Re: [stella] Space Treat .BIN and .ASM

Subject: Re: [stella] Space Treat .BIN and .ASM
From: "Fabrizio Zavagli" <rasty@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2002 10:56:15 +0200
Hi Thomas!

I'm just back from a 1-week vacation and am clearing the backlog just now..
so first of all thank you for testing Space Treat!!

Thomas Jentzsch wrote:
> Unfortunately I couldn't test the sound yet, because my soundcard is
> currently on strike.

lazy soundcards...
I've experienced several sound inaccuracies on CyberStella anyway, and still
have to test sound on z26 since I'm on win2000 :(

> Here are my (ordered) ideas:
>
> - After you have finished a level, the game should stay one or two
> seconds on the level before switching to the intermission screen, maybe
> with some simple reaction of the enemies (blinking, stopping or
> disappearing). That would give the player some more positive feedback.

That should be feasible!

> - You should utilize the fire button for something. You could increase
> the player speed while the button is pressed, activate some kind of
> shield/warp/emergency escape or allow the player to shoot at the
> enemies, pushing them back a bit (like in Oystron) or kill them etc.

I've thought about a possible use for the fire button, but since giving some
extra feature to the player would have an impact on the game's difficulty,
I've kept from doing so...
But now I have some more time to tune the gameplay again, and if I can fit a
firebutton feature without eating up too much space, I'll do it!

> - I would like to see some real scoring (based on fuel, lives etc.)

Yep, I've had some space problems in the end (you'd never have guessed
:)))...
Also, since the seemingly only possible way to score is to pick up the food,
and you pick up food once per level, I've tied score and level counter
together...
But I'd probably have to do some scoring if I want to fit in your next
suggestions (and I really do):

> - Then using the SELECT switch to start at higher levels might be a good
> idea, especially for those advanced players, who might find the first
> levels to easy after a while.

And it should also eat up very little rom space...!

> - IMO the energy bar is a bit to thin, making it had to monitor it (I
> think it will be even harder on TV)

Humm yep it probably is... maybe it's still passable on an emulator, but on
a TV...
Well adding a line should easy! (but never take my words :))

> - The key could move around in higher levels (which I haven't reached
> yet ;-), making it harder to it pick up.

Great idea! Sould also get little space as well...

> - The difficulty increase between level 2 and 3 is IMO a little bit to
> high, but I don't know if you can fix that easy enough.

Yes, that's pretty easy to fix... Just have to change some table!
Would you like an easier level 3 or an harder level 2? :)

> - If you have any space left, some animation of some of the enemies
> would be nice.

That would be trickier due to space... Also, the enemy stripes would animate
together and I believe the effect could be not so nice...

> Don't get me wrong, I really LOVE the look and overall gameplay of the
> game. Therefore I would like to see it using all it's high potential.
> And I just like to make things 100% perfect. :-)

I sure don't get you wrong and love all of your suggestions!
I'll add one myself:

- Remove screen rolling between levels

but I've never done that and would really like some suggestion on the
matter!

> > I still have to clean up the comments (and translate some of them)..
I've
> > failed to do it in the last week so looks like I'll do it the next, just
in
> > case there is someone around who's brave enough to take a look at my
code :)
>
> Sure I did, looking for some possible extra space. There is... :-)

Yep... Most of the code is far from being elegant, mostly the vblank
calculations... Hope I get enough motivation to fix that up!
Well I'm getting :)

Thanks again for the great feedback!
Ciao,
Fabrizio.-

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