Subject: Re: [stella] Collaboration From: Thomas Jentzsch <tjentzsch@xxxxxx> Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 11:13:13 +0100 |
Glenn wrote: > Let's just go ahead and enforce a hard limit on the safe zones because > otherwise it pretty much defeats the purpose of a safe zone, ... Ok, that might make it a bit easier. > but at the > very least you can definitely wrap at the top and bottom although even > there you bump the boundary and then wrap around slowly. That shouldn't be a big problem. It just requires a the top some extra initialization for the objects. Not possible would be, to see the objects partially at the top *and* the bottom at the same time. > We can even cheat the boundary inward an extra playfield pixel on > each end if we really need the time. Won't be necessary (I hope). > It looks like the best way to avoid this problem is to just not let the > cars pass horizontally at all. Let's just finalize that constraint. Ok. Should they be able to move (slowly) through the safe zones? > Could we enforce vertical separation? Then the green gremlin could drop a > red grenade if the red gremlin is not on those scanlines and for the > lifetime of the grenade, the red gremlin could avoid it, and vice > versa? This could actually have some cool exploitable effects as it would > hinder the gremlin's ability to evade cars depending on circumstances. Vertical separation might be possible. But at least we'll need some repositioning inside the kernel then. I think this could be achieved by adding blank lines between the tombstone rows. > It would be better to have the ghost wave use both missiles and not have > gremlins on screen at that time. That way the ghost can have free reign of > the screen. Ok, that's easy fo the kernel. :-) > Maybe if the tombstones had just 1 extra scanline (that would normally be a > tombstone line--lots of CPU available) between them we could get the ball > positioned in there? That way I could have the gremlins drop grenades > when they are within the vertical range of the grenade line, and they'd be > able to drop it anywhere horizontally on that line. I think we would need 2 extra scanlines for that and with multiple grenades we would have to reposition them inside the kernel too. Or they had to flicker. > Now, if the cars KNEW that grenades could only occur on those lines they'd > be too easy to evade but if it were somehow possible to get multiple > grenades (light up 1 grenade for each possible grenade zone) then it would > be more treacherous. If they weren't grenades but something I could > rationalize horizontal animation for, then that would help. Can't think of > what that would be off-hand, though. I think I need to play the original game to understand every detail your are talking about. AFAIK DD isn't emulated by M.A.M.E, any other chance to play it? > The other approach would be to drop out the rest of the tombstone line so > that the grenade could be positioned with more accuracy, but this wouldn't > look as good once lots of tombstones are on the same line because it would > be apparent that the line is being blanked to make room for the > grenade. Since the tombstones are already semi-opaque because of the > interlacing, this wouldn't be a good thing. Agreed. > The grenade gameplay idea might not be that necessary, actually. But I > just wanted to know how much headroom is left with the current kernel Not much, that's sure. > I just like the ideal of > making use of all 5 sprites for something meaningful in the game. I don't > think many games do that, at least not many games that feature a playfield > bitmap. Utilizing the ball won't be easy. And doing this only for the challeng IMO doesnt make too much sense. > If you mean some form of flickering or chronocolor, I'd like to avoid > that--aside from maybe the ghost, where it makes artistic sense. You won't notice *any* flicker if the colors are chosen right. Or does the Robot City helicopter flicker? > Also > because of the rotational nature of the sprites, color register changes > don't make much sense, otherwise the missile gremlins could have been given > more of a pitfall harry look. Sorry, but I don't understand this sentence. > When purposefully avoiding flicker there is only so much you can fill up > the screen. I know Super Challenge Football used vertical separation to do > the rest, and I'm thinking as a final challenge (no pun intended) you could > try to redraw the zombies further down the screen like that so we could > have pairs or triplets of zombies moving as a linked set in the latter > waves. That will only be possible by doubling the kernel(s) for each additional zombie. > If you HMOVED them inbetween you could even get them staggered out > a bit instead of perfectly lined up without having to completely reset > their horizontal position. But I realize the current kernel couldn't do > this. It would have to be some kind of new trick. That would just be > icing on the cake. HMOVEing wouldn't be the big promblem, but enabling/disabling the zombies would. Therefore we would need the replicated kernels. > If there is time to make the tombstones have a subtle fade-out gradient > from white to dark grey, that would look good, I think. It might give them > a rough illusion of depth--like they are standing up, although doing this > would also shade the "alley". It's worth trying out if possible. Actually I just tried that yesterday. I used the 3 free cycles for "sta COLUPF" and calculated the value for A from Y. There I used the two nops at the start of the loop. This gives quite a lot of possibilities. E.g. red tombstones, each line with new brightness, ranging from $2..$e: asl ora #$40 sta COLUPF > You made the tombstones gray but I actually wanted them to be white, so the > ball/playfield color would work. Now I am confused! Gray is just a "fade-out gradient" of white. > One finishing touch I was hoping for was to get a solid white horizontal > boundary line above and below the active playfield. I was having trouble > doing this without some kind of glitch somewhere on the edge of the top > boundary because I'm setting up the playfield rewrites and such. That shouldn't be a big problem. Should the cars or zombies be able to move over that border? Have?fun! Thomas _______________________________________________________ Thomas?Jentzsch?????????|?***?Every?bit?is?sacred?!?*** tjentzsch?at?web?dot?de?| ______________________________________________________________________________ Virenschutz inklusive: Bei WEB.DE FreeMail können Sie jeden Dateianhang auf Viren prüfen http://freemail.web.de/features/?mc=021130 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/ Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/
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