Piero Cavina wrote:
>
> Today I've been able to try it on my 2600... hey, looks like this will be a
> hit!
Thanks :)
> Some comments:
>
> - paddle vs. joystick control. I've always thought this had to be a paddle
> game, and in fact I prefer to play it with paddles, even if it is not still
> perfect.
I have a new version on my page, did it really quick, but I improved the
paddle support, see how you like it!
> BTW, how could you find the cycles to do it??
Ancient Chinese secret! It's tough to explain, but my kernel is VERY
conditional. That is, there are about many paths the kernel can take.
I
realized that there were 2 paths that had many cycles left, but they
didn't
occur every scanline, or even every other scanline. Putting the code to
read the paddles in these two areas allowed me to analyze the results in
the
overscan area. Now, instead of reading the results and setting the
position
of the gun to where the paddle is, I check to see if the paddle is left
or
right of the current paddle position. If it is, I increase or decrease
the
gun position accordingly until it is equal to the current paddle
position.
This provides for more realistic movement at the very least, and much
smoother movement at best. You'll love it or hate it :)
http://www.novia.net/~rcolbert/multi.bin
> As for the joystick,
> I still think there is something wrong with it... I can't get accurate
> movements, I think the gun moves too fast.. am I the only one to have this
> feeling?
Hmm, i can certainly slow it down, but I'm pretty good with it the way
it is.
If I slow it down, it's really gonna make the game harder. BTW, the new
version doesn't have the extra scanline for PAL yet. I am sorry, I was
very
anxios to see if I could improve the paddle support.
> - automatic fire: please let the player fire fast and continuosly when the
> button is pressed :)
O.K. I can speed up the delay if you'd like, it's too slow? Remember,
you can
only have 3 shots active at one time, so I tried to space them out
fairly evenly.
Let me know if this is really what you want - faster firing if you hold
the
button down.
>
> - bombs: they come down too fast..
O.k. I'm planning on adding some gravity and starting the falling
objects out
slowly and building up speed.
> - endgame sequence: if I remember correctly, in the original game the guys
> came out from the foxholes and tried to reach the top of the base before
> the game was finished. Would it be too difficult to make it work in the
> same way?
Maybe, maybe not. I've thought about this and decided to defer this to
something
I'll add after I get everything else I want in in :) It certainly would
make
for a better game, but I have so much left to do :)
> - gravity: it vould be extra-cool if everything that is falling had some
> acceleration in its motion..
Yes, I'll work on that!
> - the game should be organized in waves, with a bouns for each empty
> foxhole at the end of each wave;
Yep, I've built the kernel in a way that this can be done fairly
easily. Wave
design is low on my priority right now, gotta get the game physics,
control,
functionality down first - then I'll design waves. I'm also considering
multi-loads where entirely new objects are loaded each load.
Unfortunately, I'm
kind of limited on the number of enemies I can have - not a really low
limit,
but I can't have infinite types of enemies - I'll explain later.
> - what about a super-zapper, that blasts everything, activated with the
> second joystick (or paddle) button?
I've had many suggestions to this effect, but I haven't come to a solid
conclusion
as to what would trigger this - but I do plan on something to that
effect.
>
> - sound effects: you've all the memory you need, so they will have to be
> very cool ;)) I've always been disappointed by games that look good and
> have poor sounds (many Activision ones..)
Yep, again I'm deferring this to later. I have a bunch of code time
tucked away
just for sound, and I want to concentrate on that exclusively when the
time is
right. I'm sure I'll need quite a bit of help getting it just right!
> - score display: why don't you steal the font from Activision
> "Commando"...? :-))
Yep, a new font is needed. I stole mine from my Cheetah code, but it'll
be very
easy to change - anther one of those finishing touches I'm gonna wait
on.
> Keep up the good work. This game still needs a lot of fine-tuning and
> polishing, but when finished will be a very good one. Hey, thanks for
> waiting for the contest to expire :-))
haha, like I had a choice :) I'm a slow coder, you don't know how many
times
I've worked an entire night on a piece of killer code -- only to throw
it away
at the end of the day because I couldn't fit it in, or it just didn't
look
right. Anyway, Oystron is quite a work of art, so don't even hint
otherwise!
Later,
Bob
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