TIME & IDCMP
I've got my first "real" Amiga program (meaning that someone else may one
day see it) up and running, now I'd like to start refining it and dressing
it up (it's a game). I've got main two problems to tackle right now and
need some advice from you experienced folks. I'm not necessarily looking
for code examples, but there's so many system calls, etc., that I'd rather
be pointed to the proper areas, then I could muck about and have fun
crashing the machine (the sooner you make your first 1000 mistakes, etc.).
First, my biggest problem is getting IDCMP to ignore other windows when a
new window is put up. Is there a simple way to do this? Or shouldn't I use
windows when I want the user to make a simple choice?
Problem two. This is a RISK type game and during a battle I want to put up
two bars indicating the relative strength of the two opponents and shrink
them as the battle progresses AND have some grisly sound effects. The
problem isn't the graphics or sound, but rather the speed of the battle,
the thing runs too fast and is kind of unpleasant. What I need is a simple
timekeeper. If I were doing this on a single-tasking machine in assembly,
I'd write interrupt code, but I suspect there's a better way on the Amiga.
(Incidentally, I read the chapter on interrupts in the RKM, and it seemed
to be overkill for my needs, besides I'm still relatively new to C & don't
want to try writing interrupt code, just yet.)
Any and all help appreciated, thanks in advance.
–Fran