Piero writes:
>
> ...a variable width font seems a bit too much for the 2600... :-)
It was. I wanted to avoid ugly effects on W,N,M but they turned out
OK.
> The "classic" score routine can draw 6 digits, that is 6*8=48 pixels/line.
Nope, the playfield is only 40 pixels wide, not 48. Are you talking
about using 3x copied sprites and rewriting them on the fly?
> XX...X..XXX.XX...X..
> X.X..X..X...X.X.X.X.... etc etc..
> XX...X..XXX.XX..X.X.
> X....X..X...X.X.X.X.
> X....X..XXX.X.X..X..
>
> That would allow 48/4=12 charachters per line (without flicker)!
>
> Can it be done? Or -better- has it already been done?
40/4 = 10 characters per line. It's done. Processing the bitmaps only
allows 6 or 7 lines of text per screen (there's not enough RAM to keep
the bitmap around for more than one line of text at a time!) I kept it
to 6 lines to allow enough free room for the password and user-editable
plaintext/cyphertext.
Stretching rows 2 and 4 of the text gives it better shape without
taking up extra room in the bitmap (6 bytes of playfield x 5 lines.)
My core text engine would be quite suitable for a Wheel of Fortune or
similar game (there's CPU time to do player graphics.)
Off to try player graphics to get 48 pixels wide,
- Jim
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