[stella] Qb: v0.06 Jeans 'n Sneakers

["Andrew Davie" <adavie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Attached, the latest version of Qb, and source code.

Changes:

* Conditional compilations added at top of file.
  - Illegal opcode switch (MAC users set this to 0)
  - NTSC/PAL compilation (changes timing, colours automatically)
  - Feature-reduction (for later tweaking)
      - rising player on/off
      - player with interlacing hair on/off
      - player with hat (well, a beret of sorts) on/off
      - protect score on/off
      - attract mode on/off

Just change the equates at the top, and recompile, and you enable/disable
the above options.

Timing on NTSC/PAL is rather haphazard.  I find the timing of an entire
frame really tricky, so I'm not so worried about little jumps here and
there;  I will fix these the penultimate version.  Excuse any little
glitches/jumps.

I'm just about completely out of ROM.  Getting an opponent in there will be
tricky, not to mention sound.  This is the reason I added the above
conditional compilations;  it will be a matter of picking features and
deciding which need to stay and which go.

I've done a lot of work on things, but the most impressive thing is, the
player is now coloured (!).  This required very careful reworking and timing
changes in the kernals which draw the screen.  It was almost miraculous that
it was possible - of course it came down to a single cycle being available
:)   As you can see, the player is wearing jeans and quite distinguishable
gym-shoes (sneakers).  Not bad for 2 pixels :)  I'm very happy with the
colour thing...  flash of inspiration and all that.

A not-so-great flash (or should I say flicker) of inspiration was adding
interlaced hair to the player.  Try it and see what I mean :)   It works,
but it doesn't WORK.  Oh well, nice idea :)

A few random cubes are now added when a screen starts.  This was rather
expensive, and I'll have to see if I can improve it.  It works (just did
it), so I thought I'd send it along.  Personally I think it improves
gameplay.

I added a bonus addition when you complete a screen.  Needs a bit of work,
because it should stop awarding it if you have let the tableaux reset during
your efforts - but it doesn't know that yet.  Gotta find two bits somewhere
:)

I improved the jump.  It now looks really really good (IMHO).

The game starts up in the new DEMO mode, which basically randomly moves
stuff around the screen.  This is good, though, because it gives you a
random (not predictable) tableaux on your first screen.  Demo mode is
canceled by any joystick direction.

Attract mode (cycling colours) has been added.  This is to 'protect the TV
phosphor' and all the old games used to do it :)   It was pretty cheap, so I
figured what the heck.

I probably have something like 200 bytes left.  Not much longer to go!
You'll be surprised what one can do in 200 bytes ;)

As usual, comments/feedback eagerly sought.

Cheers
A

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Attachment: qb006.zip
Description: Zip compressed data

Attachment: qb006NTSC.bin
Description: Binary data