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AppGameKit Classic Chat / AGK vs Monkey 2

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labmany
6
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Joined: 3rd Sep 2017
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Posted: 3rd Sep 2017 15:19
Hello to all,

Firstly, I have an acceptable experience in programming (used to use VB6 for apps development and C++ using CodeBlocks for small utilities).

I played a bit with both products and honestly I found that :

AGK documentations is better than Monkey, it even has video tutorials and pdf book.

AGK IDE is better than Ted2Go, it reminds me of CodeBlocks IDE.

Though I am not sure which is better regarding performance, support and bug fixes, ease of deployment….etc

Why should I pick AppGameKit over Monkey 2?

I do appreciate your opinions.
jhanson
6
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Joined: 19th Jun 2017
Location: USA
Posted: 3rd Sep 2017 17:50
Doesn't seem like much of a choice to me. I picked AppGameKit because the guy who made Monkey, BlitzMax, etc. unceremoniously dumped all of the old products and deleted the forums that contained all of the useful info about them. My assumption is that the same will happen with Monkey 2 once he tires of that one too.
Markus
Valued Member
19
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Joined: 10th Apr 2004
Location: Germany
Posted: 3rd Sep 2017 19:01
Quote: "dumped "

at least its open source.


AGK (Steam) V2017.08.16 : Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit : AMD (17.7.2) Radeon R7 265 : Mac mini OS Sierra (10.12.2)
Supertino
6
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Joined: 22nd Jun 2017
Location: Behind you!
Posted: 3rd Sep 2017 19:17
@jhanson, I agree; I moved to AppGameKit a few months ago, the closing of the Bmax forums was the last straw, I do still support Monkey2 on pateron but I'll stop that at the end of the year, I too feel he'll dump it when he gets bored. Blitz products have always had an issue with promotion and therefore popularity and I don't see Monkey2 being any different. I stand by my opinion that starting a new family of programming languages under a different name was bad idea why 'monkey'? why not 'Blitz Pro'? all name renegotiation was washed away.

With all that said i have to thank Mark Sibley for the 'Blitz' programming series been using 'blitz' products since the Amiga.
DavidAGK
AGK Developer
10
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Joined: 1st Jan 2014
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Posted: 3rd Sep 2017 19:25
Continuing support and development has to be one of the most important factors... especially if you commit to a large project.
Using Tier 1 AppGameKit V2
Started coding with AMOS (Thanks Francois Lionet)
labmany
6
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Joined: 3rd Sep 2017
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Posted: 3rd Sep 2017 20:11
Thanks guys for your reply.

I posted a similar thread somewhere and someone suggested Cerberus X as outperforms AppGameKit because AppGameKit Tier 1 is interpreted!
What do you guys think?!
jhanson
6
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Joined: 19th Jun 2017
Location: USA
Posted: 3rd Sep 2017 20:51
@Markus - Very true about the fact that it got open sourced. That is certainly better than taking his ball and going home. I know that someone forked Monkey/Monkey X and made Cerberus X. Not sure about BlitzMax.

@Supertino - Yeah, what niche recognition Blitz had they completely wasted by giving Monkey that name. Not to mention it just sounded like something that shouldn't be taken seriously.

I loved BlitzMax and its community, liked Monkey and its fractured little community, and am happy to have moved over to a platform and community that seems to have all its ducks in a row.
Westa
12
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Joined: 28th Oct 2011
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Posted: 4th Sep 2017 04:17
AGK 2 is well supported by its developers and runs on desktop and mobile platforms with the same tier1 code base - whats not to like.

Westa
easter bunny
11
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Joined: 20th Nov 2012
Playing: Dota 2
Posted: 4th Sep 2017 09:28
Quote: "
I posted a similar thread somewhere and someone suggested Cerberus X as outperforms AppGameKit because AppGameKit Tier 1 is interpreted"


I've never run into performance issues with agk except with super physics intensive simulations on old devices. Perhaps Cerberus X is faster, but there's no point having faster code if you never need to go faster.


There are a lot of things to love about agk (one click deploy to any platform, instantly test on your mobile over WiFi, extensive command set and more).


