*UPDATES*

Version 2.0 has been released as an executable download for Windows XP, Vista, and 7 on the google code site - July 30, 2010

Version 2.0 has been updated to the google code repository. - July 28, 2010
This new release includes:
- Drastically improved graphics through Blender
- Improved sound effects
- New smooth menu user interface influenced by my iphone programming experience
- Ability to enter high score names
- All new singleplayer mode: Star Fleet
- Customizable controls (this means you, gamepad users)
- New options allow fullscreen/windowed, volume control, control configuration
- Gosu logo intro (made it myself)
- Are you still reading this? Go download it.

This is a one to four player space shooter game created with Ruby designed for a number of different battle or adventure modes.
Go to the Google Code project home page for downloading and more information.

This isn't a simple, written-in-a-few-seconds type of Gosu game. I spent a while on it making music, sound effects, images, and a whole lot of fun code to play around with. Hopefully, those of you who try it out will be entertained.

I had fun making and playing this game with help from my brother; I'm relatively new to programming.

(Edit) not so new to programming anymore - July 2010

This looks really interesting but too bad that it won't run for me. There is no window or anything at all but I could hear the sounds. Once I pressed enter the game closed itself though :/

I assume that you are using the windows executable download. There is a reason why the window might not be showing:
When I compiled the RBA into an executable, I created it so that no DOS window would open when starting the game. This means that "puts" and any error messages won't be applicable. I'm not sure if this is the reason; I have not seen the problem you described.

If anyone else is experiencing problems, let us know. We don't want to hand out junk to everybody.

It worked for me on Windows, but I also had the problem with a RubyScript2Exe-compiled game where I used "puts". It would lead to weird bugs on a few Windows machines, no idea why. You could try commenting out the "puts" callls.

Very nice anyway! Can't wait to play this with several players :) (And multi gamepad support would probably help this game a lot, hmm...)

Ok I know the problem now. The game screen is too big and it somehow got minimize. I have to go to task manager and maximize it so I could play the game X(

The ship is kinda hard to control though. I'll try using gamepad with the help of Joy2Key. Hopefully it'll be easier that way :D

The minimizing bug has been added to the next (smallish) Gosu version's TODO list.

One thing that you probably should be aware of is that an Executable file will not run under Mac or Linux, which I have Mac, but I'm simply able to run the game by downloading the original source code.

I have made a slight improvement to the source code.

The physics engine behind the black holes was originally thrown together with duct tape and chewing gum. I have fixed this engine and the holes now present more realistic manipulation of the player. This realistic approach now also makes them a little easier to live with, literally. I beat my old high score by 1 level.

Try it out if you want, compare the two engines. This is not a major update, and although the source has been updated, there is not yet a new executable download available on the site, but it has been an inconsistency that bothered me ever since I slapped on the old method.

Never underestimate the power of math.

I'm still open to comments from anyone who's trying this game out for the first time.

I stumbled upon the source in my list of games to play/look at, and I wanted to point out that using KbS etc. constants for the controls is a bit better. char_to_button_id, apart from being non-consistent across platforms, will pay attention to the current key layout, i.e. char_to_button_id("y") will return a physically different key in a German layout. KbY will always use "the key below 6/7", which is pretty international. You can then use button_id_to_char to present this key to the user, though.

I guess this advice is not just related to your game :)

The Ultimate Comet V2.0 Windows Executable has been released on the site. This executable is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, and 7.

Please, first of all, play it. Then, if you'd be so kind, please report any errors on this forum or at the site.