After a few months of not looking at it, I've recently been working on making a few old-school improvements to Barkout, namely a continue code-style save game mechanism, and a new power up in the form of a multi-ball bonus, common in most other Arkanoid clones.



Above, the multi-ball powerup in action.
Below, using the Continue screen to enter a code.



The purpose of Barkout all along has simply been to get some practice in C programming. Initially, it was so I could help a family member who had started a C programming course at university, but it then evolved into doing it just because I enjoyed it. C is a great language to program in. It's also just a nostalgia trip for me; trying to program the sorts of games that I played on my first computer in the 80s: an Amstrad CPC6128.

Anyway, the fruit of my effort is that Barkout version 1.2.0 has now been released and can be found by following the "Free Games!" icon in the top menu.

This week I released a new game: Barkout!

It's a very vaguely dog-themed Arkanoid / Breakout clone coded in C making use of SDL for graphics, sound, and input.

If you've played Arkanoid, you know what to expect: balls, bricks, bonuses and baddies.



Why make a 2D game in 2024? Well, I like to make the sorts of games I used to play as a child in the 80s and 90s, and Arkanoid was one of my favourites, and one of the few I actually owned a genuine copy of for my Amstrad CPC6128.

Barkout is available in source code form, as well as a Windows 64 bit installer, from the game homepage which can be found by following the "Free Games!" link in the top menu or right here

Here's an odd one: the Welsh have no word for "to have", as in to possess something.

The Welsh, though, are a resourceful lot and get around this apparent limitation by saying that something is "with" something else.

I do not have a ball, a ball is with me. Likewise, a new house is with me; a girlfriend is with me; even a beard is with me.

The concept isn't complicated, but I find it tricky to get the word order right. During a conversation at work, I was asked if I knew how to say "The red dog has a ball" in Welsh. I had to think about this. Is the red ball with the dog, or is the dog with the red ball? I eventually settled on the former: mae pêl gyda'r ci coch. I think that's right.

It doesn't trip off my tongue quite as easily as it would in, say, French: Le chien rouge a un ballon. It's a little clumsy and awkward, but that's part of the charm.

This problem isn't limited to possessing an object (or a girlfriend) though. It rears its head when talking about health too. You don't have a sore throat, there is a sore throat with you. You do not have a cold, there is a cold "on you": Mae annwyd arna i.

Let's hope I don't get sick while in Wales; this might take some getting used to.