Hi list,
>> Now, I'm looking for a nice game idea to convert to Stella or Maria (Maria is
>> tempting, because it's more powerful, but Stella is more challenging...)
>> For some reason I keep thinking of Lady Bug, which was never released for
>> any Atari platform to my knowledge. Or is there some release I'm not aware of?
>It's probably impossible to do, because as well as the dots (playfield bits ?)
>and the bad guys (sprites) you've also got those rotating doors... sprites
>too ?
Well, like PacMan I wanted to do the dots using playfield bits, and use
the players
for the bad guys and player, and I wanted to use the missiles for the
doors:
they're only a vertical or horizontal line after all.
One problem would be the clock that runs all around the screen though.
Top and bottom are obviously not a problem, but left and right may be.
If I used the
missiles for those, I'd have to reposition them for reuse as doors, I'd
have
to see how many cycles that'll cost me. So I'd probably start out with a
single line of dots or a bar as the clock at the top or bottom only, and
when the
kernel is done, I can try to squeeze the clock dots in there.
The sprite repositioning is still a little fuzzy in my mind, it was much
more
straightforward on the Atari computers.
But if it somehow doesn't fit together, I can still write a Supercharger
game and abuse the RAM as display memory ;-)
>I reckon many of the best games use the 2600 hardware ingeniously to
>create things using the advantages that a 2600 has over memory mapped
>video, rather than shoehorn a classic into its hardware.
Well, a classic is a classic, and I think all ideas inspired by the
VCS's
hardware have pretty much been done. I find is fascinating how well the
programmers adapted classics like Phoenix and Galaxian. Just compare
Galaxian
to Space Invaders and you'll see how much can be done. I think a good
(?)
port of a classic is more challenging than an original idea, because if
you're
working with an original idea, and something you think of can't be done,
you just change the idea you started off with. You can't do that with a
port of a classic.
Best regards,
-Oliver
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