>Reply to your message of 12/5/97 11:41 AM
>
>Interesting.. thought I still think that collision detection may bring you
>some headhache... :-)
well, over my lunch I added collision detection using PCAE, it works great with one limitation: I did not add detection for clone objects on items that have multiple copies. Not because it doesn't seem possible, I just ran out of time. Anyway, the collision detection checks to see if the shot enters the rectangular area occupied by a sprite. It compensates for double and quadruple width sprites, as well as any height sprite. The detection is not as robust as that built into the 2600's hardware, because it does not check to see if a particular pixel in the rectangular area is "on". I have played with it a bit on the emulator and it exceeded my expectations. I haven't tried it on a real 2600, so it may jump all over the place if my timing isn't right, so you'll have to wait until monday to see it (I'll work on it a bit more this weekend).
>It's time for the part I really like..: gameplay suggestions!
>After playing with it for a while, I've had this idea..
>
>The basic concept is that this should't be another shoot-em-up game.
>First of all, you should add gravity to your shots, so they follow a
>realistic parabolic trajectory.
I've considered that, don't know if that would enhance it or not, but the only way to find out is to try it :) One caveat though.... what happens when you shoot straight up? ;)
>Your opponents will be objects flying upwards.
>The main goal of this game will be to stop the flying objects by filling
>them with your shots, so that their motion becomes slower and slower and
>they eventually start to go back to the bottom of the screen.
mmm, not to sure about this part, I really had a basic gameplay in mind that I'm building this around. If you've ever seen the game Sabotage for the Apple //, you will immediately recognize the similarities to my game. That game was a blast to play, and it isn't really a standard shoot 'em up. The object was to stop the paratroopers from getting to the ground. When 4 paratroopers reached the ground safely, they climbed on eachother and bombed your gun. You could shoot the paratroopers and kill them as they fell, or you could shoot their parachutes, causing them to fall to the ground with a THUD, killing any paratroopers that were unlucky enough to be on the ground underneath.
I want to keep that basic premise, but add some other elements to the game, don't know what those are yet, and I'll surely need help thinking of them!
<snip> (nice text art removed)
>What do you think? It seems quite original to me.
>Human cannonball+Missile Command+the 2nd stage of "Pooyan". :-)))
Interesting, I might be able to do something with the idea and incorporate it into the game, but I think I want to make the basic premise that which I stated above.
>PCAE is very tolerant. You can test your program on Stella for DOS before
>the real 2600, if it jumps on Stella then it's very likely to do the same
>on the 2600, so you can save some time with the quicker test on the
>emulator.
hmmm, don't know if I have the DOS version, I have the windows version... I'll have to check.
Thanks!
Bob
Wanna write a game for the Atari 2600?
Check out http://www.novia.net/~rcolbert
--
Stella list is Administered by krishna@xxxxxxxxxxxx <Glenn Saunders>
Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/
Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/stella.html
+-shameless plugs-------------------------------------------------------+
| Stella documentary at http://www.primenet.com/~krishna |
| Nick's VCS links via http://www.primenet.com/~nickb/atariprg.htm |
| Write the best game, win framed autographs of famous Atari alumni!! |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
