Microsoft Robotics Studio CTP Now Available
Jun 20, 2006
The world for hobbyist and enthusiast developers just got a little more interesting today with the announcement that Microsoft’s getting into robotics. Robotics Studio is a development tool designed to provide a uniform and consistent way to program robots including a visual design surface to model robotics programming whether your need is for work, (like Kuka’s industrial robots) or for fun (like the Lego NXT). The programming model uses the concurrency and coordination runtime (CCR) and you can program robots in VB, C#, C++, or even browser JavaScript.…more
Learn how to create classic arcade games using Express
May 16, 2006
The year was 1972, bell bottoms were all the rage, the US was in Vietnam, The Price is Right premiered on CBS, the Dallas Cowboys had just won Superbowl VI, the Godfather was the top grossing film, and on November 29th, Atari released a game called Pong. With Pong and Atari, the game industry was born. 33 years later, computer games are as popular as ever and since we all have an “inner child” that loves gaming we recently released three new Starter Kits, source code, documentation, and videos so you can learn how to build your own game using Visual Studio Express.…more
Learn How to Mod Mech Commander 2: 3-Part Webcast
May 01, 2006
As I blogged about earlier, and as was mentioned on Slashdot and Digg, Mech Commander 2 is available to download, and using Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition, and the webcasts listed below, you too can learn how to create your own game mods. Michael Kulcher, a PM on the XNA team is doing a 3-part webcast (more info) on how to create your own mods so mark your calendars for the week of May 26th!…more
Visual Studio 2005 Express Announcements!
Apr 19, 2006
Dear Visual Studio Express community, We are incredibly excited to announce that effective April 19th, 2006, all Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions including Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual J#, Visual C++, and Visual Web Developer Express will be free permanently! Prior to this pricing announcement, Visual Studio Express Editions were promotionally discounted to be free for one year, starting on November 7th, 2005. With this announcement, the promotional discount for Visual Studio Express is now permanent and Express will continue to be free.…more
Mech Commander 2 Source Code Available for Download
Mar 20, 2006
Former Coding4Fun guru and now XNA wonk Brian Keller announced on his blog that Microsoft Game Studios has released the source code (note 1GB size) for Mech Commander 2, the real-time strategy game. The XNA team released Mech Commander 2’s source code to showcase how XNA Build, their new build system can dramatically improve build creation of large size commercial games. The performance benefits show incremental builds were 6x-14x faster using XNA Build.…more
Willkommen German Coding4Fun!
Mar 15, 2006
Uwe Baumann and team from Microsoft Germany launched the German Coding4Fun at CeBit. The site includes some very cool content, including video tutorials on building Rocket Commander (screenshots), a fully managed DirectX game built by Benjamin Nitschke. It also includes step-by-step tutorials for building your own Club Web site using the modded version of the Club Site Starter Kit (screenshot). I especially like the Visual Studio infinity skin on this rocket :)
Coding4Fun sponsoring O'Reilly's Make Magazine Maker Faire
Mar 15, 2006
Mark you calendars for April 22-23 as Make Magazine is holding one of the coolest conferences you can imagine, Maker Faire. I’ve been a big fan of Make magazine for a while, I mean how can you not appreciate cool projects like Electric Giraffes or Roomba’s playing pool? Plus, the Mythbusters will be there and admission is only $12.50 :) Well, the Coding4Fun team will be sponsoring Maker Faire and we’ll have lots of fun Express demos to show off that we’ll also host on the Coding4Fun Maker Faire page:…more
AOL IM SDK for all developers
Mar 06, 2006
America Online today announced the availability of the Open AIM Instant Messenger SDK on their developer site, developer.aim.com. Using the SDK, you can build: AIM Online Presence AIM Plug-ins AIM Custom Clients Greg’s Blog has more information, but the good news is that you can use VB, C#, or C++: _For now, lets concentrate on the Open AIM SDK and get into what it can do for you. First, the development kit is written using COM, so plugins and custom clients can be written for Windows in languages like C++, VB, C#, and eventually J-Script.…more
Half Life 2 Rube Goldberg Device Contest
Feb 11, 2006
There’s a Half Life 2 contest using Garry’s Mod to create Rube Goldberg devices (an incredibly complex device designed to accomplish a very simple task). This video shows a hilarious one Source: Digg.com
C9'er Designed Express Wallpaper
Feb 08, 2006
Thanks to Charles for sending me this link, but Sushovan De posted on Channel9 some cool Visual Studio Express themed wallpaper for all the Express products! Higher Res Image Links Visual Web Developer Express Visual Basic Express Visual C# Express Visual C++ Express Visual J# Express Very Cool!