Awesome.. Thanks for all the comments so far! I'm glad the concept makes
(at least) some sense.. I love all the ideas..
This is my first 2600 game, but I've had a lot of experience with writing
low-level driver code in ASM and I've been studying the source code
snippets passed on the list.. As a matter of fact, I just found a 6502
programming book I had lying around.. Should come in handy..
Doing the game in a linear fashion reminds me of another (cheesier) concept
which would be a punch-tool and a ballot! :) I was thinking paper punch
tape (from the old computing days), but the whole election got me going..
The ballot could pass under the punch tool and the player would punch the
colored areas.. Yuck.. I couldn't write a game based around the election..
Having a linear environment reminds me a lot of Frogger, too, when you're
trying to land on the logs/turtles. That would be in a horizontal
configuration.. A vertical configuration would be possible, too, with the
head at the bottom (or top) of the screen.. That would be very
Kaboom-esque. I'm still leaning towards something like Mark suggested (or
Glenn) with a simulated motion of the disc or a zoomed-in portion of the
arc, but I need to do a little poking around first before I ask any silly
questions..
I spent some time today setting up the dev. environment and I'm currently
playing with Nick B's playfield code (which is extremely cool, by the
way).. Tommorrow I'll print out the Stella dev. guide at work :)
I'll let you guys know how I make out..
Joe
At 04:10 PM 11/19/2000 -0600, you wrote:
>
>This is really a twisted concept, but I like it. As you say, there isn't
>really anything like it, the closest is probably kaboom. Given that
>kaboom is really fun, your game could very well be great fun to play.
>
>As Chris pointed out, I think you are limited in how you are going to draw
>it on the screen. If you do a 'zoomed' in view so that the tracks look
>horizontal like Chris is suggested, I can be done without to much
>difficulty. However, I don't think the theme would be quite as clear.
>As then you probably wouldn't be able to see the stuff to grab very far in
>advance. Drawing the whole disk would be great, but I'm sceptical on how
>you are going to draw a disk with spaces (presumably wedge shaped)
>rotating.
>
>Best way I can think of makes the data very small(ie 1 pixel). You could
>draw the disk with anycommon method; it would not 'move'. Then add a hub
>of some sort with a screw or something that rotates to give the impression
>of rotation. On top of that you'd have to add your data. You could do
>your data bits with ball/missle/missle, but that is only 3. Then you
>would probably have some color changes of them as it goes around because
>you are probably going to need to use the 2 players for the disk head/arm
>and the hub.
>
>I think Chris' idea of keeping the data buffers full is a great one,
>because you can allow the player to get a little behind, but still be able
>to catch up. You could have a new set of data appear after each one is
>read, then your level speed would depend on how fast stuff is taken out of
>the buffer.
>
>Have you programmed anything for the VCS yet? This would probably not be
>a great one to try for a first program. Best sorts of games for a first
>attempt are ones with not to complex displays. If however you use Chris'
>idea of making the tracks linear, it shouldn't be too hard at all, and is
>quite doable for a first program.
>
>Mark
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