Chevalier

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Here is the full Masters Thesis document Chevalier, as submitted in June 2006 and published in Grossman Library, Harvard Extension School. The first 128 pages outline the project and its reasoning, the rest is the printed application code (Appendix E).

2006

The Crescent & The Cross is a grant proposal for an educational game teaching the history of the Crusades. This proposal was written as a final project for the class CREA S-165 Writing Grant Proposals with Frank White and later ballooned into my "Chevalier" thesis project.

2001

Miscellaneous Flash Projects

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This educational game was programmed in Flash 9 under contract for Smashing Ideas who develop for PBS Kids Television Network.

2007

Russell created the Tamara Bonn Photography site using the Flex 2 framework for creating rich Internet applications (RIAs).

2007

Savanna Walkabout - Termite Trails is a web based educational project for Tropical Savannas Management, Charles Darwin University (Australia).

Russell did much of the programming for Savanna Walkabout - Termite Trails for Peter Gifford at Universal Head. Peter had helped Russell with the graphics for his Chevalier thesis project.

2006

Rescue Ranger

Asteroids is a comparatively straight forward game to make. I’ve been using it to bench test the performance of Flash AS3 v AS2 v C++.

This is a Actionscript 3 (Flash CS3) version of the Asteroids game. Press the ‘A’ key to add an Asteroid to the game field. Use this to gauge the performance difference between the versions.

This Asteroids game also serves as the prototype for the Rescuse Ranger game shown above.

2006

This is a Actionscript 2 (Flash 8) version of the Asteroids game.

Press the "A" key to add an Asteroid to the game field. Use this to gauge the performance difference between the versions.

Note that although AS3 runs faster and can cope with many more asteroids AS2 appears to animate smoother.

2005

Here is a reduced Windows C++ version of the Asteroids game (with source code), written using OpenGL. I later converted the game to Flash to make it widely accessible on the web.

2005

Jewels of the Oracle Puzzles

Russell programed and helped design twenty-four puzzles for the hit CD-ROM game Jewels of the Oracle which was released by DISCUS in March of 1995. Jewels of the Oracle won international recognition with Best of Show at MacWorld Expo San Francisco; and 1995 Product of the Year CD-ROM Professional Magazine. Russell was accredited on the product as ‘Interface and Lead Programming’.

In 1996 Jewels of the Oracle was translated into Japanese and released in Japan on the Sega Saturn platform by Sunsoft, a division of Sun Corporation.

These puzzle games are now over twelve years old. To make the puzzles generally more accessible I’ve been slowly rewriting them (from scratch) using Flash 7 (AS2), the most accessible Internet environment possible, and posting them here for your enjoyment.

Adobe Flash Player required. Lingo versions of puzzles that have not yet been converted may be found here.

Move the pieces into their matching containers: the sun pieces go in the sun container; the star pieces go in the star container.

1995/2006

Determine the value of the emblems across the top of the board by decrypting the equations on the wall to the left.

1995/2006

Using the moving platform, move all of the white and black disks from the left side of the board to the right.

1995/2006

Set the panels so they show one each of the six different symbols in the following order: People, Tree, Cow, Pyramid, Well, Water.

1995/2006

You must deposit all the seeds into the Ruma, the large bowl at the end of the board.

Origin of Planetary Motion

Computer visualizations were made of the predicted motion of a ‘prospective planet’ ejected from the surface of the sun under the influence of gravitational, electrostatic and magnetic forces.

In general, such a planet ends up falling back into the sun, much like a solar flare. However, if a planet is ejected at the suns equator with a velocity appropriate to its mass, it can attain a circular orbit around the sun, as in planetary motion. Furthermore, the magnetic forces on the electrical charges on the planet are such as to produce planetary spin. The suggestion is that stars in their volatile formative years might produce masses of such eruptions, some giving birth to planets.

The origin of the Solar System is one of the oldest unsolved problems in science. I’ve outlined the problem in this research essay written for ASTR E-8 Cosmic Evolution: The Origins of Matter and Life with Eric J. Chaisson.

Most of this visualization work was done for the class CSCI-E236 Advanced Computer Graphics with Hanspeter Pfister. I graphically visualize data generated so it can be interpreted and values then be deduced to give potential orbits.

2005