Something Wrong with the System

A Flash/Actionscript blog

Sprocket (Circa 2006)

In an effort provide further evidence that I’m still alive and that I still care about this blog I’m posting more old stuff! This time from way back in 2006.

This is a game engine I called Sprocket. Sprocket was my ‘Learn AS2’ project. The code was an absolute mess, but I’m still really proud of the game.

Be sure to check out the cars with working Suspension (jump on them!), the bullet sparks (dynamic!) and the shot gun (use your mouse wheel or the 1 and 2 keys to switch weapons).

I wasn’t the only person to work on this!

The background graphics are by Trevor Goodwin.
The Character Sprites are by Justin Chan.
The Music is by Ragozzino
The title screen is by Marcin Zajkowski

You can see the game in action here

May 29th, 2010 by Peter Organa
Posted in AS1, Gaming, Programming, Super Cool | Comments Off on Sprocket (Circa 2006)

Flash Pie Chart complete in Flash AS3 AND Flex!

Get Adobe Flash player

Before I begin I’d like to point out that you can buy this 3D Flash Pie Chart for $10 from this link.

About half a lifetime ago I posted about the Pie Chart I was working on.

I spent a hell of a lot of time turning that AS3 Pie Chart into a proper component. Adding a lot of behind the scenes functionality. Making it Flex compatible. Making sure it was 100% code based. As well as writing up a bunch of documentation.

What I was left with was a Flash Pie Chart which looks almost exactly like the one I did in September except this one has a lot of useful functionality for developers and is much more CPU efficient.

I’ve been selling the Pie Chart component on Activeden (formerly Flashden) and folks seem happy: a 5 star rating and lots of positive feedback!

Anyway if you’re in the market for an AS3 based Pie Chart you can get an awesome one written by me. It’s only $10.

Also, I’m sorry I haven’t posted in such a long time. I recently bought my first condo and haven’t had time to work on side projects! Things are starting to settle down now, and I’m already thinking of a new swarm based project.

March 11th, 2010 by Peter Organa
Posted in Flash Components, Programming, Super Cool | Comments Off on Flash Pie Chart complete in Flash AS3 AND Flex!

PhotoPal (maybe PhotoViewr) ?

photoPal Sample Image

I spent some time the last week working on my dad’s website (he runs a portable Pet Photography Studio).  Specifically, I was working on a AS3, PHP+SQL application that would give his clients a preview of their photos before they order them.

I hadn’t worked on a PHP project in ages and the language was just as a I remembered it: Really ugly code that does exactly what I need it to do.

The Flash to PHP communication was handled via XML-RPC for PHP and XMPRC for Asctionscript 3.0.  XML-RPC is a set of libraries that help you ferry data from one system to another.  It took me a little while to get the knack for preparing the RPC Objects, but ultimately it was a painless process.

What I was left with is a (ugly as hell) back-end interface in PHP that outputs to an attractive (I think) Flash front-end.

The advantages here are:

  • My dad doesn’t need to know any code to get this to work, he browses his file system for images and the PHP code takes care of everything else.
  • Clients (who lack tech savvy) can’t download the JPEGs and print illicit images like they could with a pure HTML/PHP interface.
  • My dad doesn’t need to re-size his Images to fit flash as the PHP script will take care of that.
  • The PHP/SQL link up lets me save favourites and do per image click user tracking.
  • A Flash interface is just cooler!

I think my favourite part of this app is the Transition class, it transitions between any two display objects with a fade & re-size.  I’m using that class to display everything in the main window.  If anyone shows interest I’ll go ahead and clean up the class and post it here.

Anyhow.  You can see the app in action here.  Use ‘Reese‘ as a password.

If anyone is curious you can see my Dad’s Flickr page here.

Oh and if you’re wondering about the blog post title.  I have no idea what to call this application.  I’ll gladly take suggestions in the comments section!

July 23rd, 2009 by Peter Organa
Posted in AS3, Not Programming, Programming, Super Cool | Comments Off on PhotoPal (maybe PhotoViewr) ?

Colour Swarm – Kirupa.com Contest Entry

I was recently invited to participate in FXpression 09.  A flash contest on kirupa.com.  The contest rules state that all entries must be composed entirely of circles.

I entered a modified version of my swarm code.  See it in all it’s glory after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

January 19th, 2009 by Peter Organa

The Swarm

Recently I watched a video on Ted.com. In the video Steven Strogatz talks about sync, in one segment he speaks about flocking behavior and lists the three simple rules that govern flocking.  Later I found that this type of artificial flocking behaviour can be referred to as ‘Boids‘.

So yeah… I decided to code it up in Flash ActionScript 3.0.

The image on the left doesn’t really do the app justice.
Click more to see the app in action.

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January 7th, 2009 by Peter Organa

My first published attempt at Box2D

ImageWell, I said I was working on Box2d and indeed I am.

Over the past week I’ve been working on this for my birthday invite (turning 29! Terror!).

I’m using computeSpectrum to read in the music (by Aphex Twin).  The melody controls the frequency and size of the circles.  The beat brings in the red squares.  It looks better running so please don’t judge it by the image.

You can see the Application in action after the break.

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November 24th, 2008 by Peter Organa
Posted in AS3, Programming, Super Cool | Comments Off on My first published attempt at Box2D

I made this! Rose Recommends by McCain

Rose Recommends ShotHey! I haven’t posted for a while!   I was working on a huge project for McCain foods.

Now that it’s done I can share it!

The project is called ‘Rose Recommends’. It allows the user to plan out their meals for the week.  More importantly the application will show the nutritional information for each food item and the plate as a whole.  Now you can finally find out precisely how bad eating a plate full of Cottage Cheese is for you.

I spent a pretty exciting/stressful month working on this app, I hope you like it.

If you have any questions/comments feel free to post them down below.

I’ll try to get some experimental stuff up again soom.  I just need to enjoy the summer a bit first.  It’s almost gone!

Click to see the app!

July 24th, 2008 by Peter Organa
Posted in AS3, Not Programming, Programming, Super Cool | Comments Off on I made this! Rose Recommends by McCain

flipBoard Version 1.0 (swf and Source)

Alright, here it is flipBoard Ver. 1.0!

This is an animated picture transition engine written in AS3 which uses as3flickrlib to connect to Flickr to pull images in real time.

I realized that the panels in the previous version were far too small and far too fast. Giving the impression that the panels were just kind of shimmering rather than actually flipping. This version has much larger and slower panels.

I’ve also added title and author support!

Another new feature is skipping images: If you click on the image you can force it to go to the next image without waiting for the timer. I’ve added a new transition style (circular) for these forced swaps.

After the break I’ll show off the working swf, I’ll give a link to the source code and I’ll describe how to use the application.

I’ve also included a bare bones example of my as3flickrlib implementation.

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June 2nd, 2008 by Peter Organa

Zoom In/Out Image viewer (.swf & source)

First of all, I made it to ten posts! W00, I really wasn’t sure if I’d make it this far.

Recently at work, I had to write an AS3 image viewer with zoom and pan capabilities. It was a lot harder than I had anticipated. I decided to write another (much better) version for the blog. I’m hoping that by releasing this code I’m saving a couple people a lot of grief.

You can zoom in/out with the buttons in the bottom right corner, or by using your mouse wheel (Mouse wheel might not work on a Mac! Let me know if it’s an issue or if you have a solution).

After the break you can see the application in action.

I’ll also try to explain some of the ActionScript parts I found interesting.

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May 18th, 2008 by Peter Organa