I’ll get it up there. I want to touch a couple of more things. I have the self-repair working, so you can implement a “hey, I’m damaged. Run away and conduct repairs.” routine.
If I can just figure out some means of import / export, I’ll post a final version before I try to get it to the app store.
K. Thanks. And the previously code doesn’t include the “vslider()” class.
Whoops. I’ll be sure to get it in there this time. Everything will be delayed for a few days, since I flipped my iPad off a table this morning and it landed face down on a tile floor. Smash.
Oooh… Not good. That’s why I go an iPad Smart Case. That must have been alarming.im looking forward to it! Sorry about the iPad.
Any news on this?
Sorry to let this gather dust so long.
Unfortunately, I’ve been weighed down with actual work to the point that I’ve never even started on the website end of this project, and I still feel like allowing people to trade bots is probably a must have feature.
I suspect this will continue to drift along in limbo until I get around to cracking a book or two. I know it’s a sad thing to admit in these later days, but coding for the web just never interested me, and while I did sketch out a site where I could create a few pages as a test of animation in HTML 5, I don’t know diddly about how to do the simplest things an ordinary site is expected to handle.
Until I learn enough to manage getting and saving bots via HTML request, all those little toy robots go back in the box. Sorry about that.
@Mark - I came across this app waaay back and I haven’t been active here for a while.
I think it’s amazing that such quality content can come from something that’s supposed to be a “consumer” device rather than a “creation” device.
I know it sounds trite but I hope all went well with your wife’s chemo and she makes a full recovery, also gutted to hear about your iPad as well, people seem to lavish so much more love on these things than they seem to do on other computers and laptops, although next to your wife I’m sure it was rather less significant.
I’m really looking forward to this getting on the app store and looking and playing as well as CargoBot does. I’ll be among the first to buy a copy!
Re the website, have you had a look at the Moai cloud services, their product was designed to run hand in hand with their Lua game engine so it might be a closer fit and easier to implement than you imagine.
Respect!
Thanks, @TechDojo. My wife is in remission (woo hoo!) and the iPad has a new $100 screen on it, so I’m back in business. The screen is actually pretty awful, with lots of lint or dust behind it that is highly visible, so I won’t be recommending this service to anyone else, but it works for now.
I hadn’t looked at Moai cloud, but thanks for suggesting it. It looks very interesting.
I’ve decided to say “what the heck” and press this app on to the store. I’m taking out the “trade” button for now, cleaning up some of the interface, and adding some tutorial pages. Hope to be ready to compile and submit within the week. So there will be no net-based trading of bots in this version. It’ll have to wait for an update.
One problem though: BattleChips turns out to be the subtitle of a game that was pretty successful outside the US. I need to come up with a new name – one that suggests robot-building. I like including the word “chips” or something similar, as I feel that the coding environment in this app is really the spiffiest aspect.
If anyone has any suggestions, I promise to put your name in the acknowledgements. Thanks!
What about: PCBs - Programmable Chip Bots?
Robocoder ← where the user of the game is a robocoder and the code is robocode and the robot is the robocoded [insert robot name here]
Since your bots look kinda like Dual In-line Packages, how about Chips and DIP? 
Robocode is unfortunately, already taken. It’s a java-based robot simulation environment.
I like Programmable Chip Bots. But what if it was shortened to just ChipBots?
Hmm, DipBots?
Robochips?
@Mark I do like the name ChipBots. Sounds good
ChipBots is good. I thought Battlechip Bots would be a good one, and when I searched the net, I found someone had beat me to it… @Mark. Battle Chips was the original name! i still like it. It evokes the adversarial ‘Battleships’ game where you don’t know where your enemy is - a bit like when you have to write a program to find them.
I like ChipBots as well. Though it doesn’t say anything about the conflict.
Some alternative names off the top of my head:
i reckon we keep the “chipBots” part but add something on to signify the conflict
Picking up on that last suggestion, has any suggested “BattleChipBots”?
Yep, see above.