Quote: "Though I am not sure which is better regarding performance, support and bug fixes, ease of deployment….etc"


Support used to be pretty average but since the start of the year tgc has been working really hard at keeping the community informed/checking forums/giving support. I'd give them 4.5/5 for it.
Bugs get fixed quick BUT you have to wait for the next release which can take months. I'd like to see TGC work on this since they can quickly and easily deploy releases through steam
Ease of deployment is an absolute breeze. 10/10. Hands down the best option on the market.

My Games - Latest WIP - My Website: Immortal.Digital - FB - Twitter
130,000 installs with AppGameKit and counting
Rick Nasher
6
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Joined: 25th Jul 2017
Location: Amsterdam
Posted: 4th Sep 2017 21:33
Hehehe, certainly a lot of ex-Blitzers here(me included). At first I felt really sad about the whole treatment Mark gave us. Now I'm actually glad for AppGameKit is giving me all I ever wanted from Blitz:
X-platform, physics, 3d and all at a considerable speed, even on older devices ( thus has larger potential customer market) and is ideal for rapid development.
Also contrary to Unity, which took the whole OOP thing too far and is a b*tch to program using C# and a gazillion things to keep in mind.

So basically with AppGameKit I think they have a winner at their hands, it brings back the fun in coding and it shows!
Alien Menace
AGK Developer
19
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Joined: 11th Jan 2005
Location: Earth (just visiting)
Posted: 8th Sep 2017 08:24
I jumped the BB ship when Mark (for whatever reason) decided to dump BB and go the BlitzMax/Monkey route. I went to DBPro for a short time and really hated that product then wrote and deployed a some iOS apps in GLBasic. I then landed here when I climbed aboard the AGK1 train way back when. I think AppGameKit is a great language but there are still aggravating little holes that need to be fixed (Ie.. why is there still no command to read a pixel color?).

TGC's support of the AppGameKit line has been spotty (and believe me I am being polite here) and anybody who has been with this product from the start knows exactly what I mean and so does TGC so let's not pretend everything has always been great. I will not speak for anybody else in the AppGameKit community but for me, this certainly soured my opinion of TGC. Now, having said that I will say that a while back they seemed to re-commit themselves to the product and have been doing a MUCH better job of communicating and releasing updates/bug fixes since that time. Is it going to last? I have no idea but I am optimistic that they will continue to move forward in this regard and it has, at least for the time being improved my opinion of the company.

While I am not a TGC fan-boy, I do feel good about recommending AppGameKit to you.
I love my Altair 8800 Replica.

http://altairclone.com/
Supertino
6
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Joined: 22nd Jun 2017
Location: Behind you!
Posted: 8th Sep 2017 08:56 Edited at: 8th Sep 2017 08:56
I think Sibleys magnum opus was BlitzMax is was a good mix of OOP, multi-platform and robust access to external DDL's and such, he should have carried on down that route rather and splinter off making Monkey. Still all good things come to an end, I am still bitter over the demise of the Amiga.
RobbSnow
8
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Joined: 14th Oct 2015
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Posted: 8th Sep 2017 22:02
I actually really liked Monkey. You have to keep in mind that every time the creator gets a wild hair, he is going to create a new product, immediately stop supporting the prior product, and ensure that there is next to zero compatibility. The product you are using won't even be mature enough to have any real documentation before it is obsolete.

But really, I think Monkey is a really cool product l, especially with Ignition or Pyro with it. I did find myself getting a lot done on it.

I think it could be a good platform if you plan on have a short lifecycle on your games.
tindex
17
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Joined: 24th Oct 2006
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Posted: 18th Sep 2017 16:56
Indeed, loyalty to the community is a big problem with Blitz products. Once you get used to a Blitz language and begin to expect improvements and additions, instead of a next version, you get a new products that itself need a next version. That feels like on your head.
Markus
Valued Member
19
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Joined: 10th Apr 2004
Location: Germany
Posted: 18th Sep 2017 17:08
Quote: "instead of a next version, you get a new products that itself need a next version. That feels like on your head. "

unfortunately a general problem at software, they want earn new money. software is very short-living.
a miracle that agk is still alive.

AGK (Steam) V2017.08.16 : Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit : AMD (17.7.2) Radeon R7 265 : Mac mini OS Sierra (10.12.2)

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