Re: [stella] Brainstorming: Porting Smithereens/Catapult/Stone Sling

Subject: Re: [stella] Brainstorming: Porting Smithereens/Catapult/Stone Sling
From: Rob <kudla@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 21:52:35 -0400
On Wednesday 23 July 2003 16:37, Manuel Polik wrote:
> I'd like to hear your ideas of possibly porting the
> Odyssey 2 / G7000 game
> Smithereens/Catapult/Stone Sling

That's basically the same game that later became known as "Scorched Earth" or 
just "Scorch".  There's never been an artillery duel type game for the 2600?  
Hard to believe.

> Major Problem of this is certainly displaying six
> detailed objects (2* catapult/gunner/castle) in one
> horizontal row.
> So with what solutions for that would you come up?

I'd definitely be inclined to implement something closer to scorch (just a 
little tank sprite for each player, but lots of special weapons and gameplay 
elements) myself, but here's how I'd do it:

1. Draw the castles using the playfield and make them a little bigger. ;)
2. Use the players for the two catapults.
3. Use the ball for the actual projectile, though you could use anything you 
like since it's always above the plane of the catapults.  I seem to remember 
Smithereens using that 6x6 rounded square shape for the projectile.
4. Draw the "Odyssey2 guy" like this using the missile for the player on the 
other side of the screen (so you can mess with the width in mid-scanline:)

xxxx
xxxx
xx
xxxx
xx
xx
xxxx

If that really bothers you (if you need to see the "running Odyssey2 guy" with 
2 legs visible instead of the standing one) I bet you could draw the castles 
using a reflected playfield, use both missiles close together for the first 
guy and have time to reposition them in mid-scanline to do the other guy.  
You'd also be able to make it look a little more like the actual O2 guy, 
whose head and foot should be 3 pixels wide, not 4.

I know someone's been working on and off on a KC Munchkin clone for the 2600; 
it'd be interesting to see which one gets to be playable first ;)

Rob

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