At 21.47 05/01/98 -0800, Glenn Saunders wrote:
>But INV needs some things first.
>
>a) explosions. Explosions for just about everything should be possible.
I wouldn't be sure about explosions for invaders. That part of the kernel
is rather busy.
>b) better score. By advice would be to go with (if this is possible) an
>interlaced 6-char so you can get a nice tight font on either side.
I agree, I don't like the "combat" text anymore..
>Something approximating the Taito text look would be nice, plus the "100"
>when you blow up the saucer.
The saucer score wouldn't be a problem, if.. (see below)
>c) variations. Invaders is a limited game. It needs some kind of bonus
>or easter egg stuff to give it some depth, or variations different from
>what we have in Rick's SI port.
See below again..
>d) it would be nice if the missiles were a little better looking. The
>original arcade had a few different shaped enemy missiles. This was one
>of the failures of Rick's SI that he didn't port this over.
As I was saying, it depends on what can still be added to the
invaders-block part of the kernel.
>e) try spicing up the saucer with some animated frames or blinking lights
>or something. On those scanlines all the sprites are available for use on
>the saucer so it's worth prettying it up. Maybe have different kinds of
>saucers go by, smaller ones or faster ones being worth more. Maybe
>letters could go by so you could eventually spell out something (ala
>bubble bobble). Maybe a bonus round with all saucers of varying sizes.
yes, that would be just a matter of time, BUT..
..there's almost no free RAM! More features, like variations, or things
like animated explosions, sound effects, need RAM locations for their
counters and flags.
(Here's why the original Atari Space Invaders has only 3 shields... they
hadn't enough RAM for the 4th shield, IMO) Think that I had some troubles
to find the ram just for the few features I've added.
>What do you think?
That this is a work for Jim! He he :)
But I can't do everything now. I think that this should really be a group
effort.
Someone should optimize the code to get at least 10 free RAM bytes.
Someone else should take care of the score, and write an interlaced,
hi-res, twin scores display routine...
The rest wouldn't be so hard, if there are enough processor cycles left in
the kernel lines.
Ciao,
P.
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