1936 Achievement!]
-*Wrote the Monument OXP which sometimes adds a monument to famous Commanders close to the Sun at the Lave system only.
+*Wrote the [[Monument]] OXP which sometimes adds a monument to famous Commanders close to the Sun at the Lave system only.
 [[Category:Developers]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:46, 18 December 2020
Line 21:		Line 21:

	*'''dajt''' on the Oolite BB		*'''dajt''' on the Oolite BB
		+	*[http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1936 Achievement!]
	*Wrote the Monument OXP which sometimes adds a monument to famous Commanders close to the Sun at the Lave system only.		*Wrote the Monument OXP which sometimes adds a monument to famous Commanders close to the Sun at the Lave system only.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 == Elite Bio ==
-I first encountered [[Classic Elite|Elite]] on the Commodore-64, playing before and after school every day. Elite and [[Frontier]] on the Commodore Amiga followed, but Amiga Elite was too ugly, and Frontier didn't seem to be much fun. My highest ranking was Deadly on the Commodore-64 version, and one of the family dogs of the time was named after that commander.
+I first encountered [[Classic Elite|Elite]] on the Commodore-64, playing before and after school every day. Elite and [[Frontier]] on the Commodore Amiga followed, but Amiga Elite was too ugly, and [[Frontier]] didn't seem to be much fun. My highest ranking was Deadly on the Commodore-64 version, and one of the family dogs of the time was named after that commander.
-Like all Elite fans, I've been searching ever since for a game to recreate the fun of the original Elite. "Why don't they just make one with good graphics and some expandability built in? What is David Braben thinking?" I kept asking. I tried Freelancer, X2, EV Nova, and anything else with spaceships and trading. Meh.
+Like all Elite fans, I've been searching ever since for a game to recreate the fun of the original Elite. "Why don't they just make one with good graphics and some expandability built in? What is [[David Braben]] thinking?" I kept asking. I tried Freelancer, X2, EV Nova, and anything else with spaceships and trading. Meh.
 One day in late 2004 I stumbled across [[Oolite]] on the net. And almost wept when it was clear it only worked on Macs! I was amazed that someone had finally got it so right, and I hovered around the forums with everyone else, waiting for a PC port, until six months later I could stand it no longer and decided I had to learn Objective-C and GNUstep and get the thing done. It wasn't much fun, but here is the result!
-As I was posting the story of my first frustrated attempts to get the game going on Windows or Linux, winston (aka Dylan Smith) showed he was also working on it. I got v1.30 going to ensure Oolite could run under GNUstep and Dylan worked on cleaning up a later code snapshot, which I could also run. Once it was clear we were not wasting our time, it was also clear that GNUstep AppKit wasn't up to the job (particularly on Windows) so I bit the bullet and rewrote the sound and graphics code using SDL which allowed a start on the Windows version. Dylan did get sound working earlier using some other library, but I couldn't understand the API and SDL looked a lot easier...
+As I was posting the story of my first frustrated attempts to get the game going on Windows or Linux, Winston (aka [[Dylan Smith]]) showed he was also working on it. I got v1.30 going to ensure Oolite could run under GNUstep and Dylan worked on cleaning up a later code snapshot, which I could also run. Once it was clear we were not wasting our time, it was also clear that GNUstep AppKit wasn't up to the job (particularly on Windows) so I bit the bullet and rewrote the sound and graphics code using SDL which allowed a start on the Windows version. Dylan did get sound working earlier using some other library, but I couldn't understand the API and SDL looked a lot easier...
-I took about six months off Oolite development, recovering from the mental scars left by GNUstep. It was left in the hands of Giles, Dylan, and later on Nic and Spooky, who have made it the multi-platform wonder it is today.
+I took about six months off Oolite development, recovering from the mental scars left by GNUstep. It was left in the hands of [[Giles Williams|Giles]], Dylan, and later on Nic and Spooky, who have made it the multi-platform wonder it is today.
 I live with my wife and 2 young children in a mid-sized country town called Orange about 300kms west of Sydney, Australia.
@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 * Model railways (armchair modeller, mostly)
 * Motorcycles. I have a 1996 GSX-R 750.
 [[Category:Developers]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:05, 18 January 2016
Line 18:		Line 18:
	* Motorcycles. I have a 1996 GSX-R 750.		* Motorcycles. I have a 1996 GSX-R 750.

−	[[Category:~~Factual~~]]	+	[[Category:Developers]]

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 One day in late 2004 I stumbled across Oolite on the net. And almost wept when it was clear it only worked on Macs! I was amazed that someone had finally got it so right, and I hovered around the forums with everyone else, waiting for a PC port, until six months later I could stand it no longer and decided I had to learn Objective-C and GNUstep and get the thing done. It wasn't much fun, but here is the result!
-As I was posting the story of my first frustrated attempts to get the game going on Windows or Linux, winston (aka Dylan Smith) showed he was also working on it [http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=632][http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=657]. I got v1.30 going to ensure Oolite could run under GNUstep and Dylan worked on cleaning up a later code snapshot, which I could also run. Once it was clear we were not wasting our time, it was also clear that GNUstep AppKit wasn't up to the job (particularly on Windows) so I bit the bullet and rewrote the sound and graphics code using SDL which allowed a start on the Windows version. Dylan did get sound working earlier using some other library, but I couldn't understand the API and SDL looked a lot easier...
+As I was posting the story of my first frustrated attempts to get the game going on Windows or Linux, winston (aka Dylan Smith) showed he was also working on it. I got v1.30 going to ensure Oolite could run under GNUstep and Dylan worked on cleaning up a later code snapshot, which I could also run. Once it was clear we were not wasting our time, it was also clear that GNUstep AppKit wasn't up to the job (particularly on Windows) so I bit the bullet and rewrote the sound and graphics code using SDL which allowed a start on the Windows version. Dylan did get sound working earlier using some other library, but I couldn't understand the API and SDL looked a lot easier...
 I took about six months off Oolite development, recovering from the mental scars left by GNUstep. It was left in the hands of Giles, Dylan, and later on Nic and Spooky, who have made it the multi-platform wonder it is today.