At 15:47 -0600 4-03-1997, Bob Colbert wrote:
>> Conclusion: the next step from simple Combat/Adventure/Pong :-) games could
>> be to write games falling in this wide category:
>>
>> first sprite=player, second sprite (recycled)=many enemies.
>> Now we need a clear, well commented code for drawing this kind of screens.
>> Any idea?
>
>Yes, I have been working on this exact routine for the last few days. I
>still need to tweak it a bit, but to give you an idea of its power:
>
>I have 7 copies of player 0 on screen at once, they can be moved anywhere
>on the screen. When 2 or more copies of player 0 interfere with
>eachother, they rotate frames. While this may sound bad, it looks very
>good, because the time that the sprites actually overlap is very short.
This is probably the best that can be done! Look:
- early games: "full flicker" (Adventure), or "so simple that there's no
flicker at all" (Combat,only 2 sprites at once!)
- middle age: "well-planned no-flicker" (most Activision/Imagic releases),
sprites were reused for more objects but with various limits to their
positions
- advanced games: "intelligent semi-flicker" :) (Dig Dug, Ms. PacMan)
flicker happens only in particular situations and sprites have the maximum
degree of freedom.
How the hell can you reposition a sprite _while_ drawing something else
(another sprite and/or background)... I can't wait to see your code :)
>When no players overlap, there is no flicker whatsoever. Using this code,
>I should be able to easily add player1, which would never flicker, and
>could be moved anywhere on the screen. Oh yeah, and all of the player0
>copies are single resolution graphics, each with a different color.
I'm on the floor praying to God Colbert! :-))
>All while a background is drawn on the screen. While the code can handle
>7 copies, 4 copies seems to look extremely good, i.e. you barely even
>notice any flicker.
There are no words...
>This brings up an interesting point. While, I enjoy sharing ideas, I have
>put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this code. I will gladly share
>it with the mailing list, but all I ask is that if someone uses it in a
>game to please make mention of it! It looks like I will be using this
>code for a game soon. I will post it to the mailing list in the next
>couple of days.
Hey, I might even _pay_ for being able to use this code! :-)
Ciao,
P.
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