console means that Fuze4 Nintendo Switch
is largely usable only when the console
is docked to a TV; support for a Bluetooth
keyboard would be welcome, but Nintendo
seems unwilling to accommodate modern
PC peripherals.
There are other barriers that result in
Fuze4 being a little clunkier than necessary.
Chief among them is the way the software
handles the sharing of projects. To send
a project to a third party or receive a
project from them, you’ll both need to
have connected your Switches through
Nintendo’s clunky ‘Friend Code’ system. It’s
an issue Fuze Technologies is investigating,
although the company’s hands are largely
tied by Nintendo’s platform restrictions.
However, there’s plenty of pros to balance
the cons. The sample programs provided with
the Fuze4 Switch, which load straight into a
source code view, run the gamut, from 2D
platformers and racing games to surprisingly
fluid 3D environments.
A couple of tools are included to make
creating your own games easier too – a map
editor and an image editor. Both these tools are
able to load assets from a 10,000-strong library
- worth $1,000 (US), Fuze claims – bundled
with the software, including 2D and 3D objects
as well as audio. Sadly, there’s no music editor
to be found; Fuze4’s rather limited internal
synthesiser needs to be controlled wholly
in-code, and is missing features such as attack,
sustain, decay and release (ASDR) control.
The language itself can be a little clunky
at times too. The lack of a ‘switch/case’
function and ‘else-if’ leads to clunky columns
of nested ‘if’ statements in the majority
of programs. Thankfully, work is already
underway on adding a lot of the missing
features - including ‘switch/case’ - and
they may indeed be in place by the time this
review is published.
It’s easy to concentrate on what you don’t
get with Fuze4, but it does have plenty going
for it too. Code is syntax-highlighted live on
the screen, there are monitors for frame rate
and memory usage, and there’s an internal
context-sensitive help system. This, and
on-device tutorials, are supported by the
Fuze Arena (fuzearena.com) website, which
includes a small but passionate forum andThe language includes surprisingly powerful features,
used to great effect in this 300-line 3D environmentBeagleBoard.org launches BeagleBone AI
The BeagleBoard.org Foundation, creator of
single-board computers (such as the
BeagleBone Black, reviewed in Issue 120),
has launched a model aimed at artificial
intelligence projects. ‘This board is the
answer to our community’s request to see the
next major advancement in the BeagleBone
family,’ says Jason Kridner, Foundation co-founder.
‘Its feature set is jam-packed and offers capabilities
unparalleled by any other single board computer,open
hardware or not.’ The BeagleBone AI, which includes a dual-core CPU, two VLIW digital
signal processors, four vision engines, four programmable real-time units (PRUs) and
two Cortex-M4 cores, is priced at $118 US (around £96 ex VAT).N EWS I N BRI EF
a range of video-based tutorials introducing
basic programming concepts.
Fuze4 Nintendo Switch isn’t the first
programming tool to land on a Nintendo console- the Nintendo Entertainment System launched
in Japan as the Family Computer (Famicom),
after all, and the 3DS had the well-received
SmileBASIC – but it may be the most impressive.
With a broader ability to share content, it would
be a must-have; as it is, though, it’s only likely to
appeal to people who want to program for its
own challenge, rather than to create a program
that will be enjoyed by a wider audience.
Fuze4 Nintendo Switch is available now
from the Nintendo Switch eShop (nintendo.
co.uk) for £29.99 (inc VAT).