Autobiography
From TedTycoon.co.uk
You don't have to read all this, it's just for me to look back at for dates and information really and for people that are interested. Mainly talks about how I grew up as a programmer.
Contents |
1993 - 1998
1993 was the year I was born, and since then I have been living in Berkshire. When I was 18 months old I quickly mastered the VCR and could soon operate it better than my mum. Between then and the age of 4, I was introduced to the family computer running Windows 95, watching my older sisters playing games. I was very fond of computers after that, so I spent quite a bit of time playing computer games. My knowledge of using Windows was increasing too, so as I got older I became very proficient in using it and computers in general.
2002 - 2004
When I was 9 years old (2002), I was introduced to QBasic by my dad. He taught me some of the concepts of programming using QBasic. I took so much interest in it that I soon started programming in VB6, learning from a book along with frequent teachings and help from my dad. After maybe a year of basic programming, I become very fond of Populous the Beginning. In about 2003 my dad showed me how to edit files using a hex editor, and the first thing we started editing were the game files used in Populous such as the levels. We started to work out the structure of the level files so that we could edit and create new ones. After a lot of experimentation we wrote a program which could change the ownership of the units in any level. More information can be found about that on the Populous Colour Changer page. At this point I came up with my alias / nickname which I used for the Populous Matchmaker and still use today on all of my programs and site. The name came about because I liked Chris Sawyer's tycoon games, particularly Transport Tycoon and Rollercoaster Tycoon. Shortly after writing the Level Changer, we wrote another program called the Populous Level Changer, this simply copied and renamed the multiplayer level files to single player levels i.e. allowing you to play on the single player levels in multiplayer. After completing the program we distributed it around the Populous multiplayer community where I became one of the first modifiers of the game under the name of TedTycoon. To distribute the program, I made my first website using Microsoft FrontPage, this was then put on to my dad’s webspace and domain changeringing.co.uk. It was called Ted's Populous Site and contained information about the game, hints/tips, cheats and downloads (one of them being the Level Changer). The Level Changer became fairly successful and other players of the game were using it to play different levels in multiplayer which had never been done before.
I was also developing other programs such as the DK Scripting Tool for Dungeon Keeper, and a Kye Editor for Kye.
Later on, my dad and I developed our next program called the Populous Spell Editor which edited the header files of the levels in the game. This basically allowed you to edit the available spells, available huts, the landscape style and other such attributes. This then went on to be released onto my site along with the Level Changer. At this point I was becoming more confident in programming VB6 with knowledge on file structures, bytes, bits and different bases of numbers.
An unofficial community, Populous Reincarnated, was established for Populous in 2002, and after Electronic Arts abandoned the official online multiplayer lobby of the game at the beginning of 2005, its matchmaker took over and is still popular today. I became part of the Populous Reincarnated programming team after writing (again with the hlp of my dad) the Populous Palette Editor. This utility edited the colour palette files used in the game. It was used by map creators to change the colours of the land and people quickly and easily. This was added then added to my website where it became my 3rd released tool to modify the game.
At the beginning of 2004, Ted's Populous Site was removed from Changeringing.co.uk and the first TedTycoon.co.uk site was created on the TedTycoon.co.uk domain.
2005
There was probably a short break during this year when I didn’t release any programs, but I was still improving my programming skills, learning how HTML worked, and concentrating on improving my website, including taking out all the unnecessary HTML that website designer applications put in. Although I did create Categories in my summer holidays.
2006
In 2006 I started creating Populous levels using a Hex Editor, but I found that making maps fair and reasonably symmetrical was pretty hard and time consuming to do. So I came up with my new program idea. The Populous Symmetry Tool was created by my dad and me. It could display a 2D map of a level and then mirror the land and objects to make maps symmetrical in different ways, while replicating the followers of one tribe to other colours. When this was released, it became very popular and was used in nearly all the maps made by other people as it was such a quick way of duplicating the land so that everyone had the same base layout etc. All these programs were kept up to date to fix bugs and add new features, they became vital tools for creating maps until the 3D world editor was released by another populous programmer. After the final version if the Symmetry Tool was released, I had a long break from creating populous applications. During this period I spent most of the time either playing games or programming other applications such as Poker, Tonka and Who's in the computer. I did however create a Populous Map Editor with another Populous programmer, but unfortunately this was never finished despite having put a lot of work into it.
I wrote the Random Map Generator in VB6.
2007
The VB6 Random Map Generator (RMG) was rather slow to generate maps and for it to be integrated into the Populous Matchmaker, I needed it not to rely on optional libraries. I therefore started to teach myself C++ and rewrote the RMG in it.
In 2007 I created the popular application named MP Monitor which shows in-game user information about each player in Populous such as what spells they are currently charging, how many shots they have and various other statistics. There was some controversy over this application in the Populous community as using it in matches could be considered cheating. Nevertheless it was released on TedTycoon.co.uk and an unofficial (i.e. without my knowledge) YouTube video was created by another player showing how to use it.
In mid 2007, I started to use VB.NET instead of VB6, writing the AI Scripter and re-writing the Spell Editor, Palette Editor, MP Monitor and Symmetry Tool Populous utilities. I also wrote my own MatchMaker which I connected to the RMG, also converting that to VB.NET (the fifth version of the RMG!).
2008
Mid 2008, I started writing programs in C#. I started to get very familiar with the object orientated language and how programs are structured using structures, classes and interfaces.
2009
In 2009 I spent most of my time working for my GCSEs which I acquired in the summer. I then started 6th form in September to do my A-Levels.
In December, I entered the British Informatics Olympiad by taking their exam, which involved writing 3 tested programs in 3 hours to solve the set problems. By achieving a mark that was in the top 15 in the country, I was invited to Cambridge as a finalist to compete against other people. I then spent the next few months retouching up on my algorithm skills.
2010
Competed in the BIO final at Trinity College, Cambridge at end of March. Didn't make the top four to go to Canada for the International Olympiad of Informatics(IOI). Did the first round of the BIO test again in December. Finished my AS modules and started my A2 modules.
2011
Competed again in the BIO final at the end of march on my 18th birthday. Finished my A-Levels and ready to go to university after the summer to study Computer Science at either Manchester or Nottingham. Now familiar with Java after writing various applications in it.
