Re: [stella] Stella Programmer's Guide Overhaul Project

Subject: Re: [stella] Stella Programmer's Guide Overhaul Project
From: Pete Holland <petehollandjr@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 18:21:46 -0700 (PDT)
I think the filter has gotten my last message.

--- Erik Mooney <emooney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Well... Shout out to the guys who'd be using this
> stuff (hi Pete Holland)
> - would you rather see this guide expanded, or a
> concentration on making
> the FAQ comprehensive?

I'm not paranoid are you talking about me?  ;-)

Well, if I could suggest something (and why not,
right?) I would want a section for neat tricks where
how certain things are done are explained.  For
example:

In Fast Food, how did they make the letters for You're
getting fatter?  Those ain't playfield graphics.

In Space Invaders, how do they do it?  I'm guessing
the invaders are drawn with player graphics, but how
do they move the rows over?  Also, if I hold reset
while turning on the power =:-D I get two missiles,
and the invaders get two missiles, and they all move
independantly.  Where did it come from?

In Missile Command, how do they draw all the missiles
and their trails?  My only guess is with ball
graphics, but I can't see how--I thought you were
limited to one ball on screen at a time.  Likewise,
Pitfall with its swinging rope.  It changes color
depending on the scan line, so I'm guessing ball
again, but how?

In "Asteroids", all those asteroids and the ship with
no flicker until you get over (I believe) 6 asteroids
on screen.

> > 5)  What would be the best (most universal)
> > format for the document?  Right now I am using
> Microsoft Word 97.
> 
> The most universal format is of course simple plain
> text.  Unfortunately,
> that loses all the diagrams in the document - in
> particular, the "TV
> Picture HERE" diagram really helped me when I was
> starting.  I'd suggest
> making both Word 97 and .PDF versions available, if
> possible.  (I can
> convert Word to PDF if you can't.)

How about a text document, with JPEGs of the diagrams
that can be downloaded seperately?

Dobre utka,
Pete Holland Jr.



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