On Sat, 15 Nov 1997 crackers@xxxxxxxx wrote:
> But on the good side... my midterm exam is comming up very soon and then
> I should have a few weeks to get back to work on the V-pet! The hardest
> part is already finished (graphics) now it's just putting together the
> logic.
I wouldn't give up on the graphics just yet...
What kind of graphics are you using? If I were you, I would consider
either a single line res 4-char (ala Dragonfire) or a double-line 6-char
(ala Dragster).
This would be ideal for the V-pet because the rest of the screen on either
end of the pet doesn't need to be used for anything (with these routines,
you can't do anything else anyway).
I know that these are advanced routines, but they are so time-critical
that there is only, for all intents and purposes, ONE WAY to execute them,
so that you could probably just lift the code from Dragster or Dragonfire
without much guilt. It would be foolish to reinvent the wheel. This was
probably the most copied trick on the 2600. The main innovation in
Dragster is the ability slide the megasprite left and right, but you don't
necessarily need that...
So by using these routines, you can get a nice large megasprite (32-48
pixels, not taking the width register into account) and be able to slide
it left and right, or up and down if the left and right half of the
affected scanlines remains black.
I haven't seen any of the coders here try this routine yet and it's really
the most effective flickerless graphics the 2600 can generate.
Who will be the first person who can take Dragster (or Dragonfire),
disassemble it, cut out the offending routine, redefine its shape, and get
it moving around over a black screen in both X and Y axes? If it won't be
Crackers, then maybe someone else could do it and then hand over the code
for Crackers to use.
Consider it a challenge...
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